The Army Laundress
Kate Avalos
One official position of the army that women could hold was the laundress. Since they were an official part of the military they were subject to military law and could be court-martialed. The idea first emerged during the American Revolution by the British and in 1802, Congress made the position official. Laundresses were listed on army organizational charts until the practice ended in 1883.
The army provided rations, fuel, medical services, and transportation to move with troops until 1876, when that practice ended. Laundresses were paid $1 per month and received their payments from the paymaster, who had collected payment from soldiers.
Each laundress was responsible for about 20 men and along with doing the washing they often tended to the mending of clothes. Other jobs they performed were being nursemaids and midwives to the officer’s wives and working as cooks or servants. To make a little extra money some laundresses would bake pies or bread to sell.
These women were usually married to an enlisted man and had to be approved by the post commander. One known laundress at Camp Lowell was Jane Thorpy, who was married to an enlisted soldier. In most forts, including Fort Lowell, the area where the laundresses were housed was known as “Soapsuds Row.” At Fort Lowell they were provided with eight 15 x 30 foot adobe structures.
Two vital pieces of equipment they used were the washboard and the wringer. Fort Lowell Museum has an exhibit on army laundresses and it features a wringer and a washboard. Though not from the period, the 1940s era Atlantic washboard made by National Washboard Company is from the World War II era. It is made of glass instead of zinc or metal because those materials were needed for the war effort.
The wringer was used to squeeze the water out of the soaking wet items; making laundry easier and faster to do. Unfortunately, wringers were involved in many accidents and could be dangerous. Children most commonly were injured by them and eventually the most dangerous models were outlawed due to crushing fingers, hands, arms, and hair getting caught in them.
In 1888, an African American housekeeper named Ellen Eglin invented a new version of a clothes wringer that made doing the laundry even faster. Her invention allowed for the speed of the rollers to be increased or decreased. She sold her patent to an agent because she felt it would have a better chance of success if people did not know it was invented by an African American woman. Her patent, U.S. Patent 459,343, lists Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr. as the inventor. She sold it for $18.