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Post by mary on Oct 9, 2003 16:17:07 GMT -5
Hello, Susan, and thank you so much for the additional references! In my readings, I came across another possible clue, from our friend Mrs. Christiana Holmes Tillson: The 'Squire' had I believe, been a schoolmaster in Barrens Kentucky, the place form which they came. His wife was naturally smart and industious, the latter qualification minus in "Squire Davy." She could read, and entered into all the ploitical interests that came to her knowledge; kept herself and family clean and comfortably clad. ...The whole family were clothed in the winter in linsey and cotton, all of their own manufacture. In summer, a skirt and a waist of copperas and blue plaid homespun, with a necessary undergarment, consituted the dress of the female portion of the family, with the exception of Mrs. Kilpatrick, who very wisely covered her neck with a kercheif of the same material as theri dresses. She was a short, broad, square-built woman, and the kerchief, a yard square, was none too ample to cover her well-developed proportions.There is so much good information in this description! Before I stray too far from our main topic, might I ask if you think that the skirt and a waist of copperas and blue plaid homespun combination indicates that the "waist" was indeed a "shortgown?"
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Post by mary on Sept 5, 2003 15:54:46 GMT -5
An excellent artcle entitled "Historic Costuming" by Jill Harrison of Historic Southern Indiana included the following segment:
Shortgowns Shortgowns were loose, unfitted, T-shaped, and commonly unlined jackets that adjusted well to changes in size and shape. The sleeves were pieced on to the body; if made from a striped fabric, the stripes ran around the arm rather than down the length of the arm. This garment was commonly worn by the majority of women who could not afford fashionable gowns requiring yards of costly fabric; nor could these women carry on the strenuous routine of their daily lives when inhibited by the cut of the latest styles. The shortgown is also referred to as a bed-gown or bed jacket, which may sound like something worn to bed. However, that is not the case. It is an everyday working jacket and simple to make since it has no lining. It can be adjusted by size by adding fabric in the back and center front and made large enough to be worn during pregnancy.
Mary.
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Post by mary on Sept 5, 2003 15:49:22 GMT -5
In my initial posting, Ms. Rhonda McConnon stated that "short gown" was a "modern term." This may not necessarily be the case.
The following advertisement, for a black runaway named Kate, specifically mentions the garment... but as one word, or "shortgown."
Source: The Farmer's Instructor, and Harrisburgh Courant, October 21, 1801. Vol. II, no. 42.
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Post by mary on Sept 5, 2003 15:24:21 GMT -5
"OF GOWNS, JACKETS, “SHORTGOWNS”, AND BEDGOWNS: What Should I Really Be Wearing?" by Sue Felshin is an interesting article that includes some commentary on short gowns. www.18cnewenglandlife.org/of_gowns.htmPlease observe that this article concerns itself with the American Revolution time period--more than 50 years before the "Lead Rush" of 1827. Mary.
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Post by mary on Sept 5, 2003 15:21:12 GMT -5
While we are familiar with the dress known as the 1830s "high gown," we continue to look into the everyday dress of everyday working women in the Lead Region. Frontier life would take a toll on clothing, and everyday working clothes may have been different from the 1830's "high gown." Many of these fontier ladies were not people of means or descendant from families of means. So what options were available to them? Our readings of women pioneers reveals that they were similar to ladies of today in many ways-- conscious of colors, fabrics, accessories, and seasonal changes to one's attire. They were also conscious of fashion-- for example evidence indicates that ladies in the pre-1830s Green Bay area would approach new arrivals and ask to copy the newer dress styles for themselves...even to the point of making over older pattern dresses with newer features. We also get clues from images and paitnings of the period. One of my favorites is an illustration of a lowly cabin scene entitled "An Interior" published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine: Based on the bonnet style, this engraving appears to be of the post-Colonial American period. But more interesting is the presence of what many would consider to be a Colonial period garment on the girl/woman in the center of the picture with her back to the viewer: a short gown. What is a "short gown?" The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has defined the short gowns as a-- "Loose T-shaped garments cut to the length of the hip or thigh. Made to wrap or Bed Gown over in front and held together by pinning or held closed with the apron. Made of utilitarian fabrics to be worn by the laboring sort and made of better fabric for the middling sort and worn as undress."This definition seems to link the short gown with women in the lower rungs of the social order. In an article for New England area Revolutionary War portrayers entitled "The Shortgown and Bedgown," Rhonda McConnon wrote: Ms. McConnon's findings appear to be verified in a reading of Rural Pennsylvania Clothing: Being a Study of the Wearing Apparel of the German and English Inhabitants by Ellen J. Gehret. In this book, Ms. Gehret identifies post Revolutionary War short gown garments worn by some ethnic Pennsylvanians. Additional clues may be seen in a slection of paintings done by the English artist Mary Ellen Best. Ms. Best did her most prodigious work from the tme she left boarding school in 1828 until her marriage some twelve years later. In these paintings, feminine fashion in Europe during the time period of the Mineral District here in America shows "high gowns" being worn by ladies of means, while women identified as servants or other "low" stations wearing garments remarkable similar, if not identical, to the "short gown." If high gowns are worn during approximately the same time periods in both American and in Europe, is it reasonable to presume that the short gown (known to be worn in pre- and early post Revolutionary War America) was likewise being worn in both Europe and America? The Harper's engraving suggests that this indeed may be the case! (It appears that the Harper's engraving shows longer fitted sleeves--rolled up by the girl/woman in the engraving--than those sleeves seen in earlier Revolutionary War era examples.) Because of the lack of hard evidence (for example--dating a specific garment to a specific year or time period) some historical clothing researchers have held back in formally declaring the short gown as a fashion option for women in 1820s-1830s America. However, as we dig deeper into the subject, we may find more clues. I would appreciate hearing from other persons interested in this topic! Mary.
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Post by mary on Jun 13, 2003 12:13:45 GMT -5
In re-reading several posts on the discussion board, one from Mr. Krainik regarding the Kimball letter of 1834 caught my eye:
Might I inquire from the board participants as to the size and kind of writing paper available in the 1820s-1830s?
Was sealing wax always red or dark red in color?
Is there a source or idea regarding postal rates to/from the Mineral District (I believe that such rates were determined by distance the letter had to travel)?
Are there examples of cancellation stamps from this time period? Or was this something that came about with the use of postage stamps?
Many thanks!
Mary
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Post by mary on Jul 21, 2003 16:05:36 GMT -5
My husband showed me sketches he made of two fragments of two different fire steels on display at the Frontier Archaeological Museum: - An oval fire steel, or a complete "0" similar to steels prevalent in the Great Lakes Fur Trade;
- A large "C" steel with a small decorative reverse loop, probably large enough to admit three fingers.
Both styles are usually associated with an earlier era. It is interesting that they appear in archaeology of early Illinois settlements.
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Post by mary on Jun 5, 2003 9:16:39 GMT -5
Mrs. Kinzie wrote, p. 107,
My husband indicted that "loco-focos" were an early form of match. I am given to understand that "loco-foco" was also, apparently, the name by which the Democratic Party went by in the period after the Black Hawk War!
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Post by mary on Jun 4, 2003 15:22:47 GMT -5
On a botanical website, I noted the following: See www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/f/fungi-37.html"Steeped in a solution of nitre?" My goodness! Maybe Juliette Kinzie was referring to a local-found (American) fungus, rather than a European derivative.
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Post by mary on Jun 4, 2003 14:41:19 GMT -5
After the recent "immersion" event at Apple River Fort this Spring, my friends related the numerous experiences they enjoyed (and sometimes endured) as "ladies of the frontier."
One of the more interesting activities was striking a fire-- somthing I am given to understand was a common task in the 1820s - 1830s. It was, however, made more difficult by the absence of sulfur matches, the use of which appears to post-date our time period.
One of my favorite authors, Juliette Kinzie, offered some insight into striking a fire--
"Spunk or lightwood?" What was that?
Perhaps it was the material mentioned by David Thompson in his Narrative, 1784 - 1812, p. 199:
"A Canadian never neglects to have touchwood for his pipe."
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Post by mary on May 26, 2003 7:08:25 GMT -5
Mrs. Tillson recorded the domesticity of the laborers building her Illinois house:
...for some reason they decided to give up boarding and keep "bachelor's hall." They managed to get a Dutch oven and frying pan, the former for baking their cornbread and the frying pan for cooking their meat; they had roasted their potatoes in the ashes. p. 95.
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Post by mary on May 22, 2003 11:15:21 GMT -5
Our friend Christiana Holmes Tillson provides us will another reference for Dutch ovens on the pre-1830s Illinois frontier:
Jesse invited us to his house to dinner, which invitation we accepted. The furniture in his cabin consisted on one bed, a spinning wheel, six chairs and a table; some rude shelves on the wall held the dishes, while the Dutch oven and the frying pan found a place on the floor under the shelves. p. 81.
Mrs. Tillson's use of the article "the" in her reference to "the Dutch oven," (as opposed to "their Dutch oven") gives one the impression that this utensil was common, as was the frying pan.
Apparently, this particular oven did double duty as a kettle:
Peggy, with the baby on her hip, took the cups from the table and with a tin cup filled them with coffee from the Dutch oven in which it has been made. p. 84.
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Post by mary on Apr 21, 2003 15:41:32 GMT -5
At a recent historical demonstration, our group was questioned about the use of the dutch oven. Visitors are often surprised when I tell them that the dutch oven was a common item of frontier cookware.
There are many documents that cover the use of cooking implements of the 1830s. Susan Gordy has provided our board with the inventory of the personal estate of Galena resident James Jones "Dec’d, This 18th day of July 1833." His estate included an "oven with lid" valued at $1.25.
Author Benjamin P. Thomas in his Lincoln's New Salem asserted: Cooking was done over the open fire, sometimes on a "flat oven," or in a "Dutch oven,"; and with the skillet, frying-pan, iron pot, and kettle.
The Hon. Edward Wilson authored one of the better accounts, which included a specific mention of the dutch oven:
Much of the cooking was done at the fire place in iron skillets, and a large skillet with a cover and no handle, known as a dutch oven. Before breakfast over this oven was placed on the hearth and filled with three measures of corn dough. And for dinner this bread was cooked and known as corn dodgers, and was the sweetest and best bread ever eaten. Not a live coal was put on or under the oven, only hot ashes, and the same process repeated for supper. Don't imagine this was the only bread, for we had all the forms of wheat bread we have to day.
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Post by mary on Jun 26, 2003 12:20:42 GMT -5
Juliette Kenzie, in Chapter 9 of her excellent book Wau Bun, wrote:
I had made many fruitless attempts, both in Detroit and Green Bay, to procure a servant-woman to accompany me to my new home. Sometimes one would present herself; but, before we could come to a final agreement, the thoughts of the distance, of the savages, the hardships of the journey, or, perhaps, the objections of friends, would interfere to break off the negotiation; so that I had at length been obliged to rest satisfied with the simple hope held out by my husband, that one or the other of his French employés, with his wife, would be contented to take up their abode with us.
In this state of things, all difficulties seemed to be obviated by the proposal of Major Twiggs, that we should take into our service a young colored girl, whom he had brought from Buffalo, in the spring, to wait on Mrs. T. until her own servants should arrive from the South.
Louisa was accordingly sent for, an uncommonly handsome young negress, with an intelligent but very demure countenance, who called herself fifteen years of age, but who, from the progress in vice and iniquity I afterwards discovered her to have made, must have been at least several years older. Be that as it may, she now seemed to have no fault but carelessness and inexperience, of both of which I had great hopes she would improve, under careful training.
Would it be correct to presume that Louisa was a paid servant?
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Post by mary on Apr 21, 2003 15:19:48 GMT -5
Some of us have found that the challenges of dressing in the morning or completing many of the day's tasks-- and in the order they should be completed-- requires many more hands than I possess. Certainly my children pitch in, and in ways suggested by the historical record. But what if that was simply not enough? I began to wonder about the use of paid servants in the frontier... particularly Illinois and the Lead Region.
Many of us have read Christiana Holmes Tillson's excellent narrative and the stories of her various household servants. Well... I suppose she being of Eastern stock was used to such assistance, and therefore required a servant when she moved to Illinois.
My husband tells me of the situation of George Wallace Jones... the southerner from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, who in 1831 came to Sinsinawa Mound with his wife Josephine Gregoire Jones, seven servants, and a number of French laborers. In 1832, with the advent of the war, Jones sent Josephine, accompanied by a servant named Charlotte, to her father's home in Ste. Genevieve for protection. Seven servants... that must have been quite a household!
Eastern upper-crust? Southern "aristocracy?" We might expect to see household servants in these situations.
Now, we read about a cabin-born Illinois gent from Crawford County who remembered the following:
In this house and lean to kitchen was housed my parents, eight children and two maids, then called hired girls; and I never knew that we were cramped for room. I suppose my mother and the girls recognized that fact. The girls received one and one-half dollars a week for wages, the hired man thirteen dollars a month and board, and they saved money.
Source: Edward Wilson, from his recollections of early life in Crawford County, Illinois.
Could it be that the use of paid household servants-- even on the "frontier"-- might be more widespread than we first thought?
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