Shoes-on-the-Ground Research

One aspect of being a writer I enjoy a lot is the research. Lots of information can be gathered by spending time online. Now, the trips we used to take to the reference desk at the local library are reserved only for when we get stuck. Clicking links at the bottom of Wikipedia pages can sometimes be like going down the proverbial rabbit hole. Some can lead to obscure articles. But I have followed URLs and found original sheet music from the 1850s or playbills from a 1870s opera. This time what I wanted would be most easily gained from a visit to the site. I was already making the trip to Texas for a writers’ retreat so I tacked on a day before and after to conduct research.

first owner was Goldbeck who built cabin in 1854

1890 blacksmith shop

Last Thursday, I spent time in a small town named Comfort that I’ve kept in my mind as being the one I’ve used as a base for my fictional town of Dorado. I walked the layout of the real town, snapped some pictures of the historic downtown, and gathered what information I could. The series, Dorado, Texas, contains both contemporary and historical stories with ancestors, descendants, and entangled families.

Ingenhuett General Store 1881

Immediately following the acquisition of Texas from Mexico, immigrants came from Europe to settle the land. From 1845 to 1861, many towns were founded by German Freethinkers, who were mostly intellectuals who believed in reason and democracy as ways to create community, instead of religious and political autocracy. Some even held intellectual forums in Latin.

Freethinkers were advanced for the times in that they believed in an individual philosophy over religious dogma and advocated equal rights for all people with many working toward the abolishment of slavery. A respect for life and nature was an important part of their moral values. Secular education and organizations of various types provided social and cultural activities.

I've been away for four years and I'd almost forgotten the gorgeous cloud formations. I'd also forgotten about the wide variety of roadkill--skunk, opossum, deer, fox, raccoon, armadillo.

Now that I’ve walked the streets and gathered local literature, I know I will write the town with more details and accuracy.

I'd love to hear from others how important a sense of place is in the stories they choose.

Street Car Etiquette (1889)

  by Kristin Holt

 

I'm forever amused by American Victorian-era humor. The point of the historic newspaper article I'll share seems to be reached extra-well because of the dollop of humor. Ultimately, the purpose is evident. Good manners are always in style.

 

The following article, titled Street Car Etiquette appeared in the Fort Worth Daily Gazette of Fort Worth, Texas, on February 24, 1889, apparently having first run in the New York Sun.

1908 Postcard featuring the 1887 horse car on display in Manchester, New Hampshire. The FIRST horse car in the city. Labeled "Rapid Transit". Image: Public Domain, found on Wikipedia.

Horse-drawn cars such as the one on this Manchester postcard had been invented much earlier... Manchester was simply blessed with their first (apparently) in 1887. The following original patent drawing and details explain the unique (thus patented) and new arrangement of doors on the horse-drawn railway cars with the patent granted on September 4, 1860. While not a laughing matter, the patent solves a similar problem--"the usual annoyances now occasioned by passengers standing outside, and blocking the passageway". A little more--including parting with the need for a conductor (reference etiquette in the newspaper article)--is included below the patent image.

Patent No. 29,882 issued to J. Harris, Jr. on September 4, 1860. Source: Google.

Taken from the detail contained within the patent (application and final document), also courtesy of Google.

"The doors a, a, [see fig 2] when closed, are at an obtuse angle with a plane parallel to the end of the car, or at any angle which increases the facilities of passengers on their entrance and exit, and the usual annoyances now occasioned by passengers standing outside, and blocking the passageway, is obviated. By the present mode of constructing platforms, they extend from side to side entirely across the car, and the doors slide open at right angles to the sides. I construct my car in any of the known forms, except the platforms, doors and doorways. The ends of my car are constructed viz., the greater portion of the platforms are inclosed [sic], thus making the interior more spacious, and economizing seat room for additional passengers, as represented by the letters c, c, on Fig. 2. I have two entrances and two doorways, or platforms, one at each end of the car, their relative position being diagonal. Consequently, no accident can occur to passengers, from cars coming in an opposite direction, as the peculiar construction of the doors and platforms oblige the passengers to enter and leave, on the outside or right hand of either rail track.

The doors are controlled by the driver by means of foot straps extending from the door, through the ear and under his foot. This arrangement is not adopted in cars at present, where the horses are made to change from end to end, in reversing the draft of the car.

By the above mentioned improvements we are successfully enabled to dispense with the attendance of a conductor." [underline and bold added, as are comments in square brackets]

Apparently human nature hadn't changed much (nor the aggravations caused by public transportation) from 1860 to 1889... and I'd wager a guess that commuters on today's trains and light rail would say nothing's much different in 2016. Except for a few more riders on a few more vehicles of public transportation on a few more rails and a few more roads. Ultimately, polished manners and politeness are as essential--if not more so--today than they were 127 years ago.

Perhaps humor is the best way to respond to such aggravations and breaches of etiquette, then or now.

May I share a bit more Victorian-era humor with you?

• Victorian America's Sense of Humor
• Leap Year Victorian Humor (a.k.a. Countdown Day #9: Leap Into Love (the Victorian Way)
• Victorian April Fool's Day  
• Pencil  Skirts, Victorian Style
• The Spinster Book: 1901 (And men are like cats...)
• Mail-Order Bride Farces... for Entertainment?
• Matrimonial Fool and his Money

Kristin Holt, USA Today Bestselling Author writes Sweet Victorian Romance set in the American West. She writes frequent articles about the nineteenth century American west--every subject of possible interest to readers and amateur historians. She contributes monthly to Sweet Americana Sweethearts (first Friday of each month) and Romancing the Genres (third Tuesday of each month). 

Sweet Romance Appropriate for All Audiences

  Website | Email | Newsletter | Twitter | Pinterest | g+| Facebook Profile | Facebook Fan Page | Amazon

Copyright © 2016 Kristin Holt LC

Feeding An Orphaned Baby

In a story I’m working on that's set in 1878 Texas, I created the situation of a ten-month-old baby being orphaned in a stagecoach accident and a single woman taking responsibility for the child. For any of us who are mothers, we know babies don’t easily go from the breast to soft foods. A transition needs to occur, which sent me on a research trail to learn more about baby bottles.

Unfortunately, what I discovered varied from sad to tragic. Throughout the ages, a need has existed for an artificial way to feed a baby who has lost its natural mother. In instances following a mother’s death and the family lived among a populated area like a king’s castle or a shop within a town, often the recourse was a wet nurse—an already lactating mother who added the new infant into the nursing cycle. This solution would involve compensation of some type—either payment or the wet-nurse would move to the location of the family who had the need.

When that situation wasn’t possible, other solutions were developed. In ancient times, animal horns were used with a patch of leather tied to the tip with twine. Holes cut the tip allowed liquid to drip out. Alternately, a finger of a leather glove would be used. But most leather tanning methods used items we wouldn’t want in a baby’s mouth like urine or brain matter. A twist of fabric could be dipped in milk and the baby sucks it, but that would take a long time to transfer sufficient nutrition. In the 1700s, pewter bottles with metal tips were used but those caused many deaths from metal poisoning. In countries where the glassblowing craft was practiced, thin-necked bottles were created so a screw-on metal lid with a tip was attached. A sponge was laid over the tip to make for a softer place to suck. Still a problem because of the metal.

Ceramic or pottery bowls with spouts on one end were used to feed milk or thin cereal. The safety factor was reliant on the contents of the glazing used—and sadly many contained lead.

In 1845 when India rubber was used to make the first nipple, many thought the problem solved. But the rubber was stiff and had a horrible smell. Forty-five years would pass before the invention of vulcanized rubber and a nipple that withstood hot water washings. I did find an advertisement for Little Cherub Feeding Bottle which had a long rubber tube with a pacifier-like plug on the end. Unfortunately, a popular guide, The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beeton (1861), used by many women running Victorian households advised washing the tubing only every 2-3 weeks(do you believe that?). Sadly, bacterial infections cost many lives.

Lucky, too, was the existence of canned milk. Since 1857, condensed milk was commercially prepared and sold by Gail Borden Jr and Company. (Process was first perfected in France in 1820) The company sold big quantities to the Union Army during the Civil War, and wider consumer distribution was achieved by 1875.

Although I realize a spoon could be used to feed the milk, I wanted the baby in my story to retain the comfort of sucking. So I combined a couple of the above items to use a thin-necked bottle with a piece of sponge covered with a scrap of toweling inserted into the opening. The invention seemed like a plausible method that people with limited resources would have put together in a pinch. Especially when faced with a pressing need to feed that hungry and cranky infant.

~~~

Linda writes for several small presses, as well as indie publishes her historical novellas and novels. The book mentioned in this article is tentatively titled Mail-Order Haven will be released in early fall. To keep updated on her releases, consider joining her quarterly newsletter list. Or follow her Amazon author page or on Facebook.