Washing and Ironing Clothes

Washday was a huge chore for the farm wife. Buckets of water were hauled from the pump in the yard to
fill a big copper tub, which was heated on the cook stove. The clothes were scrubbed on a washboard in
a tub or put in a washing machine. The hand-crank on a washing machine moved a paddle back and forth
to agitate the clothes. The clothes were put through the hand-cranked wringer to remove the water, then
rinsed and put through the wringer again. Clothes were dried on the clothesline outside – an easy task in
sunny dry weather but in winter the clothes froze and had to be thawed in the house. Some lucky
housewives had a gasoline motor to do the agitating, but the rest still had to be done by hand.

Ironing was another major chore. Irons were heated on top of the stove and would stay hot for only a few
minutes, so there were always several irons heating while one was being used. Soot from the stove could
stick to the iron and stain the clothing, making it necessary to wash the item again.

“(In the winter) I’d hang the clothes outside and if the weather looked fairly still I’d leave them outside and
then they’d dry. They’d freeze dry. They were frozen already and I said to Arnie, ‘Do you think the wind is
gonna get strong tonight?’ ‘Oh it doesn’t look like it.’ Then about 2 o’clock I was getting up, dressing and
going out and getting the underwear off the line because I was afraid they’d break with the wind being so
strong.”

Marion Heller Spindler

“We didn’t have hot running water, so the water would always be brought in from outside and put into a
boiler (on the stove). When we’d get it hot enough we’d pour it into those tubs. Then we would scrub the
clothes on the scrubbing board to get them clean. To dry them out we’d put then through this wringer.
Then you had two rinse waters, so you had to wring the clothes twice. Then you hung the clothes on
clotheslines that were outside.

For ironing we had to build a very, very hot fire in the stoves because there was no electricity.  We had
irons and handles to iron the clothes with.  My brothers had a store so they always had white shirts that
were very, very difficult to iron.”

Monica Steckbauer
“Everything you wore, except your underwear was ironed. An iron that you heated on the stove. That took
something to learn how to iron a white shirt with a starched collar with an iron that you heat on the stove
because it was either too hot or not hot enough and the starch would stick on the iron.”

Delores Goetsch Rusch

“We had the wash machine and the scrubbing board out under the apple tree because us kids had to turn
the ringer. I remember when my brother was born then Dad got her a gasoline washing machine that you
had to step on to get it started. It was in the house. It had a cemented basement and the washing
machine could be there. Of course they had to run the water (to it). I remember this washing machine
because it had a motor and they had to (vent) the fumes outside. I remember my mom would get so
angry at that thing because it wouldn’t start. Finally she’d run to the barn and get my dad to get it going.
Once you got it going it was fine. We had to bring all the water in (in buckets) and then we had to heat it
on the wood stove. We would carry the hot water down into the basement.

Ironing with sad irons: We had like 3 sizes, a larger one that weighed a pound at least. Then there was
one that was easier to go around the collars and sleeves. But they were pretty heavy and we had one
handle. You would release the handle and you would get another hot one. (It would stay hot) at least ten
minutes at the most.”
Edith Van Vuren Merriam
“Before electricity all the clothes were hanging outside. In the wintertime, I know she would take the
clothes and put them in the attic. So they dried in the attic but I can remember at times it would get real
cold and it would be warm with the heat going up, well sometimes you would go up and grab the clothes
and they were frozen because they didn’t get a chance to dry yet. But in the summer, of course, they
were outside.”

Ralph Zagrzebski