Dr. Edna Dorothy Meshke, like most of the contributors to “Maryland Cooking,” was a home economist. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: many of us have no idea how much we owe to Home Economics educators for creating, sharing, and fine-tuning classic recipes, and for raising the expectations of what a recipe can be.
Reinhold and Bertha Meshke immigrated from Germany to Minnesota in 1889. Their young cousin Fred made the journey in 1889 help the couple on their farm. Once established in America, Reinhold and Bertha had three daughters: Hazel, in 1899; Lucile, in 1904, and Edna, in 1907.
In 1930, at age 23, Edna was teaching at a public school while living in Faribault, Minnesota with her parents, who had retired from farming, and her sister Hazel, who was a nurse.
Edna earned a BS and PhD from University of Minnesota, and a MA from Columbia. These impressive credentials took Edna all around the country.
In 1938 she taught at the University at Buffalo. In 1943 she was at the University of Wisconsin. Some time in the 1940s, she led the Home Economics department at Butler University in Indiana. At some point, she worked at Pennsylvania State University. Throughout these years she continued to appear in Faribault city directories, leading me to believe that between school terms, she returned to live with her parents and sister at their home 711 1st Street.
