Book Review--The History of Underclothes by C. Willett and Phillis Cunnington

 

This reference has proven invaluable over the years when I’m figuring out what people of the past wore under their street clothes. Some outerwear is also described, as in: first comes this undergarment followed by these other layers.

The book was published in England and covers undergarments for both sexes over the past six centuries—from medieval times to 1939. Not only is the construction described, but also information is given about what the garments were made of and which garment was worn next to the skin. From the medieval times, not much change happened. People of the working class wore shapeless garments that allowed them to complete the tasks of their profession. They didn’t concern themselves with the body’s outline or garments that changed its shape. The authors used both written sources (poems, novels, church writings) and paintings, etching, and sculptures to determine what was worn.

Through it, I’ve learned the difference between panniers and hooped petticoats or crinolines and crinolettes. Detailed are how some garments started out long in this era but became shorter in another. The approximate time period of when various fashion items like bustles or corsets (for both men and women) or types of shirt collars came into general usage are given. Sometimes, yardage amounts are given for styles of dresses or how big the circumference of the hem was. These facts help the reader picture the amount of space they took.

Writing a story set in the decades of hoop skirts means the whole skirt would move in the opposite direction if another person pressed close. Or having a woman travel in a stagecoach during the time when bustles were considered an essential wardrobe piece means the character must be uncomfortable without the ability to lean back all the way.

(all photos taken from the referenced book)

I’m an author who wants the reader to be immersed in the everyday details of life in whichever year I’m writing. When I know of a gem like this book, I like to share it.

Leave a comment for a chance to win a print copy of Present for a Cowboy, a multi-author anthology of western stories (US addresses only).

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Homes on the Range - Dugouts vs. Sod Houses

 

"The path went across the short sunny grass, to the edge of the bank. Down below it was the creek, rippling and glistening in the sunshine. The willow trees grew up beyond the creek.

Over the edge of the bank, the path turned and went slanting down, close against the grassy bank that rose up like a wall.

Laura went down it cautiously. The bank rose up beside her till she could not see the wagon. There was only the high sky above her, and down below her, the water was talking to itself. Laura went a step farther, then one more step. The path stopped at a wider, flat place, where it turned and dropped down to the creek in stair-steps. Then Laura saw the door.

The door stood straight up in the grassy bank, where the path turned. It was like a house door, but whatever was behind it was under the ground. The door was shut."

On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 1, The Door in the Ground

Imagine yourself as a pioneer living in a hole in the ground. Now imagine that floodwater is rising toward the ceiling. Welcome to the prairie!

While the sod house is iconic of the frontier, many pioneers started out in an even simpler form of housing the dugout.

In short, pioneers had to dig a rectangular hole into a hillside or a ravine. The open side faced the east to catch the morning light. Its position also kept blowing snow away from the door. They enclosed the open front with a wall of logs or sod and left a space for a door; a window was optional. Finally, they roofed the hole with "poles, brush, hay, and earth." Sod shingles, rectangles of soil about 4 inches thick with grass and roots intact were laid over wooden supports. Because wood was scarce, the supports were frequently more optimistic than substantial.

Dugouts were cool in the summer and warm in the winter. They also were dirty. Chunks of the ceiling continually flaked off. Water added to dirt flakes equaled mud. And every time it rained, the roof leaked muddy water. It dripped during the storm and sometimes for days afterward. Some pioneers held umbrellas over pots and pans while they cooked. Frequently, the sod became so waterlogged the entire roof gave way burying the occupants and all they owned in mud.

Under all these leaking, dripping, falling roofs were dirt floors. Some dirt floors were left "au natural" that is, covered with grass and weeds. Others, where the layer of sod had been dug out, were smoothed with a spade. In some dwellings, the floor was tamped down with a fence post. Folks who really wanted to show off tamped the dirt, flooded it with water, and later burned dry grass on it. Repeating this process several times produced a hard, pottery-like surface. Clay mixed with sand or gravel gave the floor a stucco-like surface.

But water turns all dirt floors to mud.

The next step was carpeting. Pioneers added rags and burlap to mats and skins In some cases, straw was put down and walked into a mat that was called the purest kind of pioneer luxury.

"In those days, we did not have any such things as rugs. We tore the old worn-out clothes, dress skirts, shirts, and aprons into small strips, sewed them together, and wound them into a big ball. Then we could buy carpet warp of some pretty colors and have carpet woven out of the rags. It would be woven into strips one yard wide and as long as the room. The strip had to be sewn together by hand then you had a carpet large enough to cover all the floor. Some people put straw under the carpet before it was tacked down to the floor."

Mrs. W.H. Hodge, from "Sod Walls" by Roger L. Welsch   

 

The dugout would be cheap, quickly built, cool in summer, and warm in winter. It would also be cramped, dark, dirty, and full of every critter in the ground. But it would do until the family planted the first crop and had time to build a proper soddy or frame house.

Sod houses were mostly built on the plains, where the prairie grasses were thick, and trees were scarce.

A sod house, also known as a "soddy," was constructed of blocks cut from the thick sod of the prairie grasslands. The blocks were piled on top of one another and then packed tightly together to create the walls of the house. The walls of the soddy curved slightly, similar to an igloo. the wider base allowed the walls to support the weight of the bricks. The roof was often made of wood or canvas, and the floor was typically made of packed dirt.

Sod houses were a cheap and relatively easy way to build a house on the frontier, where there were few trees and traditional building materials were not readily available. They provided insulation against the cold and kept the interior cool during the hot summer months. Plastered or wallpapered walls on the inside made them feel more like regular houses, although not all "soddies" had these luxuries. However, they were also prone to leaks and could be infested with pests such as mice and insects. Also, they were not very durable and had to be rebuilt frequently.

 

In my upcoming release, "Olivia's Odyssey", the heroine from Boston, Olivia Talbot, has never been in a dugout let alone seen one. But on an outing with the hero, Sheriff Sam Wright, she begins to see the land through his eyes. When they stop at a dugout her reaction is what you might expect. The absence of natural light, the packed dirt floor, flakes of dirt falling from the ceiling, and the dank smell of earth are definitely not what she's been accustomed to in a home. Reminding herself that she's now living in the West, she slowly embraces the situation in which she finds herself.

As a mail-order bride to a cattleman, Olivia Talbot expected her life would change.

What she didn't expect upon her arrival was to discover she was a widow before she was a bride.

Things go from bad to worse after Olivia Talbot is let go from her position at the Butterick Pattern Company in Boston and her beloved Auntie Dee passes away. Armed with only her sewing machine and a letter of introduction to Mildred Crenshaw, proprietress of the Westward Home and Hearts Matrimonial Agency she soon finds herself corresponding with a cattleman from Cottonwood Falls, Kansas.

Arriving in Kansas, her hopes for a future with Nate Forester are dashed when the handsome sheriff delivers the news she won’t be getting married.

Sheriff Sam Wright can handle most trouble that comes his way in Cottonwood Falls. Yet, Olivia Talbot’s sapphire eyes and dark curls are a threat of a different kind, and soon she’s taking over his time and his thoughts.

As they grow closer, Olivia begins to hope there may be a future for her and Sam. Soon, however, doubts and fears start to plague her. What if he didn’t care for her as much as she cared for him? What if he fell in love with her only because he felt sorry for her?

But when an outlaw’s bullet threatens to crush the fragile seeds of love, Olivia is faced with losing him even before she has a chance to tell him she cares for him.

Will a leap of faith promise a new beginning? 

CLICK HERE for Pre-Order

Author - Helen (Hunt) Jackson

Post (C) Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

A repost of an earlier article.

Helen (Hunt) Jackson. Since there is a great deal of information on this lady, this post will cover an 'interview' and information about the writing of the book "Ramona" near the end of her life.

Helen (Hunt) Jackson from Wikipedia

First an 'interview':

As you were traveling to the west you made some unique observations. Would you share some of those thoughts?

Prairie, unfenced, undivided, unmeasured, unmarked, save by the different tints of different growths of grass or grain; great droves of cattle grazing here and there; acres of willow saplings, pale yellowish green; and solitary trees, which look like hermits in a wilderness. These, and now and then a shapeless village, which looks even lonelier than the empty loneliness by which it is surrounded, - these are all for hours and hours. We think, “now we are getting out into the great spaces.” “This is what the word ‘West’ has sounded like.”

You appear to prefer the lower elevations as opposed to the high peaks. Why do you think that?

I think that true delight, true realization, of the gracious, tender, unutterable beauty of the earth and all created things are to be found in outlooks from lower points—vistas which shut more than they show, sweet and unexpected revealings in level places and valley, secrets of near woods, and glories of every-day paths.

You are quoted as saying there are nine places of worship in Colorado Springs. What are the?

There are nine “places of divine worship” in Colorado Springs, -- the Presbyterian, the Cumberland Presbyterian, the Methodist, the South Methodist, the Episcopal, the Congregationalist, the Baptist, the Unitarian, and Cheyenne Canyon.

Helen Hunt Falls -North Cheyenne Canyon
Photo (c) by author 

What do you do when the snow covers the ground?

... winter..... memory and fancy will have their way; and, as we sit cowering over fires, and the snow piles up outside our window sills, we shall gaze dreamily into the glowing coals, and, living the summer over again, shall recall it in a minuteness of joy, for summer days were too short and summer light too strong. Then, when joy becomes reverie, and reverie takes shape, a truer record can be written....

Ruth Odell wrote one of the early biographies of Helen. It was published in 1939. Her book talks about the writing of "Ramona" and the end of Helen's life. I share some of that with you here:

According to Odell, Helen wrote Ramona in New York between December 1883 and April 1884.

1883-1884

Berkeley Hotel, New York

Wrote first words of Ramona on Dec. 1, 1883

Pg 210-211 of the book says:

"The novel which Helen hoped so ardently would “tell” in a manner in which A Century of Dishonor had not was written with lightening speed. She was frightened at the intensity of her own interest, which drove her to compose at the rate of from two to three thousand words in a day. It was as if she were haunted and obsessed. So loath was she to stop writing that her concentration resulted in two serious attacks of illness. …..From time to time she drove herself to write a short story, an article....but with the feeling always that she was suffering an actual deprivation in having to turn away from the thing she wished to be doing.....By late February she had finished twenty chapters."

Below is a timeline of the release of the book.

April 12 of 1884  the 'Critic' announced that Mrs. Helen Jackson would soon publish the first long novel under her own name.

May 1, 1884 'The Christian Union' noted that it would begin in a fortnight a serial presentation of the novel Ramona.

On a side note, "Ramona" has had at least 300 printings since that date.

Time line of Helen's last months

June 28, 1884 Helen broke her hip. The fall of 1884 she went to CA .

By Feb 1885 she became seriously ill of what she believed to be “malarial poisoning”.

From Page 212 of the Odell book:

When she could no longer postpone it, the doctor sent a telegram to her husband, who arrived Aug 2. Ten days later the end came. Subsequent dispatches gave the cause of her death as cancer. Fortunately, she had not known.

Evergreen Cemetery Colorado Springs
Photo (c) by the author

Helen made her home in Colorado Springs from 1873 to her death in 1885. She supported the growth of the new town, wrote glowing articles, and even supported reading and libraries. Her final resting place is in Evergreen Cemetery next to her second husband William S. Jackson.

Until Next Time: Stay safe, Stay happy, and Stay healthy. 

Doris

Central Overland Trail by Zina Abbott

While developing the plot for my most recent covered wagon story in the Prairie Roses Collection, I decided for the covered wagon accompanying some of my characters to travel the Central Overland Trail between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Carson, Nevada Territory.

The first bit of confusion I needed to clear up in my own mind was that there were two Central trails and routes which, although they somewhat connected, were not the same. The Overland Trail/Route, also known as the Overland Stage Line, started at the St. Joseph, Missouri and ended at Placerville, California.

The Central Overland Trail was a transportation route from Salt Lake City, Utah, south of the Great Salt Lake through the mountains of central Nevada to Carson City, Nevada. Particularly during the decade between 1859 through 1869, until the first Transcontinental Railroad was completed, it served as an important trail through Utah, Nevada, and California for emigrants, mail, freight, and stagecoach passengers. Once developed, many California-bound travelers chose it over the more-established California Trail that followed the Humboldt River.

Maj. Howard Egan

The trail was first scouted in 1855 by Howard Egan. He used it to drive livestock between Salt Lake City and California. Egan’s route went straight through the high mountain ranges of the Great Basin that most earlier explorers had worked so hard to avoid. However, he discovered a series of mountain passes and mountain springs that aligned to allow an almost straight path across the middle of Utah and Nevada. 

Although many of these places were named later, Egan discovered what we now know as the Schell Creek Range, which could be crossed at Schellbourne Pass. He crossed the Cherry Creek Range at what is now Egan Pass, the Ruby Mountains at Overland Pass, the Diamond Mountains at a different Overland Pass, the Toiyabe Range at Emigrant Pass, and the Desatoya Mountains as Basque Summit. There were other smaller ranges and two large deserts that also needed to be crossed. However, there were a series of springs along the route, which allowed travelers access to water.

Central Overland Trail marker

The advantage of this trail compared to the California Trail was that it was 280 miles shorter. Using the Central Overland Trail could save travelers two weeks of travel time—an important consideration for emigrants headed for California using the Emigrant/Carson Pass Trail.

About 1858, when the U.S. Army learned of this new route, they sent out a survey expedition led by Captain James H. Simpson. The goal was to determine if this would be a good route for delivering supplies to Fort Floyd in Utah. In 1859 and 1860, the Army then improved the trail and springs for use by wagons and stagecoaches.

The southwestern Butterfield Overland Mail route had followed the Gila River to California since 1858. In 1861, John Butterfield, also switched the Butterfield Overland Mail route to the Central Route to avoid possible hostilities with the approach the American Civil War.

George Chorpenning, who held a mail contract for the western part of the nation, immediately realized the value of this more direct route. He had been using the northerly Humboldt Route along the Humboldt River (California Trail), but switched to the Central Overland Trail. The various stage lines, by traveling day and night and changing their teams at about 10 to 20 mile intervals, could transport light freight, passengers, and mail to or from the Missouri River towns to California in about 25–28 days.

In May 1860, the transportation firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell  acquired George Chorpenning’s contract for mail service from Utah to California. At that point, the Central Overland Trail was joined as part of the Central Overland California and Pike’s Peak Express (C.O.C. & P.P.) route. In addition to freight, they also operated a stagecoach line.

At the encouragement of William H. Russell, in 1860, they formed the Pony Express. With the COC&PP as the parent company and under the direction of Russell, the Pony Express route used the Central Overland Trail for part of the western leg of their fast 10-day mail delivery. Home and relay stations were built along the Central Overland Trail to support both the Pony Express and the stagecoach lines that traveled this route. The firm utilized its partner, William H. Russell’s, equipment and portions of his former Leavenworth & Pike’s Peak Express route, as well as purchasing other lines running to Salt Lake City.

However, the company faired very poorly. The Pony Express experienced heavy losses. After the completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph, the Pony Express became obsolete. The business ran out of cash, and soon the company employees referred to C.O.C.& P.P. Express as “Clean Out of Cash and Poor Pay.” The company collapsed in 1861, and the holdings were sold at a public sale for $100,000 to Ben Holladay on March 21, 1862,

 

Ruins of the Cold Springs Stagecoach Station ctsy Ramartin

 

That was not the end of the Central Overland Trail. California and Nevada produced gold and silver, which was transported as stagecoach cargo going east along that route to support the Civil War. Nearly all stage lines were heavily subsidized to carry the mail. After the American Civil War, Wells Fargo & Co. absorbed the Butterfield stage lines and ran stage coaches and freight wagons along the Central Overland Route. Wells Fargo also developed the first agriculture in the Ruby Valley in Nevada to help support their livestock. The Army established Fort Ruby at the southern end of Ruby Valley in Nevada to protect travelers against marauding Indians along the road.

The Central Overland Trail continued to be used by stagecoaches, freighters, and wagon trains until the coming of the First Transcontinental Railroad made the trail all but obsolete except for local traffic.

The desert regions of central Utah and Nevada are dry and mostly desolate desert. For some beautiful pictures of the location of Cold Springs Station, part of this route, please CLICK HERE

To view the ruins of both Cold Springs Station and Sand Springs Station please CLICK HERE

In my most recently published book, Lucy, part of the Prairie Roses Collection, I set a scene along the Central Overland Trail. Lucy is currently available as an ebook, for sale or at no additional cost with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. It is also available in paperback. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Overland_Route

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/central-overland/

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/leavenworth-pikes-peak/

https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/collection/data/122499640

https://noehill.com/nv_churchill/poi_central_trail_27.asp

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/a-socially-distanced-excursion-to-original-pony-express-stations-in-nevada.htm

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-overlandstage/