Antebellum Jefferson, Texas: Everyday Life in an East Texas Town

8. Women

123 Of the 722 free white persons in Jefferson in 1860, 266 (or 37 percent ) were female. Of the 266 females, 113 were married, 136 were children of families, and 16 were unattached. Of the 136 children of families , only 15 were aged 15 or greater, with the oldest being 20. This was because the families were young, and women tended to marry early. The vast majority of the females in Jefferson were either married or the young children (under 15) of married women. Of the 16 unattached, four were heads of families. These were older women with children, indicating that they were widowed or divorced. Of the remaining 12, all lived with other families and ranged in age from infant to 58. These were apparently mostly relations or children of friends located elsewhere, because only two are shown with occupations . Housewife was not an occupational category in the census. Only three women are shown with occupations. One of these was a married music teacher (Rachael Smither). The other two were the 21-year-old milliner Mary Tillus, who lived in the house of Frederick Stutz, and the 28-year-old teacher M. Marton, who lived in the house of Ephraim Terry. Mary Tillus and M. Marton were the only unattached working females in Jefferson in 1860, and M. Marton was probably the only one who worked away from home. The dominance of males (63 percent) in the population was common in emerging towns west of the Mississippi. There were 456 males 8. Women 124 Antebellum Jefferson, Texas in Jefferson in 1860. Of these, 119 were heads of families and 162 were children of families or, in a few cases, unattached youngsters. The distinctive difference between males and females was the large number of adult males who were not family members. There were 175 persons of this type in Jefferson, ranging in age almost entirely from the late teens to the early forties. All but 21 of these persons are shown with occupations, and it is fairly certain that almost all of them were employed . These unattached males lived with families or in hotels. The unattached males, heads of families, and their older male children constituted Jefferson’s employed population. The only occupations that appear to have been available to women in Jefferson at the time were extensions of domestic activity, including household management and the care of children: hotel operator, educator, making women’s apparel, restaurant operator, and postmistress . There are no examples of the latter two categories in Jefferson in antebellum times, and most teachers were male. Women did not clerk in stores. Although there were many bakers and confectioners in Jefferson, none were women. The industrial enterprises in Jefferson such as saw mills and meat packing plants were not suitable for female employment. The occupations in which women were most distinguished were education and hotel operation. In addition to regular teachers, Mrs. Steel assisted her husband in the Cass County Male and Female Academy , Howard Burnside and his wife Ardelia were in charge of the female department, and Susan Foster was principal of the Jefferson Female Academy. Sardinia Perry assisted her husband in the operation of the Soda Lake Hotel, and Elizabeth Jackson and Caroline Hunt operated the Jefferson Hotel. In addition to operating the hotel, Hunt became its owner. She is the only woman in Jefferson known to have owned and operated a business prior to the Civil War (Fig. 8-1). In August 1860, Joseph McDermott, who had been in the millinery business in Jefferson, established a partnership with Kate Sutton to enter into a new millinery business in rented property. Sutton was to be the primary partner, having put up $5,075 in comparison to McDermott’s $1,691.66; but there is nothing to indicate that this business was ever started. 125 Women There were probably fewer than 50 women in Jefferson in 1850. In 1860, there were only 143 females aged 15 or greater, and only three of these were employed. In contrast, there were 329 males aged 15 or greater, almost all of whom were employed. Adult and young women were scarce, and it is probable that only one (the teacher M. Marton) worked away from home in 1860 at the height of population development in Jefferson. As a group, women can be characterized as married or on the way to marriage, with no intrinsic reason (i.e., employment...