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I did get a few family stories about life back then.
My dad was born in 1890 and his oldest sibling was born in 1869.
Yes, rohirette does have a legitimate concern.
That aunt of mine(Mary ) born in 1869 ( lived with us for 5 years in early 1950's) was a half sister of my dad.
My grandfather and his wife immigrated to Minnesota in 1868 along with 4 other young couples who were all related. My grandfather's wife died shortly after giving birth to my aunt in 1869.
My grandfather then asked the other young couples to care for the baby and he returned to Nova Scotia . He returned a few months later with a new wife and they had 6 boys and 3 girls from that marriage. At least baby Mary now had a mother to help raise her.
Yes, health issues ( especially childbirth) were risky at times
people still think that the civil war was about slavery, and that is what is taught in schools these days. wish they would get taught right for once about the civil war and the reasons it started.
I found these two videos on a home with combination gas and electric fixtures. The original owners of the home must have been survivalist of the day (1915) who didn't completely trust electric power. The gas system uses low pressure acetylene gas which would have been generated in the home. If we have lime and charcoal we can make calcium carbide. Then we just add water and we have acetylene. That's independence. The house interior itself is neat.
This is a practical system for any home. Wouldn't you rather read a book by gaslight than watch the latest entertainment from one of the indoctrination outfits?
To the OP it sounds like you want to recreate what we saw in that movie "The Village". Though that was a different time period it was about a group that lived in the past and most of them had no idea it wasn't.
I like your idea, back in 1880 America it seemed that anything was possible. If you were strong, brave, lucky and smart you could build an empire just don't get sick or injured along the way.
1880 did seem like a simpler easier time. I wonder how many out of the population could cut it if we were suddenly transported back to then?
When I remodeled my "parlor" awhile back, I nearly did not wire it at all. I ended up putting one outlet (which is hidden) "just in case." But the idea was to make it as close to pre-1910 (or so) as I could in style, furnishings, the lamps, flooring, paint color, window and door trim, etc. I have an Aladdin and two earlier flat-wick style lamps (one style dates way back to the mid nineteenth century) in that room.
I try to keep modern "stuff" out of that room completely. It's my time machine room. Part of my income comes from my writing, so I do take my tiny writing laptop in there when I'm working on that, but it is hidden away otherwise.
With modern building materials, it's hard to get it completely authentic. But I did use real rather ornately carved wood, though, on the window and door trim, baseboards, and big crown mouldings, in that "grand" Victorian style. As most folks know who have read my past posts, I'm into very small homes. But I definitely have a weakness for the late nineteenth century Victorian manse in Queen Anne, Second Empire (which was actually a bit earlier), and several other styles. Luckily, there are plenty of them around here to look at and admire--most are very well kept up. In fact I have a weakness for the styles and fashions in general from about 1870 right up through the 1920's.
As for other aspects of the way I do things, it's a mix of old and new. I would like it to be more "old ways," but that's not always completely practical. Maybe in the future. I most often tend to lean toward simplicity in my life, which often dovetails with living the lifestyle of an earlier time, since, although life was not easier, it was definitely simpler in most ways. That simplicity is most often far more important to me than is ease and automation.
I can't go back to before the introduction of sulfa drugs, safe childbirth and anesthesia. I'm a woman of childbearing age, and maternal mortality was still high then. Of course, so was infant mortality... measles, cholera, diptheria took a lot of babies and toddlers.
I'd happily spend 12+ hours a day working with my hands, putting up food, living in a Biblical marriage to a hardworking, Godfearing, liberty loving man... but I just can't face death each time I get pregnant.
That was my first thought as well.
I also like being able to vote, own property and determine my own course as well as that of my children...
Additionally, there were huge swaths of Americans denied the most basic of rights; Indians, blacks, Jews, gays, etc, etc. The most heinous of child abuse was tolerated, people were allowed to live and die in abject poverty, there was no such thing as workplace safety (think Triangle factory or The Jungle), etc, etc.
I have such a hard time with this whole notion of romanticizing some aspect of history while blatantly ignoring the underbelly. I prefer to just say, "I like to limit my use of technology."
With modern building materials, it's hard to get it completely authentic. But I did use real rather ornately carved wood, though, on the window and door trim, baseboards, and big crown mouldings, in that "grand" Victorian style. As most folks know who have read my past posts, I'm into very small homes. But I definitely have a weakness for the late nineteenth century Victorian manse in Queen Anne, Second Empire (which was actually a bit earlier), and several other styles. Luckily, there are plenty of them around here to look at and admire--most are very well kept up. In fact I have a weakness for the styles and fashions in general from about 1870 right up through the 1920's.
As for other aspects of the way I do things, it's a mix of old and new. I would like it to be more "old ways," but that's not always completely practical. Maybe in the future. I most often tend to lean toward simplicity in my life, which often dovetails with living the lifestyle of an earlier time, since, although life was not easier, it was definitely simpler in most ways. That simplicity is most often far more important to me than is ease and automation.
A typical feature of British estates was a tiny building situated in the garden. This often served as a retreat for the master or mistress. But the tiny house has been a feature of humbler properties as well. Fanatic gun and cartridge collector Frank Wheeler had a small cottage at the back of his property in Colby, Kansas. I met a man in Colorado Springs who had never married; he lived with his sister and her husband as well as another brother who never married. Although he slept and took his meals in the house he drove to a cabin that he and his brother had built about twenty miles west. The cabin had three rooms, kitchen, parlor, and bedroom. There were two wood stoves, a cook stove in the kitchen and a fancy little pot-bellied stove in the parlor. There was no running water or electricity; they hauled their water and ice. There was an ice box. They did have a Victrola. They had made some of the furniture themselves; there was bark on the chair frames. There was a hidden compartment under the floor of the kitchen containing canned goods, a bottle of rum, some ammunition, and two handguns. I believe there were also some SAW matches. There was a two-hole outhouse about a hundred yards away.
When he as twenty-five years old he bought his first new car, a 1928 Chevy rumble seat coupe. Ten years later both he and his brother bought 1938 Chevy coupes. When they died in the late sixties they still owned the cars; they had no newer cars. My parents, my late wife, and I wanted to buy the cabin and its contents as well as the cars, but the heirs wouldn't sell.
But then a lot of farmers were basic share croppers .Its kind of like Britain before WWI. Most lived a miserable life and others lived high on the hog for then.
That was my first thought as well.
I also like being able to vote, own property and determine my own course as well as that of my children...
Additionally, there were huge swaths of Americans denied the most basic of rights; Indians, blacks, Jews, gays, etc, etc. The most heinous of child abuse was tolerated, people were allowed to live and die in abject poverty, there was no such thing as workplace safety (think Triangle factory or The Jungle), etc, etc.
I have such a hard time with this whole notion of romanticizing some aspect of history while blatantly ignoring the underbelly. I prefer to just say, "I like to limit my use of technology."
I was wondering if anyone was going to point out the issues associated with that time period!!!! In 1880, I would have had few rights, little education and little hope of ever achieving whatever the American Dream was of the time period.
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Gas lighting
