The Life of a Franco-American Woman in 1910

By Alacyn Murray
FAS 120 Course project

Today when we think of a kitchen we think of a sink with hot running water, an oven that can self clean and be set to perform whatever function we need it to, a dishwasher, and other typical household items that we today think of as necessary.
But back in 1910 when you pictured a kitchen it was a lot different than what we think of today. I asked Amy Morin about what her grandmother’s kitchen was like in 1910 and it was worlds different than what we see today.
Amy’s grandmother didn’t have just one kitchen she had two! She had a regular kitchen and a summer kitchen because back then the stoves had to be on all day long so that the mother could perform her duties and in the summer it could get extremely hot. So she had a regular kitchen and to make being in the kitchen all day in the summer more bearable she had a summer kitchen, which had windows on 3 sides so that she could let air in.
Her grandmother baked 48 loaves a week! She would bake 6 loaves every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday six in the regular kitchen and six in the summer kitchen. On top of this she cooked 2 hot meals a day for each of her husbands 2 crews and she also had her family to cook for. And of course what would a meal be without dessert? Her grandmother also made fresh desserts for every meal as well.
Amy’s grandmother had 9 children and a husband. On Monday’s she would wash all their clothes with a wash tub and scrub board and Tuesday’s iron them with 3 big and very heavy irons that she would heat on the kitchen stove. When the one she was using would get cold she would detach the handle and reattach it to one of the others heating on the stove and repeat the process over and over until all her families clothes were ironed.
She also had to feed and take care of the chickens, tend to two large gardens where she grew all the vegetables she used to cook with and she canned hundreds of cans of these vegetables from these gardens for the winter and stored them in a certain room she had set aside just for cans.
On this farm that she and her husband owned they had sheep. Her husband would shear the sheep and she would spin and die the wool to make clothes, blankets, rugs and many other things for her family. She always had some kind of needle work in her hands when ever she had a spare moment.
In the evenings like many Franco-American families Amy’s grandmother, grandfather and all of their children would gather in the kitchen and play cards around their 12-foot long kitchen table. After the children went to bed Amy’s grandmother and grandfather would sit in their rocking chairs near the stove and rock and talk about their days as Amy’s grandmother worked on one of her needle-work projects. After they were done rocking in their chairs they would go to bed and wake again the next morning at 4 am to start their days and do all their backbreaking work over again.

My name is Alacyn Murray and I am currently a second year student at the University of Maine where I am majoring in Abnormal Psychology. I am originally from Greenville Maine where I live with my mom, dad, younger sister and little brother.

I give Rhea Cote Robbins permission to publish my article “ The Life of a Franco-American Woman in 1910” in her 'ezine.

Alacyn Murray