Thursday, November 13, 2008

Article #30 Occupations

Occupation-the job by which somebody earns a living, known nowadays as a career. In the old days, it was just paid work to support your family or if you were a farmer working the land to sustain your family. Most women didn’t work outside the home unless widowed, abandoned by their husbands or single. They were needed at home: to raise the children, cook the food, wash the clothes, and have more children. The list was never ending. If they had a job before their marriage, it was probably school teaching, nursing or as a domestic in someone else’s home. Without the wide spread use of birth control, married women were either nursing a new baby or expecting another child every two years or so. Pregnant females in public occupations were frowned upon. (Photo above left of my ggma Elizabeth Wilkins who raised twelve children and was a midwife. Photo below the Wilkins family, one son not shown died at age 3.)


My widowed grandmother with five dependent children had to work outside the home. There was no social security or welfare available. With only a sixth grade education, she worked as a dishwasher and cook at Paxman’s boarding house in Silver City. She also took in washing, ironing and boarders. Later, she helped with maternity cases for the local doctor. Was this a career? Not really. Her days were filled with backbreaking labor for a very low wage. She was barely able to put food on the table for her growing family.

She did set an example of determination to overcome all obstacles. Her husband had been a miner before his death, and had no life insurance to leave for his family’s support. Mining was not a healthy occupation in those days, but it did pay better than farming. It promised riches if you had your own mining claim and found the mother lode. Wealth could be yours and a life of leisure. This promise brought some of my ancestors from England and back east to the West, as the news of the California Gold Rush spread throughout the world in 1849. Unfortunately, none of my ancestors got rich. My great grandfather, a would-be miner, found a better living in being a saloonkeeper as there was always a need for his services. (Photo above right of my ggpa Oscar Wilkins who was a farmer and ran a country store in Peoa, Utah.)

Looking at census records that list occupations, the usual one was farmer for the man, and homemaker for the woman. Some men were miners, saloonkeepers, blacksmiths, merchants, etc. Families were large and moms were too busy for an additional occupation besides being a homemaker. (Photo of my mom and me. She didn't work outside the home until she became a widow, then she worked as a telephone operator to support us.)

7 comments:

  1. Everytime I see "Wilkins" in your family history, I think...ummmmm, my dad's name was Wilkins. What are the chances...?

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  2. We do tend to forget how difficult life was in those days as we complain and whine about today. It might help all of us to take a look at our family history to gain a little more perspective on our lives today -- in spite of all the bad news.

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  3. You know what? I understand just how difficult those days were... well, I take that back. Having never lived it, I can't really understand it. Let's just say that I have been grateful on so many occasions that I didn't have to carry water in a bucket from the spring, and then heat that water on a coal burning stove to do laundry by hand. Your ancesters and mine had hard lives, to be sure. But, I've also thought on occasion how I'd have done all of that gladly to have been able to keep my children safe from some of the temptations and dangers of our day.

    It's far more difficult to teach our little ones in the world we live in. The children that they bore helped carry water, milk the cow, sweep the floors, prepare the meals, plow the fields... They were an asset to the family. They gathered together and read from the bible or talked as a family at night. They were taught simple values of honesty, courage, loyalty, work... and they didn't have the distractions of television, i-pods, internet, four-wheelers, the local dairy queen, and the general lack of morals speeing out of Hollywood. They grew up with a feeling of being needed and important to the family because they contributed.

    Wayne has been a therapist working with youth for decades. The common factor in the majority of kids who have been in trouble with the law, are having difficulty in school, or are residing in psych wards is a fear of boredom and a lack of accomplishment. So many children have been lost to their families. We've all had hard lives in different ways. I don't mind backbreaking hard work... I can't handle the heartbreaking loss of a child.

    Having spewed all of that drivel... Let me say that I loved this post. I love your family stories... I love that you have so many family stories. Well, what it all boils down to is that I love you!

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  4. This is a very interesting post. I have studied my genealogy and recall the census listings of occupations. My Irish ancestors were the poorest. They were laborers, railroad workers, one was listed as a tinker. The women were laundress, maid (to the rich merchants) one was a housekeeper. If a husband died young and left a wife and children, they would be destitute if she didn't have parents or siblings to turn to. It wasn't unusual to place the children with relatives to make sure they were fed thru the hard times.
    Marnie
    Marnie

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  5. Even when my mother worked in the early 1960's, it was kind of strange in our neighborhood..

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  6. Every time I read something like this I wonder if all of us softies today could do have of what the realier generations did!

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  7. My grandmother on my father's side used to tell me stories of working in the sugar cane fields with a baby tied to her back. No easy diaper changes so your back was often soiled. It's amazing how they were able to cope with so many children.

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