On this day in 1901: Kalamazoo saloon owners agreed to stop offering extravagant free lunches, limiting them to cheese and crackers. On this day in 1865: Luther and LaFayette Baker from Lansing, Michigan, found John Wilkes Booth and David Herold in a barn after President Lincoln's assassination. Herold surrendered, but Booth did not. Luther Baker's account is in the Michigan Archives.
TRANSCRIPT
It started out as a bit of a gimmick for Kalamazoo saloons in the late 1800’s.Come here andwe’llgive you a free lunch! But with over 50 saloons in the city, the one-upmanship quickly spiraled tomore and moreexpensive free lunch bonuses. But today back in 1901, the Kalamazoo saloon owners met up and said enough was enough, itwas, pardon the pun, eating into the profits too much. And they agreed only to serve cheese and crackers instead. The stale pretzels came later.
It was on this day in 1865, in the wake of the assassination of President Lincoln, that two cousins from Lansing, Michigan, Luther Baker and his cousin LaFayette, tasked by the Secretary of War to find the assassin,found John Wilkes Booth and co-conspirator David Heroldin a barn. Heroldsurrendered, but Booth did not. Luther Baker’s account of that fateful day can be found in the Michigan Archives.