Women in Nodaway County
Rural Farmwives
Rural farm wives played an important role within their communities and families. These women kept their families clothed, fed, and supplied with what they needed, as well as participate on the farm.
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Often times, women were partners to their husbands on their farms and, as such, took on many different chores. Women, as well as the children, helped raise livestock and crops, build fences, and milk the cows. Because of their participation in the farm, the entire family could take pride in their efforts when they posed for the ubiquitous picture of the family posed in front of their home and farm, such as the one seen to the right in Nodaway County.
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Women were encouraged to take part in community activities. Many women, such as those in the photograph below, participated in organizations such as 4-H or exhibited family livestock in local livestock shows.
​Click the images below to see items from local newspapers:
March 23, 1918
February 26, 1913
March 15, 1912
March 23, 1918
A family from the Hughes Township in Nodaway County, Missouri.
Nodaway County Angus Steer entries at the St. Joseph Interstate Show.
Working on the Farm
Farm wives also made products such as candles or lye soap. The soap was made by creating lye, a cleaning agent, out of ashes and mixing it with animal fat. The mixture is stirred smooth and placed into molds for a few weeks until it is ready to be used. The end result is a safe, soft soap that can be used on all skin types.
Follow this link to find a recipe from the Smithsonian for lye soap.
Candles also were an important part of life in the past. Before electricity, they allowed us to see early in the morning and after it got dark at night. There are many different ways to make candles. A common mixture was to render fat from a cow into tallow and mix it with beeswax. Strings could be dipped into the fat and then placed in a mold to form candles.
Watch the video below to learn how to make your own beeswax candles.
Even after the invention of electricity, candles and other forms of light, such as oil lamps were still used in much of rural America. People have also continued to use candles in their homes for other reasons, as the excerpted article below explains.
Article about candles in the Hopkins Journal, July 26, 1906
Advertisement for lye in the Maryville Tribune, March 23, 1916
Explore the images in the slideshow below to see more advertisements for lye in newspapers across Nodaway County. As these ads reveal, lye was a dangerous product used not just to make soap but to kill disease. One article explains that dangers it posed when a local girl accidentally drank some lye.
​Click the images below to start the slideshow:
April 1, 1897
May 31, 1917
February 17, 1905
April 1, 1897