A woman’s life as a homesteader in the 1800s was not one of luxury and glamour. These were hard working women, struggling to keep their families clothed and fed, their animals alive and productive, and their homesteads successful. As they worked day in and day out, one thing continued to motivate them: survival.
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As I live my life on our own modern day homestead, I can’t help but wonder what my life is like compared to those who experienced life as a homesteader in the 1800s. What did life as a homesteader look like for them?
I started reading Calling This Place Home: Women on the Wisconsin Frontier 1850-1925 by Joan M. Jensen to help answer some of these questions. This book is descriptive and revealing, sharing firsthand stories of early Wisconsin homesteaders and their lives.
Life as a homesteader in the 1800s meant living in constant pursuit of survival. These homesteading families needed to work hard in order to overcome the challenges, live off the land, and survive each and every day. Many homesteading families practiced subsistence farming, either voluntarily or involuntarily, to survive. Subsistence farming means that the food, crops, and animals on the homestead were used to sustain the family with very little left over for trade or sale. Everyone and everything on the homestead played a critical role in the homestead’s success and survival.
For those living firsthand on a subsistence farm, there was no romanticism about daily life. Life as a homesteader was intense, laborious, and full of highs and lows.
How did homesteaders survive?
As mentioned before, many of the homesteaders of the 1800s survived through subsistence farming. Subsistence farming is exactly as the name describes: providing subsistence, or support for oneself at a minimum level. Many homesteaders had very little beyond the clothes on their back and the house that they lived in. Some homesteaders endured their first winters without even a barn for their animals, subjecting them to the Wisconsin elements with no protection.
Struggling to Survive
Time and time again throughout the book, Jensen tells the stories of homesteaders who struggled to survive. Life a homesteader on a subsistence farm meant long hours of work and sacrifice for everyone in the family. Purchasing land, cows, horses, or pigs all cost money, and it was difficult to work off the farm enough to earn it.
A young family, Anna and Johann Jantsch left Bohemia for Wisconsin in 1881. For $250, they were able to purchase a 40 acre land parcel with a small log cabin. Johann would head to the woods and log to bring in income for the family in the winter, and he’d take up carpentry in the summer. After 7 years of clearing the land, planting crops, and just barely surviving, the family was able to afford to build a larger log house, send money for Johann’s 67 year old mother to come to Wisconsin, and buy cow. Still, after 7 years, they did not have a horse, so they walked everywhere, including the 4 miles to church when the weather was good (pg. 16).
The Schoppers
Another family, the Schoppers, who settled near Medford, Wisconsin, had a similar story. Their log cabin served as their home and farm building. After making a down payment made on 40 acres (of solid rock, the family said), Karl Schopper did the best he could to bring in income for his wife and five children. With a mortgage to pay, there was very little left over to buy more. With what he had, he probably bought a horse, one cow, some tools, and supplies for the winter. Later on, the family used some of their precious savings to bring over his wife Matilda’s father from Europe. But his presence, though exciting and welcome, bittersweetly increased the cost of living for this young family. When Matilda’s father later died, the family couldn’t even afford to pay for a headstone at the local cemetery (pg. 98).
Looking at the lives of these families, it is obvious that homesteaders needed to be resilient to survive. With very little, life as a homesteader was challenging and difficult.
A Look Into Expenses
On page 16 of the book, Jensen shares a story about a young family from Bohemia, 10 years into their life on a homestead near Dorchester, Wisconsin in 1888. Even after 10 years of farming, the family still was not able to make it past the state of subsistence. This family kept a record of the purchases that they made in the months of January-March of 1888 for their family: 2 adults and 5 children.
In three months, the family needed to go to the store 16 times. They spent a total of $18.23; half of the money being used for rye, white flour, and meal. The other half of the money was spent on animal feed, sugar, coffee, syrup, and lard. They also allowed themselves a treat once and a while, with very few purchases of crackers, cinnamon, prunes, apples, salt, and vinegar also occurring on the record.
This family, like many others, lived off of very little. They probably would have had their vegetable gardens preserved and stored at this point, but beyond that, the food purchase was all that they had.
What did women do on the homestead?
A woman’s life as a homesteader came with a lot of responsibility, needed a lot strength, and required perseverance. While their husbands worked away from the homestead, many women held the main responsibility of running the subsistence farm. Often, these subsistence farms would include a large garden, a cow, a pig, and a few chickens. This was a year round job of raising a garden and animals, with each season having specific tasks to be done.
In the early spring, the growing season started with many women beginning seedlings indoors until the danger of the first frost had passed. Seeds were kept from previous crops, each carefully selected based on the performance and cold hardiness of the parent plant. Maple trees were tapped to produce maple sugar in the spring as well. Vegetable gardens would be planted in late May and tended to until September or October when the first frost arrived. As crops ripened, the women would carefully preserve the bounty from the garden and from what was foraged. Berries would be gathered and dried, rye and wheat would be thrashed and then ground, root vegetables were stored in pits or root cellars. Meat would be harvested in December, and the women would then process and store that as well (pg. 101).
Daily Life as Homesteading Woman
With the responsibility of providing, growing, and raising enough food for the family, the life as a homesteading woman was very busy. Women were often out working in the fields right alongside the men, clearing land, picking stone, planting crops, hoeing, raking, cutting hay, and shocking rye. One homesteading woman named Anna, who bore 10 children, said that she always wore an apron out into the field to wrap the baby up in in case she gave birth (pg. 15). These women were tough and hard-working. They had to be in order to survive.
When she wasn’t working in the field or garden, a woman was still working. With older children helping to mother the younger children, homesteading women worked to prepare food and clothing for the family. Some of their work might include milking the cow, then processing, separating and storing cream, making clabbored milk and cottage cheese, and churning butter. They would cook meals for their families, and for neighbors too when they came over to help with some of the tasks of the farm. A woman held the responsibility of making clothes on a treadle sewing machine for the family as well. In the evenings, by the light of a lamp, you might find her knitting socks and mittens with bits of wool taken from fences (pg. 97).
Some women may have even worked outside the home, working seasonal jobs like harvesting cranberries or making maple sugar. Others might put their skills to use, selling items that they had sewn or knitted.
Life of Homesteaders Then vs. Now
In some ways, life of homesteaders then is the same as life of homesteaders now. Traditions remain, and many modern-day homesteaders continue with the same tasks of milking cows, raising meat, making maple sugar, and growing and preserving a garden.
Yet, there are some major differences in the way most modern day homesteaders live and the way homesteaders of the past lived. One of the greatest differences between the lives of modern day homesteaders and the life of historical homesteaders is that the homesteaders of today have a choice. It is their choice to milk a cow, to raise a garden to feed their families, and to live simply. For historical homesteaders, there wasn’t a choice. Life as a homesteader historically meant that you worked hard, did the chores, or you didn’t survive. If a crop fails for a modern day homesteader, they might just go to the store to buy it instead of missing out. If a crop failed for a historical homesteader, the results could have been catastrophic and families could have potentially starved. For modern day homesteaders, a life of self-sufficiency is the goal, but it’s a choice to live that way. Historical homesteaders had no choice. These people gave everything they had to their farm and homesteading life, only to live with little to nothing extra.
A different world
And of course, there are more obvious ways in which modern day homesteaders differ from those of the past. The world we live in today is not the same world that the homesteaders of the past lived in. In today’s world, there are lots of tools to make the work easier. Advancements in technology have lessened the intensity of physical labor, and as my husband’s grandfather said, “It’s easier farming now than it was then.” Today, everyone is connected through social media, internet, and cell phones. In contrast, when many historical women left their homes and families, it very well may have been the last time that they ever saw them.
Medical assistance is available for women in today’s world, especially during childbirth. Historically, women would help each other give birth or even birth the children on their own.
Most of today’s modern homesteaders don’t sew their own clothes, nor do they thrash wheat and rye. They rely on others to complete those jobs for them, many lacking the skillset to even know how to begin doing that on their own.
Inspiration
For many modern day homesteaders reading this, I hope that this can serve as an inspiration to you. As you work to build a sustainable farm of your own, remember the life of these early homesteaders, who were able to survive on hard work and very little of anything else. May they inspire you on your journey and affirm your work and efforts.
I highly encourage you to read Calling This Place Home: Women on the Wisconsin Frontier 1850-1925 by Joan M. Jensen. I was able to pick up my copy from the library. There are so many more stories and details that I didn’t share here. The lives and histories of these women can only live on if we learn them and share them. Don’t let the lives of these homesteaders end with you.
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