Dirty Laundry at the Cushing House

by Lilly Baumfeld, MOON summer intern

In June I was asked to look through the Cushing family’s financial records, with the guidelines of looking for anything relating to laundry in preparation for the upcoming Wash Day at the Cushing House event (September 22 & 23). Once I could get over how difficult late 1800s cursive is to read, I was able to come to several conclusions.

The only physical evidence of laundry being done at the house are five cleats, meant to hold wash lines that would have run between the house and an outbuilding called the privy shed. Also, the Cushings always had a live-in servant. Was all laundry done at the Cushing house or was this job sometimes outsourced? 

The household receipts from 1894-1912 shed light on this.  In 1894, the head of household was John Newmarch Cushing Jr., 74 years old. With him were his wife, Mary Brown Cushing, 81; his son, Lawrence B. Cushing, age 49; and daughter, Margaret W. Cushing, age 39. 

The Cushings were among the wealthiest families in Newburyport, so washing clothes is something that others would have done for them. In fact, Margaret Cushing very likely never did any of her own laundry during her entire life. If not done by a live-in servant, they could send laundry to women who took in wash or to a commercial laundry. 

Taking in wash was a traditional way that women of any background could earn money. The 1900 U.S. Census lists dozens of women working as “laundress” or “wash woman” in Newburyport. They come largely from Ireland but also from Canada, Sweden, and England, as well as from the United States, including some Black women from the South.

In addition to individuals doing laundry, there were commercial laundries in Newburyport. The first record we have of a laundry business being listed in the directory is in 1879.

In 1892, more businesses and Chinese laundries appear for the first time.  

In 1901, there's an increase in the number of business listings.

There’s not much change in listings until 1915, when the directory begins to distinguish between the Chinese laundries and the other businesses; it creates a separate subtitle to list them under, as well as the smaller font.

What could the household accounts tell us about who did the Cushings’ laundry? First, the records had to be deciphered. (This is where the late 1800s cursive comes in.) In 1894, the father, John Newmarch Cushing Jr., kept the records. The accounts are handwritten in cursive on scraps of paper; they appear almost like a combination of a grocery list and to-do list. They contain all the items and services purchased for the house for a given month.  Listed are “cake,” “eggs,” and “peas,” but also listings such as the name “Mrs. Buckley,” or “teapot,” and “laundry.” 

From 1899-1903, the words “act with father” appear written on the top of many of the records, which are still in the same disorganized style as the previous years. This is interpreted to mean “account with father.” It appears that he is submitting his expenses to his children, perhaps due to his aging status. Some of these show that Margaret Cushing (initials MWC) is the one who is handling payments.

Papers begin to have "act with father" at the top. Receipt showing that Margaret Cushing was involved in running the house. Last line reads "pd M.W.C."

A 1903 bill for laundry from the Newburyport Steam Laundry indicates that sometimes commercial laundries were used.

 

The patriarch dies in 1904 and there are no records for that year. The next year with records is 1907 and these are significantly neater and more organized. With the initials of LBC, it appears that Lawrence Cushing has taken over the accounting. 

These records also mentioned several people by name; were any of them responsible for the task of Laundry in the Cushing household?

Mrs. Buckley and Mrs. Kelleher

Two women are specifically named in the Cushing household accounts as doing laundry. Mrs. Buckley shows up in the records form 1894 until 1901, and Mrs. Kelleher from 1895 to 1902.

Mrs. Buckley likely refers to Johanna Sullivan Buckley (1858-1943), an Irish immigrant from County Cork, who arrived in 1878. She married Jeremiah Buckley from County Kerry, Ireland in 1884. In the 1900 census she is listed as living in Newburyport as a “wash woman” and in the 1920 census as a “laundress.” They lived at 86 Merrimac Street.

Mrs. Kelleher is probably Lizzie Donahue Kelleher, born 1866 in County Cork, Ireland. She arrived in this country sometime before marrying John Kelleher in 1885. Her husband died in 1890, leaving her with three children, ages 3, 1, and 5 months. The 1894, 1901, 1902 Newburyport directories list her as Elizabeth Kelleher, widow of John, living on 3 Summer Street. In 1900, at the time she was doing the Cushings' laundry, she had two surviving children and her father was living with her. 

Mr. Pettingell

Starting in 1894, Newburyport-born Edward L. Pettingell (1851-1938) is listed as being paid for work in the Cushing garden, but by 1903 his work at the Cushing house had expanded beyond the garden to handyman jobs. He was responsible for things such as “labor in house,” and “mending coffee pot,” and “laundry.” 

A 1912 bill submitted by E. L. Pettingell with three separate charges for laundry.

Was he doing the laundry? To answer this, I turned to the reminiscences of Dudley S. Currier (1882-1973), who was a handyman that lived nearby on Coffins Court and did work for Margaret Cushing. He wrote his memories of this time in the early 1970s.  

Rather than doing the laundry himself, Pettingell acted as middleman, delivering it locally to a wash woman, paying her, and submitting for reimbursement.  Who this person was remains a mystery for now.

My research over the summer culminated in several conclusions: the Cushings both outsourced their laundry and had it done at their residence; they used both commercial services and independent wash women when outsourcing their laundry, as well as having a middleman to deliver it for them; in a broader sense, the Cushings reflected the Newburyport area’s options for laundry as seen through the directories listing commercial laundries as well as the abundance of wash women and laundresses appearing on the censuses of the time.

And my last, but certainly not least, conclusion on this project is that I have spent more time on the laundry of a family from the late 1800s than I have on my own this summer!

If you'd like to help bring the Cushing Laundry yard to life, please stop by on Friday or Saturday , September 22 & 23, from 9-11 am for our "Wash Day at the Cushing House" event. Free to all.

Upcoming MOON Events

Free Black Sailors in the Antebellum South: An Epidemic of Moral Contagion

Thursday, September 21, 7:00 pm

Exactly 200 years ago, a free Black Jamaican named Henry Elkison was arrested when the vessel on which he worked arrived in Charleston, South Carolina. Law enforcement officials boarded the ship, interrogated the captain, and then escorted Elkison to the city jail. His crime? He violated the state’s new quarantine law. But Elkison was not suffering from any sickness, contagious or otherwise. Instead, the quarantine law targeted him for his moral contagion.

South Carolina lawmakers were convinced that free Black men like Henry Elkison were infected with a contagion of liberty that might infect local enslaved people and initiate an epidemic of slave unrest. Elkison was not alone. Some 20,000 free Black maritime workers faced similar treatment at the hands of officials in Southern port cities. Dr. Schoeppner’s talk explores these so-called quarantines and the Black sailors who suffered under them. This event is free for museum members and $10 for non-members. 

Wash Day at the Cushing House

Friday and Saturday, September 22 and 23, 9:00 am - 11:00

Come by and be ready to roll up your sleeves and get wet. Visit the wash yard of the 1808 Cushing House in Newburyport and try your hand at cleaning clothes the old-fashioned way, with a washboard and wash tub. Learn where the house’s water would have come from, see where clothes were dried in the rain, and hear about the people who would have done this work for the Cushing family in the late 1800s. All ages welcome. Event will take place rain or shine. 98 High Street, Newburyport. Free to all. Registration not required but appreciated! Part of the 2023 Trails & Sails event.

History and Cultures of the Great Marsh

Monday, October 23, 2023, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm

The Governor's Academy

Join us for the History & Cultures of the Great Marsh Conference on Monday, October 23, 2023 at The Governor's Academy. This is an in-person event with limited capacity - get your tickets soon! Museum of Old Newbury members and members of Essex County Greenbelt: $30, General Admission, $45. Add-on field trips an additional $10-15.

Topics include:

"The Great Marsh, Newbury, and the Indigenous Worlds of the Merrimack River Valley System and Beyond."

"Contention in the Commons: The Open Field Land System in 17th Century Newbury"

"Slavery and Memory in the Great Marsh"

"Splendour in the Grass: Art Inspired by the Great Marsh"

"Agriculture, Fishing, Hunting, & Conservation in the Great Marsh"

Optional field trips include:

1. Bird watching with Laura Vehring in the Parker River marsh surrounding The Governor’s Academy
2. Guided tour of Plum Island’s cranberry bogs
3. Guided tour of the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm & its salt marsh hay production, past & present.



Attendees will also be invited to tour the Academy's brand-new Alfond Coastal Research Center (completed just this summer), a state-of-the-art marine study facility overlooking the south bank of the Parker River near Thurlow's Bridge.

Community Events

This Sunday at Old South Church

Woman on the MOON

...a blog by Bethany Groff Dorau, Executive Director

"Demoralized, Intemperate, and Vicious": Saving Star Island Souls



Well, friends, another two weeks just flew by. Life races along at break-neck speed these late-summer days. Two weeks ago, before the kids went back to school, before the leaves on the maple tree on the lane began to hint at the red and gold to come, I was invited to speak at the New England Heritage Conference on Star Island on the Isles of Shoals. I could only get away from work, farm, and family responsibilities for one night, but I squeezed every drop from the experience, going out on the early morning boat on Monday and returning on the last boat Tuesday. I am a bit obsessed with the Isles of Shoals, I admit, though I’m not entirely sure when this passionate attachment began. Could it be the worn copy of Among the Isles of Shoals by Celia Thaxter on my grandmother’s bookshelf? A romantic longing for solitude and the sea? Whatever it is, there is no cure. I am smitten.

And, of course (and why would I be surprised), Newbury(port) is everywhere on the Isles of Shoals. First, I ran into Bob Cook, a garrulous architect who used to give fabulous tours with me at the Coffin House, and his sister, Amy, who convinced me to jump in the ocean shortly after sunrise the next morning. And then, there was Laurie, my friend for many Newburyport years and now helping to raise the Star Island Corporation to new fundraising heights. It was Laurie that said it first. “Newburyport follows me around,” she said, laughing. “Go read that monument over there.” 

A Newburyport reunion – it was my hometown friend Laurie who sent me off to look at the Tucke monument. 

The Tucke Memorial is the largest gravestone in New Hampshire at 46.5 feet. 

Across the wild roses and low bush blueberries, rose an obelisk, black against the grey-blue sky. “Go look,” she said, and floated away. Everyone seems lighter on the island. I floated up the boulder-strewn path, past the stone chapel with its pump organ, through the turnstile, exclaiming in delight at every little bit of it. And there, on top of the island, stood what I later learned is the largest gravestone in New Hampshire, atop the mortal remains of Reverend John Tucke, who became the minister to Gosport, the name of the town on Star Island, in 1732. One side of the obelisk was a wall of words.

Underneath

are the Remains of the

REV. JOHN TUCKE, A. M.

He graduated at Harvard

College A. D. 1723, was ordained

here July 26, 1732,

and died late in August, 1773,

Aet. 71.

---

He was affable and polite in his

Manner, amiable in his disposition,

of great Piety and Integrity,

given to hospitality,

Diligent and faithful in his

pastoral office, well learned

in History and Geography as

well as general science, and a

careful Physician both to the

Bodies and the Souls

of his People.

---

Erected 1800 in memory of the Just.

---

The inscription above is taken from

the sandstone slab placed over the

grave of the Rev. John Tucke

by Dudley A. Tyng of Newburyport, Mass. (emphasis my own)

---

In 1914 a kinsman,

EDWARD TUCK,

renewed in permanent form

this memorial.

“Dudley Tyng of Newburyport, Mass,” on the Tucke memorial. 

And so, like so many of you, I had myself a bit of a chin-scratch. What in the blue blazes was Newburyport’s customs officer Dudley Tyng doing erecting monuments to ministers on obscure islands in the middle of the sea in 1800? Now, Dudley Tyng is a story all by himself. Born Dudley Atkins, he changed his name to Tyng (which was once spelled THING) in order to qualify for a whopping great inheritance from his third cousin. Apparently, as Newburyport customs agent, he had dealings with, and heard stories about, Star Island’s “demoralized, intemperate, and vicious” fishermen who were “living in open violation of the laws of God and man”. These were the people who had repopulated the island after it was evacuated at the start of the American Revolution, not the formerly pious congregation of Rev. Tucke.

Dudley Atkins Tyng, painted by Gilbert Stuart, c. 1810

And so, Tyng first told these Shoalers to lay off the booze and “curb their evil passions and appetites”, and then he called his other wealthy friends and put together a spiritual first aid team to put things to right on the lawless neighbors to the north.

Tyng appealed to the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among Indians and Others in North America, who dispatched a missionary to the island in April, 1799, and Tyng went on a fundraising tour around New England with his equally fervent buddy Rev. Jedidiah Morse, another Newbury descendant, to raise money for a new church. Tyng arrived on the island on October 20, 1800 with materials and 14 carpenters and the church was built, and some island houses repaired, in less than 10 days.

Perhaps most importantly for our purposes, he tripped over the body of the community’s long-time minister, John Tucke, dead since 1773. Okay, he tripped over Tucke’s disintegrating grave marker, but the effect was the same. Tyng, never one to pass up the opportunity to make a moral message stick, erected the sandstone tablet mentioned in the current marker to remind the rag-tag residents that Star Island had once been a Christian community.    

Yours truly relaxing in front of the church that Tyng built in 10 days in 1800.

Star Island had long been a part of Rye, New Hampshire, but in 1715, it was established as the town of Gosport, and since a town had to have a minister at the time, lucky John Tucke got the job – to be paid in fish. Now, before you start feeling bad for Tucke, the fish paychecks were valuable and he did quite well for himself, being considered at one time to be the highest paid minster in New Hampshire (some say New England). Gosport was a busy, if tiny, town, and during his long four decades on the island, he managed to baptize some 700 babies. He died, conveniently, just before the American Revolution, and the evacuation of the Isles of Shoals, from which the town of Gosport never quite regained its spiritual footing, at least not enough to satisfy old Dudley Atkins Tyng. The 19^th century in the Isles is a catalogue of murder, stand-offs, isolation, and, well, okay, thanks to Celia Thaxter, gardening, poetry, and art.

I must say that the lawlessness on Star Island these days seems to be kept to a minimum, though there were boxes of wine on the porch in the late afternoon. I did wonder as I sat on the sprawling porch of the Oceanic Hotel, what Dudley Tyng would think of the laughing day-trippers pouring out of the ferry Thomas Leighton. Would he meet them on the pier with his Bible? Or would he sit with me in a rocking chair and consider all the laughing, gentle people around us, the affirmations written on the blackboard in the lobby, the volunteers lovingly re-caning the dining room chairs, and think that Star Island turned out to be a sacred place, after all.    

Fresh Corn Chowder

Nothing says late summer like corn on the cob, and nobody enjoys fresh corn more than Chief, a retired plow horse who lives with us at the Poore Farm.

I pick up a dozen ears of corn at a time, and Chief gets four. The other eight go into this version of corn chowder that uses cobs in the broth to take advantage of every last bit of flavor.  - Bethany Groff Dorau

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped (optional)

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 pound (about 3) boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice

8 ears of sweet corn

1 bay leaf

1 (32-ounce) can vegetable or chicken stock

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon curry

1 cup milk

1 cup half-and-half

Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Drop corn into boiling water. Turn off heat. Let sit for 5 minutes. Remove corn from water, strip kernels, and reserve 4 cobs for the broth. In a large saucepan, melt butter over moderately low heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.

Stir in potatoes, 2 cups corn, bay leaf, broth, and salt. Bring to a boil. Add corn cobs. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. In a blender or food processor, puree remaining 2 cups corn with milk and half and half.

Remove cobs, allowing liquid to drain back into the pot. Stir puree into soup along with black pepper. Simmer until soup thickens slightly, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Serve with oyster crackers. 

Click the image to do the puzzle

American Impressionist Childe Hassam (1859-1935) was a frequent visitor to Celia Thaxter's home on Appledore Island. Poppies, Isle of Shoals, 1891. Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.