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.

 

Buy Heart's Journey            

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

Name Origins of the Unites States Part II + giveaway

 By Tiffany Amber Stockton

In May, my children and I visited the Pine Mountain Settlement School in southeastern Kentucky. Amazing little place, nestled in the middle of the mountains, miles from any town. You can read last month's post if you missed it.

Today, it's time for the next 10 state name history stories. So, let's go!

STATE NAMES and their ORIGINS

Hawaii comes from the Polynesian word hawaiki, meaning place of the Gods. It was, however, originally named the Sandwich Islands by James Cook in the late 1700s.

Idaho has notorious roots in the Athabaskan word idaahe, meaning enemy. It was originally applied to part of Colorado before being given to the Gem State.

Illinois has a silent "s" at the end, because it's of French origin. "Illinois" means "Land of Illini," giving a nod to the Native American population. "Illini" is the Algonquin word for "man" or "warrior." This land east of the Appalachians and south of the Great Lakes became the center of significant battles.

Indiana, as you might expect, stems from the English word Indian. The Latin suffix tacked on the end roughly means "land of the." During the early years of America, many native tribes were well-established in these areas.

Iowa comes from the Dakota word yuxba, meaning sleepy ones.

Kansas references the Kansa tribe, meaning people of the south wind. Makes sense for tornado alley.

Kentucky is yet another state named for the river running through it, inspired by the Shawnee word for on the meadow.

Louisiana, like Georgia, was named for a regent of the times, specifically, Louis XIV of France.

Maine has uncertain origins. Though it's worth noting that Maine was also the name of a traditional province in France.

Maryland is a tip of the hat from King Charles I to his wife Henrietta Maria. Some husbands give jewelry; King Charles gave naming rights to an entire state.

And that's all for today. If you're like me and LOVE puzzles, download this PDF for some puzzle challenge fun. You might be able to solve it on your own without reading the rest of the blogs in this set, or you can save it and add to it in future months. :)

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Which one of these states was the most fascinating to you?

* Do you live in any of these 10 states? If so, did you know this was the origin of its name?

* What do you think might be the origin of any of the other 30 states? (You'll learn about them throughout the rest of the year.)

** This note is for our email readers. Please do not reply via email with any comments. View the blog online and scroll down to the comments section.

Leave answers to these questions or any comments you might have on this post in the comment box below. For those of you who have stuck around this far, I'm sending a FREE autographed book to one person every month from the comments left on each of my blog posts. You never know when your comment will be a winner! Subscribe to comments so you'll know if you've won and need to get me your mailing information.

Come back on the 9th of July for my next foray into historical tidbits to share.

For those interested in my "fictional" life as an author and industry news about other authors, subscribe to my quarterly newsletter. Receive a FREE omitted chapter from my book, A Grand Design, just for subscribing!

---

BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those skills to become an award-winning, best-selling author and speaker who is also a professional copywriter/copyeditor. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help improve their lives in a variety of ways.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children and four cats in southeastern Kentucky. In the 20 years she's been a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and is represented by Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.