Who Invented The Hamburger?

Who gave the world the hamburger, arguably the most time-honored backyard cook-out and fast food chain tradition? Who should be credited as the creator and where was it introduced? One would think everything would be known and well-accepted for such a culinary icon. One would be wrong.

For many years, there have been numerous claims for the honor. Folks in New Haven, Connecticut are certain the first hamburger was served at Louis Lassen's cafe in 1900. Historians in Seymour, Wisconsin say the Connecticut claim is bogus because their man Charlie Hagreen was selling burgers to his cafe's customers in 1885. Akron, Ohio folks claim that was two years later than Frank and Charles Menches selling burgers at the Summit County Fair in in their town. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, they claim a local rancher named Oscar Weber Bilby cooked and served the first hamburgers for neighbors attending a Fourth of July shindig on his farm in 1882.

To settle the argument, one thing needs to be clarified - the definition of the All-American hamburger. All right-thinking people understand and agree it is a ground beef patty, mustard and/or mayonnaise, tomato, lettuce, pickles and onions served between two slices of a warm bun accompanied usually by an ample side of french fries and ketchup. Some may prefer onion rings as a side, but the main item in this discussion is the hamburger itself. History tells us that all of the claimants listed above simply served steak sandwiches - a piece of cooked meat held between a couple of slices of plain bread. That is most definitely NOT a hamburger.

Athens, Texas courthouse

So who actually was the first person to concoct the traditional All-American burger with the combination of ingredients we have all come to love? Fletcher Davis, a resident of little Athens, Texas (population 12,700 in 2010) about 75 miles southeast of Dallas, has the most credible claim. Not only did he use the above recipe, but his is the most well documented.

Fletcher was a potter by trade. Born in Webster Groves, Missouri, he got a job at the famous Miller Pottery Works in Athens and moved there in the mid-1880's. He was a natural and imaginative cook and it wasn't long before he was tasked with cooking at company picnics. At one of these picnics, he served the first authentic hamburger and the folks loved his new creation!  

Around 1890, the pottery business began to slow and folks in Athens turned to raising black-eyed peas. So much black-eyed pea business was conducted that today, Athens is known as the black-eyed pea capital of the world. To make ends meet, Fletcher opened a little cafe on the town square across from the county courthouse. Remembering how much the picnickers liked his sandwich, he made the hamburger, accompanied by a side of fried potato slices, the main offering in his new establishment. It wasn't long before people were coming from all around to "Old Dave's" little cafe on the town square.

In 1904, the World's Fair was to be held in St. Louis, Missouri. Fletcher decided he could make a nice profit by taking his hamburger there. The town's residents were so sure his food would be a hit they chipped in to pay his expenses. Fletcher got a vendor license, rented a house in St. Louis and traveled there with some family members. Descendants of those family members still have photo's taken during the two weeks they spent there and letters telling the folks back home about eating hamburgers at Uncle Fletch's (as he was called by his family) concession booth almost every day.

Along with the family documents, and maybe even more convincing, is the existing historical documentation. One of these documents is an official St. Louis World's Fair photo of the midway and in that photo, in the background across from an exhibit featuring Geronimo and other famous Indian warriors, is Fletcher Davis' booth where he sold his hamburgers and fried potato slices. There is also the news story filed by a reporter from the New York Tribune of the "newest gourmet discovery" at the fair, a sandwich called the hamburger. The reporter either didn't ask Fletcher for his name or forgot to write it down when he interviewed him because in the report he stated the meal was "the innovation of a food vendor on the pike" ("pike" was a term then referring to the midway at a fair or carnival). The reporter went on to describe the ingredients of the hamburger. When he interviewed Fletcher, he asked for details about the accompanying fried potato slices. Fletcher explained the hamburger was his invention, but he had borrowed the fried potato recipe from an old friend who lived in Paris. Of course, he meant Paris, Texas, but the reporter, being from New York and unfamiliar with Texas geography, assumed he meant Paris, France and so described them as "French fried potatoes."

Athens, Texas courthouse square where
Old Dave's Cafe was located

When Fletcher returned home to Athens, he found that several cafe's in town were now selling his creation. Although he kept up his little eatery for a while, he eventually closed it and returned to a pottery job with Miller Pottery and faded into happy obscurity. 

The scales are weighing heavily in favor of Athens, Texas as the place and Fletcher Davis as the right person. Adding even more weight is the company that "takes the hamburger business more seriously than anyone else," McDonald's. Their Hamburger University has declared "a food vendor at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair was the first to introduce the sandwich to the public." As we know, that vendor was Fletcher Davis.

If that's not official enough for you, know that in 2006, the Texas Legislature passed a resolution recognizing Davis as the originator of the hamburger. Case closed!

Thank you Fletcher Davis, Athens, Texas resident and former potter-turned-cook. To millions of people, and I'm one of them, your history-making-contribution to food has made the world a better place.

2nd Most Decorated Soldier of WWII

Audie Murphy is famous for being the most decorated soldier in World War II. Along with the Medal of Honor, Murphy won 18 other medals for a total of 19. Onclo Airheart was born in Trinidad, Texas and raised on a rural farm. As a young man, he, like Audie, grew up providing meat for his family by hunting deer, squirrel and rabbits. Onclo (pronounced “Onslow”) enlisted in the Army in 1940 at age 23. When he was discharged after the war in 1945, he had received 18 medals, one less than Murphy.  In one of those incredible coincidences of war, almost beyond belief, he was Murphy's "foxhole buddy.” This pair of Texans went through the war, fighting next to each other for days and weeks without break, many times in desperate life-and-death hand-to-hand combat, on the front lines of World War II's most ferocious battles - and they both survived what thousands of other men didn't.

Alongside Audie in B Company of the Third Division while fighting across Europe, Onclo destroyed truckloads of the enemy with a single shot of an anti-tank grenade, rescued a full division of French soldiers and wiped out an impenetrable pillbox full of German machine gunners. 

Once, while scouting ahead of the rest of their company, Airheart and Murphy ran smack into a large force of enemy soldiers. While under fire, they confused the Germans by dashing back and forth from tree to tree, making the enemy think there was a large force confronting them. Eventually, the German forces ceased fire and raised a white flag. It was quite a shock to the 180 enemy soldiers who surrendered to be taken prisoner by only two American soldiers!

Another time, Murphy had been wounded and was out of action so Airheart was left to continue fighting alone.  At a place called Christmas Hill, for three days and nights without food or water, he remained in position fighting until French soldiers informed him the hill had been seized. He had killed dozens of the enemy and was so exhausted he had to be helped to an aid station.

Toward the end of the war, Onclo received the last of his 18 medals, the Bronze Star. He earned it when he and Murphy (who had recovered from his wounds and returned) faced intense enemy sniper fire in Germany. Murphy began shooting at the crew of an ammo truck while Onclo used a rifle grenade to destroy the truck and then with a single shot, killed a German messenger who was running to alert reinforcements.

He was interviewed by a reporter in 1975 for the 30th anniversary of the end of the war. When asked what made him fight so hard, he said, “We had to fight to live, and we wanted to keep the fighting from reaching America’s shores. Those big, old guns the Germans had – they would have tore New York up. And I wanted to get the mess over and get back home. That’s the only way we were going to end it.”

For the rest of his life after the war, Onclor lived with many harsh memories. He was interviewed once more in 1995 by a reporter for the Athens Review who succinctly said, “Airheart tells of times when men lived stark, desperate lives that could end the next moment. Students of history read of names like Christmas Hill and the Battle of the Bulge, but Airheart sees them in living color.” He remembered the losses among the Americans at the Battle of the Bulge, “There were only six of us from our whole unit left when it was all over.” The interviewer reported that “amazement that he survived still clings to his voice, along with the sadness in his heart for his lost comrades.”

As most people know, once the war was over, Murphy headed to stardom in Hollywood. Onclo returned home to little Trinidad, Texas to work on the family farm. A few years later, Hollywood was making “To Hell and Back” a biographical movie about Murphy. Onclo was contacted by his old friend who asked him to play himself in the film. Onclo declined because it was planting time and he needed to work on his farm. As Onclo himself described it to that 1995 interviewer: “He said he wanted me to go into show business. They was gonna put me in it. But I told him I’ve got my mules and plow, and I’m fixin’ to go to the field.” 

And so Onclor Airheart remained obscure. Even after his death LIFE magazine declined to mention his name. In an issue that summarized the 20th century, the magazine ran a few lines about Audie Murphy as the most-decorated soldier ever. Then they added, “We understand one other soldier from Texas is still living and has only one medal less than Murphy.” No name, no recognition.  Even after the editors were informed of Onclo’s name and address, they replied they had “no interest in information of this kind now.”

Onclo went unrecognized for his war service, but maybe that lack of acknowledgment meant nothing to Airheart.  Like most military service members then and now, he’d done his duty and simply returned home to live out the rest of his life.

Audie Murphy died in a plane crash in 1971. Onclo Airheart, the second most decorated soldier in history, quietly passed away in Trinidad, Texas in 2001.