Crab Cakes, Mrs. Nell C. Westcott

ByKara
Crab cakes on toasted bread with deviled eggs and sweet potato fries on white plate

“[The Eastern Shore’s] biggest booster lives in Chestertown,” wrote W.C. Thurston in the preface to his book The Eastern Shore (of Maryland) In Song and Story. She was “a fair daughter of the Shore who typed two stories for us when we needed only one.”

Westcott contributed two odes to the book, one to the Eastern Shore in general, and one written to honor the Ann McKim, the “first of the Baltimore clippers”, “adored by all the skippers.”

Westcott was born Nellie Charlotte Schneider in 1887 to Louis H Schneider and Nellie S Ernesty, residents of Washington DC. In 1900, Nell was living in New York with her mother and teaching music. According to Nell’s mothers 1932 obituary, the elder Nellie was founder of her town library and active in the civic and social life of Pleasant Valley, New York.

In 1910 or 1911, Nell married Fred B. Westcott from New Jersey. Their daughter Dorothy was born in 1911. The couple and their children settled back in Chestertown by 1930. There, Nell worked for the government in the employment office and the Chamber of Commerce, but found time to pen a column in the Chestertown Enterprise of tidbits, notes, and praise for her home region. As secretary for the Chamber of Commerce, she had dealings in issues ranging from poultry farms brokering Thanksgiving turkeys to the groundwork for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Out of the Frying Pan by Nell C. Westcott with stick figures in a frying pan, M.E.M publisher

Nell C. Westcott was just the type of person to end up on the radar of Frederick Phillip Stieff when he was compiling Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland. That book includes Nell’s recipes for Crab Cakes, Potato Rolls, Oyster Pie, Lemon Butter, and Rusks.

As member of the Manuscript Club of Kent County she also worked alongside Evelyn Harris to create a literary center in Kent County.

“Too bad Adam hadn’t brought Eve to the Eastern Shore…” Nell wrote in one of her newspaper columns, “…she would not have objected returning to Eden as there would have been so little contrast.” According to the Harrisburg PA Evening News in 1920, Westcott was the only woman who had a license as a marine engineer, having refused to stay at home when her husband was on the water.

When Nell died in 1974 she was buried in St. Paul’s cemetery in Kent County. Her church had been the subject of one of her poems:
“A venerable shrine is this: the trees,
The church, the holy dead beneath the sod
And over all there rests a sense of peace
As though touched by the loving Hand of God”

Vintage cookbook holder with cooked crabs on platter, egg, bowl of flour, bread, and pepper mill on wooden table

Recipe:

“1 lb. crab meat, 1 cup bread crumbs, 1 egg, 1 teaspoonful mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Form in cakes and fry quickly in deep fat.”

Recipe from “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland,” by Frederick Philip Stieff, 1932

Shredded crab meat mixture in yellow bowl with purple spoon for homemade crab cakes recipe
Three golden crab cakes frying in bubbling oil in a black skillet on stovetop
Golden-brown crab cakes on white paper towel, crispy exterior, traditional Chesapeake Bay recipe
Plate of crab cakes on toast with garnish and blue napkin, classic recipe by Mrs. Nell C. Westcott

Special thanks to Ellen Adajian who was able to help me find Nell’s maiden name and more background information. Originally I was unable to determine this information.

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