My Mom has been my biggest advocate
Most of the log and stone 18th century houses in this area were built in the Germanic style with a heavy central chimney stack surrounded on the first floor by three rooms: on the north or west side the Kich (kitchen), on the south side the Stub (good room) and on the east the Kammer (bedroom). The bedroom was entered by a door from the good room which had a stove, so the Kammer was somewhat warmed. The farmer, his wife, infants and small children slept in this downstairs bedroom.
Older children and hired men were confined to sleeping in the cold rooms upstairs or even the attic where they might awake to find the bed covered with snow that sifted in between loosely fitting shingles.
When households were large but houses small, all sorts of sleeping arrangements were found. Researcher Alan Keyser wrote of a conversation with Charles Sittler of New Tripoli in 1961: “Charles Sittler told his experiences sleeping in the attic of his parents’ old Germanic central fireplace log house. The attic was a single room with no partitions. In the middle of the floor was the four foot by eight foot stone chimney which taper to a peak at the roof. At the north end was the stairs leading up from the first floor. He told us that he and his new bride slept on the south side of the chimney, the hired man slept on the north side, and the maid slept to the west, all within four or five feet of each other. He remarked that this was probably not the ideal situation for a new wife.”
Stone houses would have the exterior walls of the bedroom plastered and whitewashed. Log houses had the logs and chinking exposed. The interior walls were made of vertical boards, or they might be plastered walls.
Other than the bedstead, the Kammer was sparsely furnished, usually with a cradle, a painted chest, a chair and maybe a clothes press. That was it. There may have been a mirror on the wall, but no framed pictures. Perhaps mounted high on one wall was a board with turned wooded pegs on which to hang clothes.
Central to the room, of course, was the bedstead. In the old days, the bedstead came into the farmhouse as an important part of the bride’s dowry. Alan Keyser writes that the bedstead was: “very similar from one family to the next, and its ownership was retained by the wife. Moses Bender [Binder] of New Hanover Township in his will stated that his ‘wife Anna... Shall keep her marriage bed and bedstead, curtain and what is thereunto belonging in advance.’ In the estate inventory of Dietrich Boocher of the same township in 1789 the widow kept ‘her bedstead with curtain.’ From these and many similar accounts we see that the marriage bedstead was a high posted one with a curtain and the bed belonged to the widow.”
These wooden bed frames were produced by furniture makers in shops all over Pennsylvania. During the 18th century, they were high posted, curtained bedsteads often made of tulip poplar and painted. Poplar grew almost everywhere and was the ideal wood for painted furniture. Abraham Overholt recorded the color of 22 of the bedsteads he made between 1790 and 1806: 13 were brown, four blue, one green and one was red. The bed posts were six and a half to seven feet high topped by a pin or peg to hold the curtain rod or cornice.
Curtain rods were made by the blacksmith. Ledgers show these came in sets of two or four. This would seem to indicate that the curtains on some beds (the set of two rods) moved only on two sides while the head and foot sides were fixed. The curtains were considered a necessary part of high posted bedstead furniture. They provided some privacy for the man and his wife while also cutting down on drafts and chill in the old houses. Some sets of curtains required 11 yards of fabric, while others took 14 yards. Probably, the 11 yard curtain hung on only three sides with the headboard against the wall. The fabrics themselves were dyed or otherwise colored in patterns. A ledger from Schaefferstown records the sale of curtain rings in two dozen and two-and-a-half dozen lots. The two dozen would have been enough for one ring every eight inches on three sides of the bed, and the two-and-a-half dozen would have supplied all four sides every eight inches.
The very bottom of the bedstead was a 120 foot long hempen rope, which may well have been raised, spun and plied on the farm where it was used. The rope was stretched between pegs on the head and foot rail and the side rails, and when stretched correctly produced the springiness which we today associate with a mattress.
Keep reading next week for part two!
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Loyal readers have probably noticed over the years that I’ve praised my Pennsylvania Dutch grandmother and father on many occasions, and have made little reference to my mom. By no means intentional, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting lately, since I have lost both my dad and “Nana,” and my aunt most recently, who was a very good woman, and all too recent! But if one subscribes in the nature versus nurture notion, then one may find themselves in a debate, if your core make-up and development are products primarily of innate, inborn or inherited traits or learned behaviors and environmental factors that determine one’s aptitude more so. Again, not a psychologist, but what I remember. For the record, I fall somewhere in between, I guess.
My point being, if my “smarts” were passed down from my dad, I certainly believe they were ushered in or “nurtured” by my mother. When I was in college, with her being so proud, whenever I brought company she used to bring out an old tape recorder with cassettes of her teaching me the alphabet, me learning various things and us just talking. She was so young, having me at 19, but here, this college aged, young woman at 22 teaching this two and three year old smart aleck kid so much, preparing me in advance for school. But most importantly, she was so focused on my development! I know now she wanted to afford me opportunities she and her family didn’t have.
Ironically, Mom’s heritage actually boasts a richer ancestral past and heritage, but that’s for another time perhaps. I just needed to take this time to mention how special my mother is to me, and I needed to tell her that I love her, because without her early support, and without her being on me at such an early age about the importance of school work, effort and practice in furthering and maximizing my education, I would not be as academically sound or invested as I am.
This past May, coincidentally, marked 20 years of dedication and my life that I have devoted to the American Folklife Institute, namely Richard Shaner, and he has reciprocated his loyalty to me, as well. But for 39 years, my Mom has been my biggest advocate, and it brings me at times great shame not to have given her more credit, with all the hundreds of published articles, communication skills expressed through numerous lectures, developed early on by her. I have never forgotten that small basement apartment we lived in with my little sister when my parents divorced and the struggles we endured.
Living off cereal, instant potatoes and milk, I undervalued how hard it must have been for you! My humble beginnings retained, I will always be a mama’s boy. I even stuck with my mom’s side Nazarene-Methodist church and not the typical PA Dutch Lutheran or Reformed denomination. I still owe you a
SUBMITTED PHOTO
birthday concert, and one of my favorite pictures on my phone is our Mother’s Day Concert to see one of your favorite bands, Hall & Oates. And I know you’re just a couple streets away, about a mile and a half away, but there is no reason why I shouldn’t or couldn’t visit you more often, because I’m realizing now how delicate and short life is! That is all on me, and I am sorry!
I cannot think of a life more enduring, as I’ve seen you bury numerous sisters and brothers, and you lost both parents before I was even born; yours should be a life celebrated for perseverance. And your steadfast devotion to your kids hasn’t gone unnoticed, as I know Angela has always remained by your side. I even remember as a child of nine or thereabouts, taking it personally when I’d ask which child was your favorite and you would say you had to love God more than us, more than me, more than Angela. But as a grown adult and parent of two, myself, I’m realizing your kids were your number one on earth and always have been. So, I thought it most appropriately, during this Thanksgiving holiday, I give thanks to you, and am very grateful for all of your (my mom’s) givings, sacrifice and love. I love you, Mom!
My point being, if my “smarts” were passed down from my dad, I certainly believe they were ushered in or “nurtured” by mymother.
Richard L.T. Orth is assistant director of the American Folklife Institute in Kutztown.