Women were important to the survival of the
frontier community. Women were responsible for raising children
and taking care of the home. Typical household chores, such as
doing laundry or preparing a meal, were often as labor
intensive as farming. Women helped with all the farm work from
planting crops in the spring and helping to harvest them in the
autumn to caring for the cows, chickens, pigs, horses and other
livestock. In the spring, after the wheat or corn had been
planted, a man might leave for weeks or months to go hunting or
travel downriver to trade in New Orleans, leaving his wife and
children to care for the family farm.
© Illinois State Museum 31-Dec-96