Today we add our clothes to the washing machine, pour in some detergent or a pod, select a setting, and push “start.” Then, after washing, we fill the dryer, toss in a dryer sheet, push a button to start, and begin dreading the final step—folding. For pioneers, laundry was a much more hands-on and laborious process. Consider this diary entry from 15-year-old Abba Durant who grew up in the 1843 Durant-Peterson House in St. Charles, Illinois:
“Monday, August 2nd, 1869
“We always dread the week that we do the washing ourselves; it is such hard work. But we got along with it nicely to day although Ma did not help as she has the sick headache, but (brother) Charley worked them through the (wringer-washer) machine, and (sister) Emmie did the most of the rest while I did other work.”[1]”
Monday was “wash day” in most American households in the nineteenth century. Generally, the process began by heating a tub of water over a fire outdoors. Ashes, lye, or soap was then added to the hot water. Clothing was dunked in the soapy water and stains were scrubbed by hand, often using a washboard.[2] This was laborious and often painful as Caroline Howard Gilman described in 1838:
““On Monday morning the clothes were brought forth to be washed, and for the first time I took my place at the washtub. It was not long before I rubbed the skin from my hands, and the pain and smart of the soap was intolerable; still I did not dare complain.”[3] ”
After washing, clothes would be wrung out by hand or, if one could afford it, a wringer-washer. The wringer-washer was said to save soap because the suds would be returned to the washing bucket.[4] The final step was drying. A clothesline was strung between trees and the clothes were hung on the line to dry. Sometimes, clothes would be hung on pegs indoors to dry, especially if the weather was uncooperative. The following day, the family would spend much of the day ironing their clothes using a flat iron, also known as a sad iron, with a handle that was warmed on a stove or over a fire.
It is interesting to note that women wore an apron to protect their dresses from stains during food preparation, gardening, and other work. This would extend the time between washings of the entire dress—a kind of 19th-century “hack!”
The Durant-Peterson House Museum has a wringer-washer which is often available for you to try out when the museum is open as the photo at the top demonstrates. While more time-consuming, you may find the wringer-washer more enjoyable! And appreciate your washer and dryer at home a little bit more.
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[1] Abba Durant, The Diaries of Abba (Durant) Allen (1853-1933): St. Charles, Illinois, 1866-1875 and Logan, Iowa 1919-1933, edited by Alexander G. Rose III (1978), 36, Illinois Digital Archives, https://www.idaillinois.org/digital/collection/stc/id/11245/.
[2] Em Ricciardi, “White Clothing and Victorian Laundry,” The Library Company of Philadelphia, accessed July 30, 2024, https://librarycompany.org/2017/08/28/white-clothing-and-victorian-laundry/.
[3] Caroline Howard Gilman, Recollections of a Southern Matron (New York: G.P. Putnam & Co., 1852), 284.
[4] Alexia MacClain, “Through the Wringer: Laundry in the Late 19th Century,” Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, August 29, 2019, https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2019/08/29/through-the-wringer-laundry-in-the-late-19th-century/.