The Peanut Problem

“The first notable increase in U.S. peanut consumption came in 1860 with the outbreak of the Civil War. Northern soldiers, as well as Southern, used the peanut as a food. During the last half of the 19th century, peanuts were eaten as a snack, sold freshly roasted by street vendors and at baseball games and circuses.”¹

In August 1878, The Daily Chambersburg newspaper reported that “the town is putting on a ‘metropolitan’ appearance because there are peanut stands on the Court House pavement. “If that is so, Carlisle was ‘metropolitan’ several months ago.”²

Also in August 1878, the editor of the Carlisle Weekly Herald wrote “the peanut man on Public Square corner is not to be trifled with. He most severely pummeled a drunken fellow the other day for an attempt to run his peanut stand. He won’t stand for any nonsense.”³ Robert Matthews of Carlisle obtained permission in 1879 to have a peanut stand on the northeast corner of the Public Square…to earn an honest livelihood.⁴ Marve Albert had a peanut stand on Opera House Avenue, in the rear of the Court House in 1882, but it was removed as a nuisance in March 1883.⁵

Americans like to snack when they are being entertained. Popcorn is typically the snack of choice for many when they watch a movie, and a bag of peanuts when they go to the circus or the ballpark. The problem with eating peanuts is that the shells are typically tossed on the ground, creating a mess.

In the days before movies, some people attended the Quarterly Court sessions for entertainment, and they took snacks with them. The County Commissioners were fed up with the mess they created. In March 1879, the newspaper ran the following: “Let it be known to every man, woman, and child that frequents the Court House, that the eating of peanuts and chestnuts is positively prohibited by the court. If people must munch peanuts during the hours of court, let them put the shells in their pockets. We would suggest to Janitor Claudy that he get several large cards printed up and put up in the court room, and all violators should be expelled. It don’t cost any more to be decent and respectable than filthy.”⁶ At the November 1880 session of Cumberland County’s court, “Rules of Order in the Court Room” were adopted. Rule number eight stated “The eating of fruit, chestnuts, and peanuts is strictly prohibited in the Court Room and its approaches.⁷

This was not just a local problem. Judge McCurdy of New London, Connecticut asked the sheriff to “request the gentlemen of the jury to desist from eating peanuts. This is not a circus,” he said.⁸ Another judge admonished the people in the court room for eating peanuts which he said they wouldn’t do in church.⁹ “A man was fined $5 for eating peanuts in a Florida Court the other day,” reported the Northern Wisconsin News.¹⁰

The Court Room was not the only place where peanut eating was objected to.
In 1881, The Hon. Mr. Ouders of Arizona introduced a bill into the House of Representatives entitled “An act for the protection of railway travelers.” The bill provided “that when any man or boy who shall be accused of eating peanuts on a railway passenger train, it shall be the duty of the conductor to instantly impanel a jury of five male passengers,” to try the offender. If the accused was found guilty, his hands and feet were bound, and he was thrown from the rear of the train while it was running at not less than twenty miles per hour.¹¹