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.JRH3HAL.-IJRE,
1 anytil theyit of the
^^KJ. Miisto travels backin timei-to s^ what Jife was like in the rural US during the 1800s
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~ rr • ' ' • did nofclive oh a" farm^mpsCSeQ-::;,-..---.•—• -: " •-" *!fes----- «!**'-•'•**« mHof arid niicldle classir
hem-ve spot
; aChisse, theighton, by
Still,lebr-; heisthis
ongstory
;sys>. feeding:':^ •
^
^ cows;:^irequire
- , The InventionM machio^®|.̂ Helped make fainflife a little eli5-;"'S-iiet:For example, in 1831 X.'yrua ';.-..ii.McOormick invented a reaper fpr;^'putting, grain. However, .even with;;?:" advances !in machinery, horses^>:?igC
looting chilcirerr helped.their parents w i ill the- f arm;ibby"'"'worked:in thefields"and;arQund ,|he5barnpAvnile girls sewedy - ; • > • ' '•
'"and helped-with: the wash.Today, we go"to the sto'rg;;and•cash;. or .accredit card, ki^"
r Jig/was}:;;,-Tlie.'ea]iy:farrrier alsq'de^ _>-'on'store credit; thelojll'general,-
• store would provide supplies1: tp'";'I tffe farmer imtil'the'crops'were,;,.?sftharyested'and sold, and theSthe;;"farmer settled with thestore:;v>^"••,;..vpWner.: ' - • • :, '.'''"' ' ^,,-.'.^[.:'v^.:;-;
Besides farming, a person
1800s^iirt'PennsylvaniifS'gKentwcky^and WisSVirginia, and '
s sprung up around the'-
rork in fac-5f|•tofies. In the early part-:o"f:th&:eeri=^.•-•:•-- ;: / ,—- . ; - ' • - • • - . : i£K:;s-~- -: -,' • - . - - = , - • .-a"-'-
; ::lury, a ^ work shop ;ow tier had a' f eto ••Veioseemployees working for him.;-: 'Thefactory,,however,-brought:'c'=if;-
aboutHiahges anci the employer.jjj^^lGngerijyprkedsbeside and;with.f .Dili's employees.; Eventually, the^f-emp]«yer became, less concec :
»^with IheMi^loyees'.welfare::i-1m ore cbiternocV vv ith: profit. Preyi^f
!"'^'^-1'••"---'.--'"'•'.- ' 'V •-^-. y- ' ' •^v-'-i. - - : ' ' . ' " ^ V r ' - 'isly;:emp oyees niH».kvmosi: of ' : - . .**.*!,« ,:Y::;i.,.;,; .-^j; . , . • , , . :« ,v
^ pride ,in:4h.eir.work;:hoW|;:;:f:;r:;3^rnachiites:did Dii i t ' l : ) of the~work?
itne- ertcEof the-19th cen-'vfHiry,:wc)men began working out-^ :side: of :thei:home; inJB|̂ ;
iridustry,"W( irking in"stpr.•i:|eacliersVTiie..'.woiiion'cif
'• 'pc;ri.bd i*eceived;a-fV^tibh:ibf -the. <,-received lor the same'1
sS? /printer, tavern ,¥eeperf;or in'a...-. _.. '•^^pres::;;--\-;;;:trade: Anunportahtperspnb.Mhe::
• as'. EuttrngS^- ̂ eriodfwaffthe Hacksmilli.--'^^. :•:•'•••,..- 'maifMp|f^?:;;made apd^ in
Stunting taprpyide:: 'X^-made hdrseshoesj a busj job, r*'';;;w>;^;sKps::an.d;factories^many work-Mrnily -Even if ohetrlP;.; ; since the hprse sewed'-ag;themain ' ing 10 to 12 hpurs a day in unsafe,
::':•:.: :L:. : :;..::-^"-\^-V ; '•fc-.-'̂ r.'J :;"-:' . • : •'.!"'* ':s"'"""" ' ' • " ' • > - . , • "-• '?" Histp.ryJ.Magazihe • June/July 200^K»
RURAL LIFE
often cramped, working condi-tions.
Housing & Daily LifeThe Homestead Act of 1862 gavemany people a new start, by pro-viding the chance for private citi-zens to set claims to land in thepublic domain in the West.
Farms and towns dotted thecountryside and families oftenlived in one-room cabins. Neigh-bors helped in house or barn rais-ings where themen and boyswould buildthe home orbarn while thewomen andgirls preparedthe food. Thesehomes wereusually log cab-ins with onewindow mea-suring about 10by 20 feet, witha dirt floor.This one roomserved as thekitchen, diningroom, livingroom and bed-room. Due tothe size of thehomes andlarge families,parents wereoften the onlyones to haveany privacy.Small childrenand their adolescent siblingswould be forced to sleep together,two or three to a bed.
Settlers who lived on theprairie found it difficult to findwood for homes. As a result, thesesettlers often built homes of sod,known as "soddies". Settlerswould cut the hard dry prairiesod into blocks and use the sodlike bricks to construct the familyhome. This style of home did notprovide long term protection,however, as rain caused the sod tofall apart. Also, due to its grassand mud base, insects, rodentsand snakes liked to call the"soddy" home.
Lanterns fueled by whale oil.and later, kerosene, were used to
18 History Magazine • June/July 2007
light the home. In the 1830s, citieshad piped gas from the gas fac-tory, which provided gas light.Electricity did not arrive until latein the century. In the 1820s, castiron cook stoves reached the con-sumer. However, due to the highcost, only the rich could affordthese stoves. As a result, mostpeople relied on a fireplace forheat. If one needed water, theyhad to haul or pump water from awell. Not surprisingly, in these
filled a basin to wash by hand.Cities usually developed in a
pattern. Poor people lived down-town in the older section of thecity, the middle class lived in bet-ter homes or apartment buildings |outside the city core and the richlived farther away from the city,in the suburbs.
FoodPeople living in the city usuallyate three or four times a day —breakfast, lunch, dinner and asnack in the late evening. Thetypes of food eaten varied withthe parts of the country and theethnic background of the people.For example, in New England,due to it's proximity to water,clam chowder and shellfish werecommon foods. The South, wherecooking meat was popular, ham •and pork became staple dishes. Astoday, coffee was a standard bev-erage.
Above: Root cellars were an importantpart of the pioneer home, as shownabove. The cellar was 30 to 40 degreescooler in the summer and was the pio-neer version of the refrigerator beforethe days of electricity. Another stapleof pioneer life was the sod house,shown right. Unfortunately, thesehomes, which were made from sodblocks, often deteriorated due toheavy rainfall. Various pests andvermin also liked to live in the warm,wet sod.
early homes, furniture was sparse.Sears, Roebuck & Company
and Montgomery Ward catalogscame out in the late 1800s andafforded the consumer in ruralareas the opportunity to buyapparel, furniture and householditems. For the first time, rural resi-dents could purchase items whichpreviously were only available toresidents in urban areas.
Today, most of us take a dailybath or shower to stay clean. Dur-ing the 1800s, however, peopleonly took a hot bath once a week,usually in a wooden or metal tubin the kitchen since the water washeated on the stove or in the fire-place. Between baths, people sim-ply heated water on the stove and
Miss Nettie Spencer grew upin rural Oregon in the 1870s andwhen interviewed in 1938 shedescribed a fancy dinner of daysgone by. "Our food was prettyplain most of the time and wedidn't have any salads like theydo now. The menu for a fine din-ner would be: Chicken stew withdumplings, mashed potatoes,peach preserves, biscuits, andhominy."
During the 19th century,homes did not have refrigerators.However, this did not pose aproblem in the winter for mostregions. An ice house preservedice cut from lakes for later use; theblocks were stored in the icehouse, insulated by the structure's
stone walls and separated bystraw or sawdust. During thewarmer months, the ice preservedfood for as long as it lasted.
Another method of storingfood was in a root cellar, usuallydug 10 feet below the ground. Thestorage area was often 30 to 40degrees cooler than daytime tem-peratures during the summer andthe cooler" air helped to preservethe food. Fresh milk filled crocksstored in the root cellar in thesummer. The cream was taken offand later churned to make butter.
Hunting deer, wild turkeyand rabbits provided most of therequired meat. In the summermonths, the meat had to be pre-served quickly to preventspoilage. Two methods to pre-serve meat for later use were tosalt or smoke it. Regardless of themethod, it was a lengthy process.
For the salting method, meatwas treated with a brine solution,and then stored in a cool place.Although salted meat lastedmonths, the meat had to berinsed, scrubbed and soaked toremove the salt before preparing ameal. Another method of preserv-ing meat was to smoke it in asmokehouse over a fire for severaldays.
Almost every home had fruittrees that would provide every-thing from apples and cherries topeaches and plums for the family.Canning, drying or making jamshelped to preserve the fruits forlater use, especially in the wintermonths.
EducationMost children in rural areas
attended a one-room school housein a central location, so no childhad to walk more than two milesto school. The school house usu-ally held 20 to 40 students, withall grades in one room. The chil-dren learned the basics of reading,writing and math and, if time wasavailable, the students also stud-ied geography, history, grammarand drawing.
Students sat in one or two-seater oak desks with the smallerdesks in front of the classroom forthe younger students. A potbellystove or fireplace provided theheat in winter. c
In the front of the classroom, ablackboard hung on the wall withthe alphabet above it. Being ateacher in the 1800s did notrequire a degree, just knowledgeof the basics. Students used slate-boards to write on as paper wasexpensive. Many times, the schoolwas the only public building andit also served as a location for 'spelling bees, theater troupes, lec-tures and non-profit organiza-tions.
One-room school houses hadtheir positive sides; they providedindividualized instruction, alongwith programs that allowed stu-dents to proceed at their own rate.The more advanced studentshelped the slower students withtutoring.
AmusementsAfter the long days of hard work,everyone wanted to relax. How-ever, there really was not an abun-dance of free time. Men relaxedby going to-the local tavern todrink, talk or play a game of
cards. In a nearby field, one mightsee men and boys playing a gameof baseball.
If men had little spare time,women had even less. Womenspent much of their time takingcare of the children and the every-day chores such as cooking, clean-ing, ironing, sewing and laundry.When women found spare time,they might- attend a quilting beeor church social.
Community dances andsquare dances with music pro-vided by a fiddle, harmonica,banjo and even homemade instru-ments were popular.
Reading became an enjoyablepastime for the young and oldalike, especially novels, andalmost every home had a Bible.Several novels came in a series ofbooks, such as the Pop-Gun andRollo's Tour in Europe series. News-papers became popular in the1800s, and by 1860, there weremore than 3,500 newspapers andperiodicals in circulation. Due tothe cost of paper and printing, themajority of newspapers were onlypublished weekly.
Children played with toysand took part in games. Toysreflected the people and culture ofthe period; this can especially beseen in the clothing and hairstyles of children's dolls.
Many early toys were made athome, maybe a father whittled atoy doll or animal for one of hischildren, or mother might havemade a rag doll for her little girl.Native American children playedwith dolls made from corn husksand leather balls filled with feath-ers. Eventually, cast iron and tin
Pedestrians, horse-drawn carriages and wagons mingle at the intersection of Linden Street and College Avenue indowntown Fort Collins, c.1890.
History Magazine • June/July 200719
RURAL LIFE
plate toys replaced wooden toysnear the end of the 19th century;many of these toys came fromGermany and England. Childrendid not purchase toys in a toystore, but in a local hardwarestore, and the Christmas seasonprovided the largest selection oftoys.
,„ --..Parents believed games., . .should educate, so many of thegames not only served to amuse,but also to teach.
MedicinesIn the early 1800s, many futurephysicians learned to be doctorsby the apprentice system. In 1810,only five medical schools existedto train doctors. By 1850, 40 med-ical schools served the needs ofthe growing population.
In many rural areas and smalltowns, the residents used homeremedies because no doctor wasnearby or the people had littlemoney to pay the doctor. Whiskeyor herbal teas served as a com-mon remedy. One interestingtreatment found in the Schroerfamily history, written by Anna E.Schroer was "For a sore throat,bread with a blue greenish moldwould be soaked in warm water,then drained and the water usedas a gargle." The treatmentclaimed to work like penicillin.The countryside saw manyquacks and charlatans sellingquick-fix elixirs, such as Dr.Townsend's Sarsaparilla or Dr.Sterling's Ambrosia. A goodmajority of these elixirs had noeffect on the sick.
For house calls, some doctorsmight take two to three days toreach the sick in rural areas. Theprice of a house call varied. In thecountryside, a house call costaround 50 cents and in the city $1to $2.
TransportationIn the early 1800s, residents reliedon land travel via wagon trailsand crude roads or on •water byrafts or boats. The 1800s gave wayto several improvements in thearea of transportation. These •improvements developed becauseof a growing population and theneed to transport manufactured
20 History Magazine • June/July'2007
goods to market and people west-ward.
Many roads consisted of noth-ing more than a path followingIndian trails. As time went on,these paths became a network ofroads. The "plank road" built inthe mid 1800s, as the name states,consisted of planks laid on theground. The turnpike-grew as amethod to improve transporta-tion; the turnpike charged a fee tooffset its construction and themaintenance cost of the road.
Today, we have hotels fortravelers. In the 1800s, travelersstopped at taverns for the night,ate a hot meal, exchanged storiesand discussed the news of theday. The age of the railroad was inthe making and the "iron horse"
Frederick Ungar Publishing Com-!pany, 1970.• McCutcheon, Marc. TheWriter's Guide to Everyday Life inthe 1800s. Cincinnati, Ohio:Writer's Digest Books, 1993.• American Studies at the Uni-versity of Virginia, Price, Angel.Everyday life in 1831http://xroads,virginia.edu/~HYPER- - -/DETOC/home.html• Old Sturbridge Village,www.osv.org
Burton, Warren. "The OldSchool-house, Reminiscence"
Greeley, Horace. "HoraceGreeley's Boyhood, Autobiogra-phy" '
Larkin, Jack. "All Work and aLittle Play: Children in Rural NewEngland"
Unidentified pioneers rest in front of their wagons in rural Colorado, c. 1870.
became the best means of trans-portation for goods and travelersinto the late 1800s.
How about taking a step backin time? Today, many familiesspend too much time watchingtelevision, playing video games oron the computer. Turn off the elec-tronics and have the family sitaround and just talk or play aboard game with each other. Itwould be a learning experienceand, for that one day, your familymight bond a little and learn tobetter understand each" other.
Further Reading:• Lacour-Gayet/Robert. EverydayLife in the United States Before theCivil War 1830-1860. New York:
Wolverton, Nan. "Toys andChildhood in the Early 19th Cen-tury"• Pickaway County Ohio Geneal-ogy Page, "Pioneer life in Ohio. ASchroer family history", writtenby Anna E. Schroer, AuglaizeCounty in the mid-1800swww.rootsweb.com/~ohpickawflife.html• The Library of Congress, RuralLife in the late 19th Centuryhttp://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/riseind/rural/rural.html
