Caldwell County MO Archives History .....PIONEER DRESS IN THE OZARKS OF MILLER CO 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 1:02 pm

PIONEER DRESS IN THE OZARKS OF MILLER CO. MO
	Narrator:  Wm. Irvin, 80, of Iberia, Mo.

     The narrator made it plain that by pioneer he meant anything between 1865 
and 1880, for the Ozarks were late in settling.
     The women wove and made practically all the family clothes till at least 
1875.  Men wore jeans clothing.  Few wore neck tie for why wear a tie when a 
heavy beard hid it?  Some men wore the only tie in their life on their wedding 
day and hated it.  They wore knitted galluses to hold up their pants and the 
cute saying was, "The longer I wear them, the longer they get."
     Women wore linsey dresses at home, which they made from first to last.  
The waist was tight, with a close row of buttons up the front and fine 
buttonholes.  Lace was at the neck and hands, with a very long very full 
skirt.  They got out pictures to show it.  The tin types showed many angel 
sleeves, and many big cameo pins at the neck.
     Women parted their hair in the middle, coiled it low on the neck.  Hair 
oil was in good form for both sexes.  Wives cut their husbands hair, sometimes 
on a bowl, or maybe the husband would go on a Sunday morning to a neighbor who 
did it for nothing.  Women used no powder, or at most, it was flour or 
cornstarch.  Rouge was avoided as a sign of bad character.
     Children went barefoot as much as possible.  A pair of shoes a year 
(possibly homemade) was the limit.  Shoe polish was made of stove soot and 
water.  Stockings were home made, as also straw hats, braided at home from 
straw.


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