Page 29 - July 2020 Barbecue News Magazine

Miraculously, Arthur had no life-threatening injuries. He was just beaten up with many lacerations and bruises. Neighbors took turns over the next few weeks, looking in on him and getting him back to his feet. After a bit, he was back on his own. Several months later, in the spring, a neighbor arrived in town and told folks they had just passed Arthur's farm and saw him plowing be- hind a new horse. They also stated that he looked like he was limping badly. Those neighbors agreed that at 107, he had no business walking behind a plow horse, particularly after being hit by a train. Several of them immediately went home, hitched up their workhorses, and converged on Arthur's farm to take over the plowing. A couple of wives tagged along out of concern. The men took over plowing. The women forced Arthur to divulge why he was limping. They discovered that he had an open wound from the train incident, which had never healed. In fact, it was now horribly infected. They brought this to the attention of the men, who then forced Arthur to go to the hospital.
For the first time in Arthur's 107 years, he was faced with spend- ing the night in the hospital. He was not pleased with this idea. No one can say with certainty why during the early morning hours of his first night, perhaps it was in confusion due to pain medica- tion he was on, maybe it was delirium from the fever of sepsis which had set into the wound, or it could have just been Arthur's cantankerous nature, but for some reason, he decided he was leaving the hospital for home. In his haste to stealthily leave, Arthur tripped down a 3-step flight of stairs exiting the back of the hospital. The fall broke his hip. Now immobile, Arthur lin- gered several months on his sickbed, and then shortly after his 108th birthday, he died.
In 1959, 15 years after Arthur's death, The Kewanee Hog Fest committee decided to move from serving Pork Shoulder to a but- terfly pork chop. At that point, Arthur's children chose to bow out. Their expertise lay in the shoulder, and they had been partic- ipating in honor of their father. This was a natural point to hand over the reins. Elderly themselves, the Watts children did pass along their knowledge and the recipes to the next generation, and we have continued that guarded tradition. For the last three gen- erations of our family, we have not done anything publicly with Arthur's sauces or rubs. We have always made Arthur's recipes for ourselves on special occasions and barbecue-oriented holi- days. Arthurs recipes are complicated. In fact, his recipes contain ingredients that have their own recipes needing to be cooked/pre- pared in advance before being incorporated into the sauce or rub! We also try not to cut corners, adhering to his philosophy on the pit and meat prep when time permits.
It wasn't until recently that we realized the fact that we were sit- ting on recipes and wisdom from one of America's earliest identi- fiable Pitmasters! My own father, the fourth generation directly descended from Arthur, had retired and sold his transportation company. He was now barbecuing as a hobby just to keep himself busy. He was quickly surprised at the quick growth in demand for his time and the flavor of our family recipes. Requests grew at a pace way beyond what he had anticipated for his retirement. The feedback and that we got from friends and family encouraged us to begin commercializing Arthur's recipes. We make his sauce and rubs true to his originals, tweaking only when necessary for shelf stability and FDA compliance. Our mission is to share Arthur's story one bite at a time, giving folks a taste of what bar- becue as was first crafted pre-Civil War.
JULY 2020
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