LAUNDRY DAY IN THE 1880s by Linda Hoover

 

In the second book of my Heart’s Desire series, Heart’s Promise, Jacob and Julia move to Iowa and buy a farm half a day’s wagon ride from town. Living that distance away required farm families to have a large vegetable garden, fruit trees and the animals needed to sustain them. This was about to be an intense learning experience for socialite, Julia, who confessed on their way west that she’d never been in a kitchen before, and the only thing she knew about gardens was that flowers grew there. They were in Iowa only two weeks before Julia confessed she needed help. Their nearest neighbor’s daughter volunteered to stay with them and teach Julia how to be a farm wife.

One of the most labor-intensive things women in that time period had to do was laundry. Water had to be carried in and poured into kettles to heat on the stove. Once it was hot, it went into large wooden tubs. But before they could wash the clothes, they had to have laundry soap. In Julia’s case, they had to start from scratch. She got out the two biggest pots they had and measured out a gallon of water into each. She poured five pounds of sal soda, or washing soda, into a pot along with one pound of borax. One pound of unslaked lime went into the other pot. Both were brought to a boil then emptied into one of the wooden tubs. Eight more gallons of water went in with the hot mixture. After a few stirs, it was left to sit overnight. That was the base for the detergent.

The next day, they made the soft soap by cutting four bars of soap into slivers and boiling it with two pounds of sal soda and three gallons of water for ten minutes. Next half a pint of the soft soap and half a pint of the base, and four more gallons of water were added. They now had four gallons of detergent to work with. The rest of the base got poured into crocks to use for future batches. Now the white clothes were boiled and the colored clothes were scrubbed against a washboard. A wringer attached the wash tub to the rinse tub. Julia cranked the handle as the clothes were fed one at a time through the wringer to the rinse water. The clothes went through the wringer again before they were hung on the line.

While researching laundry detergent I found that for a number of years now a lot of people want to make their own. The ingredients were pretty similar to each other. The link will take you to the Frugal Village website where you can see a recipe for Duggar’s Laundry Soap.

https://www.frugalvillage.com/threads/duggars-laundry-soap-recipe.111389/

                                                                                

Inventors made steady improvements, but the things they came up with still required manual labor to make it work. It wasn’t until 1907 that Thor came out with an electric washing machine. Other brands soon followed.

An excerpt from Heart’s Journey

As Julia continued to explore their new home, she saw a room off the kitchen with three large wooden tubs leaning against a wall. A contraption with two rollers and a hand crank stood propped in a corner, while several large crocks with lids lined a wall. A freestanding cupboard stood opposite the tubs along with a large wicker basket and a table with a cloth bag full of wooden pegs. She would need an explanation for these items.

 

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About the Author

Linda, a retired librarian, lives in west central Ohio with her husband and grandson. An avid reader and writer since childhood, she began her publishing career writing columns and a middle-grade serial for the South Charleston Spectator. She writes Fun, Faith-Filled Historical Romance. Her desire is to entertain, but more importantly, to encourage readers with God’s faithfulness.

You’re invited to visit her website. Browse the pages to learn more about her and her books. Stay in touch when you sign up for her newsletter. You’ll receive a free novella as a thank you.

https://lindahooverbooks.com