Laundry Day

January 24, 1933  The children did laundry.  Mama helped.  I helped make meals and helped take care of the little boys.  In the afternoon Jacob and Corney plowed.  Very nice day.

Doing laundry.  It sounds so simple today, but less than a century ago it was a task that was involved the whole family and took all day.  (Although this day was a Tuesday, usually the Siemens did laundry on Monday.)  The Siemens had a small wash house next to the main house where they had some shelter from the cold and wind while they did laundry.  There was a lot of heavy work involved, so the men and boys participated too. 

First, a fire had to be built to heat water in the huge kettle, the Miagrope, and water carried from the well.  [CORRECTION:  The Siemens had their laundry in the basement, so it was a warm place to wash in winter once the fire under the Miagrope got going.  They had a cistern that collected rainwater and a faucet in the basement from which they got the water for laundry.  Rainwater was softer, so it required less soap.  Cornelius was good at fixing up conveniences such as this.  They only got the summer kitchen/wash house in the 1940s.]  If blocks of homemade soap had not been shredded earlier, that had to be done as well.  Then the hot water, soap, and dirty clothes were put into a hand agitator which was rocked back and forth to clean the clothes.  Agitating was hard work, so everyone took turns.  Then the clean clothes had to be rinsed of the dirty, soapy water, run through rollers to press the water out, and hung on the line to dry.

On this day “the children” did laundry – Mary, Jake, Corney, and John.  They were teenagers, so they took the main responsibility and wife Margaret only had to help.  Cornelius helped his wife make meals so that there would be food ready for the hungry laundry crew and took care of “the little boys” – Henry (21 months old) and Elmer (9 months).  Cornelius had been a widower with four children from 1920 to 1930, so he had had to make meals and keep house before, unlike most men of that era, and he could even bake bread.  As a result, more than most husbands, he appreciated housework and was willing able to help in the kitchen and with the little children.

Then after dinner, Jake and Corney escaped the laundry and went to the field to spend a very nice day plowing in the field, leaving Mary and John to finish the laundry.