Caldwell County MO Archives History .....WOMAN'S WORK IN EARLY DAYS IN FAIRVIEW TOWNSHIP 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 1:24 pm

WOMAN'S WORK IN EARLY DAYS IN FAIRVIEW TOWNSHIP
	Narrator:  Mrs. Sonora Harrell, 86

     Mrs. Harrell was the daughter of Capt. Noblett of Fairview twp.  Her 
father put her to weaving when she was 13.  Her mother was dead and she wove 
everything for the family.  She first went to a neighbors and asked her to 
teach her, but the woman refused lest she herself lose trade, but offered to 
weave her goods at 15? cents a yard, the regular neighborhood price.  Mrs. 
Harrell then took her material home and plodded along alone till at last she 
became a fine cloth weaver, making cloth that sold at $2 and $1.25 a yard.  
She could make three yards of any kind of cloth a day.  The store dyes first 
came from Camden, Ray co. then later from Kingston or Hamilton.  There was 
madder for red, indigo for blue, log wood for black, natural walnut for golden 
brown.  They always tried to have a nice rag carpet for the front room, but 
some families had no carpets at all.  The women folks were just too lazy to 
sew the rags and weave the carpets.
     Another type of work in the Noblett house for the women was the outdoor 
work.  Capt. Noblett had a tobacco field and Sonora when a girl, used to set 
out the tobacco plants, of course by hand.  It took 4900 plants to the acre.  
She might even work in the corn fields.  The bottom land was rich and new and 
yielded 65 to 85 bushels per acre, no fertilizers.  This outdoor work was done 
in addition to the house work, and the drying of fruits and vegetables, the 
sewing and washing.
     Interview  1934.


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