Vancouver Barracks in the 1880s: Working Women

This stereoscope photo taken of the 31st Pennsylvania Regiment during the Civil War shows a typical camp scene. The woman in the foreground may work as a laundress while taking care of her family.

Library of Congress, 2012649701

This segment of a map from 1874 shows the location of three of Vancouver Barracks' laundress quarters at that time at the east end of the Parade Ground. These quarters were used by laundresses until new accommodations were built in the mid-1880s northwest of Officers' Row.

NPS Photo

Vancouver Barracks was not just home to soldiers and officers. At the beginning of the 1880s, there were also working women at this US Army post. Laundresses were often the wives of enlisted men. Many were Irish immigrants, and some were mothers accompanied by their children. By taking jobs as laundresses and attaching themselves to their husbands' regiments, these women were able to keep their families together.

Laundresses supplemented their husbands' income by, of course, doing laundry for the soldiers and officers of the post, but they also engaged in several other money-making activities. These women may have sold pies or other baked goods, and charged for their services as nurses and midwives to other women. Laundresses most often lived separately from their husbands, in designated laundress's quarters. There, many of these women were caring for young children in addition to working outside the home.

"Laundry was a labor intensive and backbreaking job: items to be laundered must first be sorted into those that could be washed and boiled, those to be just washed, and those to be cleaned, i.e., spot removal or brushing. The washable clothing was then soaked, washed, boiled, rinsed, dried, and, if circumstances permitted, starched and ironed. A company laundress probably had the additional chores of marking the laundry items with the owner's name or initials, and mending and altering the garments. Since officers paid more to have their laundry done, more care was probably given to their clothes, with bluing and starching their shirts, as well as brushing and pressing their uniforms."
- Virginia Mescher, Tubs and Suds

Laundresses had been an important part of life at Vancouver Barracks since its founding in 1849. But in 1878, a new Army regulation banned women from accompanying troops as laundresses. This change would have a huge impact on the families of enlisted men. The laundresses who were attached to the 21st Infantry at Vancouver Barracks in 1880 would not have been able to follow their husbands when the 21st moved from Vancouver to Nebraska in 1884. Some, like Private William Shaw, who was married to laundress Eliza Shaw, chose to leave military service and return to civilian life. William and Eliza lived the remainder of their lives in Vancouver.

Laundresses at Vancouver Barracks in 1880

Seven laundresses were recorded at Vancouver Barracks on the 1880 Federal Census, all attached to the 21st Infantry. They were:
 

• Eliza Shaw was 26 years old in 1880. Originally from New York, she had married an English immigrant. The Shaws had been married for at least a decade. The birth locations of their children show how the family moved around the country, likely from Army post to Army post. In 1880, eldest daughter Jenny was 10 years old, born in Virginia; son Charles was 8 years old, born in California; son Thomas was 7 years old, born in Arizona; daughter Lily was 5 years old, born in the San Juan Islands. Their two youngest children - 4-year-old Harry and infant John - were born in Washington.
• Ann Kennedy was 34 years old in 1880. She and her husband were Irish immigrants. Their children were Katy, 11, born in California, and Annie, 7, born in Idaho.
• Jenny Pancoast was 24 years old in 1880. She and her husband had come from Virginia. In 1880, Jenny cared for their six children - ages 1 to 13 - while keeping up work as a laundress at Vancouver Barracks.
• Anna Byrne was 39 years old in 1880. She and her husband were Irish immigrants. Her husband was enlisted as a soldier with the 21st Infantry. Anna lived with her adult son, 20-year-old Henry, and sons John, 11, and Wilfred, 2.
• Mary O'Shea was 29 years old in 1880. She was an Irish immigrant and was married, likely to an enlisted man.
• Mary Meach was 21 years old in 1880. She was born in Maine, a first generation American, the daughter of immigrants from Ireland and Scotland. She was married to an enlisted man and was living with her two children: Mortimer, 3, and Ethel, an infant.
• Catharine Burke was 40 years old in 1880. She and her husband were both Irish immigrants. Catharine lived with her five children: James, 11, Catharine, 9, Bartholomew, 7, Patrick, 5, and William, 1.