Apple River Fort Event--August 3

[Susan Gordy]

Well, here are the rest of my sources on funerals and mourning customs. Enjoy!Funeral Customs Sources

Midwest Open Air Museums Magazine Vol. XXI, No. 2, 2000

Antebellum Louisiana: Disease, Death and Mourning: www.crt.state.la.us/museum/education/lesson8.htm

“Facing Death” by John Updike in American Heritage, May/June 1992

The Pennsylvania Dutch, Powwowing, Hexeri, and Other Pennsylvania Knowledge

Burials and Other Practices of Religion in the Gap: xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/albion/cumb2.html

Inventing the American Way of Death, 1830-1920 by James J. Farrell. Temple University Press: Philadelphia

The Plantation Mistress by Catherine Clinton specifically the chapter titled “Precious and Precarious in Body and Soul”

From Hair to Eternity by Judy Knight
www.countrycollector.com/spring98/hair.html

Passing: The Vision of Death in America edited by Charles O. Jackson. Greenwood Press: Westport, CT.

“Death in the Popular Mind of Pre-Civil War America” by Lewis O. Saum, American Quarterly, 26 (December 1974), pp. 477-495.

Wake County North Carolina. America Writes Home, www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/letters1/nc/wake1.htm

Lakewood Lore – Death Customs
www.lkwdpl.org/lore/lore57.htm

The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Edited by Newman Ivey White, Duke University Press: Durham, North Carolina.

American Life Collector: Funerary Art, Vol. 10

Belle Meade Plantation, Widows, Weepers, & Wakes – Mourning in the 19th Century, Nashville, 1995

Deetz, James and Edwin Delthlefsen, “Death’s Head, Cherub, Urn, and Willow”, Natural History, March 1967, pp. 29-37.

Deetz, James, In Small Things Forgotten, Anchor Press, New York, 1977.

Garrison, Webb, Strange Facts About Death, Abington, Nashville, 1978.

Habenstein, Robert W. and William Lamers, The History of American Funeral Directing, Bulfin Printers, Milwaukee, 1962

Jones, Barbara, Design for Death, Bobbs-Merrill Co. Inc., New York, 1967.

Lesy, Michael, Wisconsin Death Trip, Random House, New York, 1973.

Mitford, Jessica, The American Way of Death, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1963.

Sloane, David Charles, The Last Great Necessity, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1991.

Taylor, Elizabeth, “The Victorian Way of Death”, Country Life Magazine, April 20, 1970.

Taylor, Lou, Mourning Dress: A Costume and Social History, George Allen and Unwin, Boston, 1983.

Wehrle, Louise and Jo Paoletti, “What Do We Wear to the Wedding Now That the Funeral is Over?, Dress, Vol. 16, 1990, pp. 81-88.

[Marge Smith]

Susan --
Which of your sources mention salt and earth. I looked the ones up that are on the web and did a search on "salt" and could not find anything. It was interesting about the hair wreaths being 1860-1870.

I did a google search on "Burial Customs" and could not find salt and earth customs.

I do have something for your next event. The County Commissioners in 1834 licensed a peddler to sell clocks. So far that is the only peddler I've found. They were so desperate for money to run the government they taxed anything that could walk and talk. Real estate was not available to be taxed.

[Robert Braun]

"Betsymaid"... a question has formed in my mind.

Are you seriously interested in a study of mourning and burial customs, as interpreted at Apple River Fort, or are you engaged in a fishing expedition to make Susan and her staff look foolish?

Regarding mourning customs...
I have personally examined Susan's research, that runs many inches thick, and am more than satisfied that her research and interpretation, including the salt and earth presentation, does ample justice to the upland southern rituals and traditions prevalent among the majority of persons in the Mineral District. You certainly don't have to take my word for it. Susan has been exceedingly and extraordinarily generous with her sources and research work, as published for all to see on this discussion board.

You reportedly have examined about 19% of her stated sources. In my opinion, in the absence of contrary evidence and supporting documentation (this means: evidence that salt and earth was NOT part of the upland southern funerary ritual, as decendant from Scots-Irish tradition), it is not incumbant upon Susan to recite her research chapter and verse. If you wish to pursue the "salt and earth" question to the ends of the earth, I would say that the mission is now yours... not hers.

You and other readers of this thread now stand on the shoulders of giants!

Regarding the September event...
With appreciation for your research, you seem to be hinting that a peddler had to be licensed to exist. Your research points out that one peddler both existed and received a license to sell clocks in 1834.

But just because a peddler or other itinerant sales/craft persons didn't have a license recorded at the county office doesn't necessarily mean he/she didn't exist!

Whether or not we can find an 1827 license for Patrick O'Meara, the peddler who eventually settled what is now Linden, Wisconsin (northwest of Mineral Point), does not detract from the fact that he existed de facto. Thanks to O'Meara, we can minimally establish that peddlers DID exist, and inhabited the Mineral District years before the BHW.

Logically, if there was one peddler... there was probably more. And since the presence of hostiles in the region prohibited the free ranging of these and similar itinerant "salespeople," does it stand to reason that they would again take to the roads and trails to reestablish their livelihood once the threat of attack had subsided?

Like the mourning customs event, the September "Rebuilding the Frontier" event at Apple River Fort presents a unique opportunity for modern people to see and experience period trades and crafts as they were once practiced in antebellum America.

[Betsy Urven]

I would like to add to what has already been said about hair work. Hairwork can be traced back to the 17th century. There is a ring which contains a single flat braid of hair commemorating Charles I death in England in 1649. While hairwork reached a frenzy of popularity in the later half of the 19th century it had already been popular for two centuries. While hairwork was popular in mourning attire it was not limited to that role. It was high fashion to wear hairwork jewelry. Hairwork could be ordered from cataloges as well as done at home. Hairwork could commermorate engagements and weddings as well as business partnerships as well as given as a token of love. A great source for more information on hairwork is Collector's Encyclopedia of Hairwork Jewelry by C. Jeanenne Bell.

[Marge Smith]

Thank You Betsy Urven

If it is afforable I'm going to order your suggested book on hair work. Did they use hair because silk was so expensive? Or was it more to honor someone's memory.

[Betsy Urven]

Hair is a lasting memento of loved ones. Even today we keep locks of hair of our children to treasure those early memories. During a time before photography, hair was a lasting connection to a loved one or cherished friend. Hair is durable as evidenced by the fact that hair has been found on mummies from thousands of years ago. It was an artform all its own. The fact that it was so popular for two centuries shows that it was not a replacement for any other material. Hairwork was often displayed in gold settings of rings, brooches, and pendents which made it very expensive. It was also very fashionable and to be in vouge one had to have several pieces of hair jewelry. People from all walks of life desired pieces of hairwork whether those pieces were home made or purchased through catalogs.

[Marge Smith]

Thank You.

I ordered the book plus another on 1840-1850 jewelry (Amazon had used copies) by the same author.

[Marge Smith]

Why do men get (you know what I mean) when asked to prove something. Because they say it is true, then it must be true. A simple quote would help. All I've seen is a bibliography with no page numbers. I've checked three books and they have come up empty.

So I have a quote for you:

"Two Years' Residence on the English Prairie of Illinois", by John Woods, Edited by Paul M. Angle, page 177.

Woods is describing the American character of people from North and South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.

"The Americans most commonly bury their dead near
the place where they die, and erect a small pale fence
around the grave, to prevent its being disturbed. I
believe it is seldom they have any service read over
them, except the Methodists, who have prayers at
their funerals."

I'm wondering if John McDonald's house was on what is today the Elizabeth cemetery. John McDonald would have been in charge. he seems to have been the community leader along with John D. Winters. Couldn't be - they were both from Pennsylvania.

[Robert Braun]

Imagine the reaction readers of this board would have posted if I had the temerity to begin a post with "What is it with you WOMEN...??"

As it is, I'll simply inquire as to whether or not you consulted the "Burial Customs" hotlink on the website

xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/albion/albion3.html

offered by Susan on her list (see above)??

If you had, you would have read the following:

Except in cases deemed very infectious, the corpse is always kept one night, and sometimes two. This sitting with the corpse is called the Wake, from LikeWake (Scottish), the meeting of the friends of the deceased before the funeral. Those meetings are generally conducted with great decorum; portions of the Scriptures are read, and frequently a prayer is pronounced, and a psalm given out fitting for the solemn occasion. Pipes and tobacco are always laid out on a table, and spirits or other refreshments are distributed during the night. If a dog or cat passes over the dead body, it is immediately killed, as it is believed that the first person it would pass over afterwards, would take the falling sickness. A plate with salt is frequently set on the breast of the corpse (emphasis added.)

These customs were recorded in Carrickfergus, northern Ireland, during the eighteenth century. They continued to be kept in Appalachia for two hundred years.

...These border customs were carried to the American backcountry in the eighteenth century. The same process of death-watching and laying-out was followed. Even the smallest details were observed in the New World. The corpse was laid out on an open board, and touched by the mourners, just as on the border.98 A plate of salt and earth was placed on the body in the back settlements, as it had been in North Britain. One North Carolinian told a folk-lore collector in the twentieth century: "The corpse is stretched on a board. On it is placed a platter of salt and earth, unmixed. The salt is an emblem of the immortal spirit, the earth of the flesh" (emphasis added.)

This material is also found in the book Albion's Seed, Four British Folkways in America under "Death Ways."

The point is not being able to prove documentation for a segment of historical interpretation. Susan et al have provided those references and they are substantial. This material and much more, is part of her collected research.

I have stated that I have examined Susan's work, and found her documentation credible and wholly supportive of the Apple River Fort funerary customs event. I have stated previously, and will state here again, that you need not take my word for it. That you don't take my word for it bothers me not. That you insist in continuing to whittle away at fine points, even AFTER the research material had been provided, is troubling to say the least.

As a point of interest, I was exceedingly pleased to see that you accepted the historical views of Mrs. Betsy Urven without demands for proof, page numbers, etc. This is as it should be. Mrs. Urven is a careful, methodical researcher-- she and Susan are cut from similar cloth. Since you have established a precident in this regard, I trust you will be consistant and treat Susan, et al. in a like fashion.

This thread is clearly going nowhere, and is now closed.

Feel free to start another thread, if desired.