Emily: The Diary of a Hard-Worked Woman

By Emily French

Book Overview

"Oh how I do wish I could have a little help in maintaining my home. I shall dread the cold winter so much. I don't have very good success getting employment," wrote Emily French in her diary in 1890. Emily was recently divorced but received no alimony or child support. She worked as a laundress, cleaning woman, and nurse, first in the farming community of Elbert, Colorado, then in the growing city of Denver, the mining town of Dake, and back into Denver.

Emily's diary discloses an example of the desperate lives lived by many. Having enough money and food is a source of constant anxiety, but her deepest fears center on the loss of family and of home. She becomes discouraged but never gives up, recognizes others less fortunate than herself, and always believes things will change. This is a moving work that provides an unusual look into the life of the working poor in the late-nineteenth-century West.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803268610
• ISBN13: 9780803268616
• Release Date: March 1987
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 166 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Emily Rood French

I enjoy reading about my ancestors. Emily Rood French is the wife of my 1st cousin 3x removed. It gives me insight into their lives during the 1800s and early 1900s.

a year in the life of a hard-working woman

This is a journal written by Emily French during a year of her life in 1890. As a divorced woman with several children, she had to work constantly to care for her children and herself. During this year, she lived in Colorado--first in Elbert, then Denver, then Dake, and back to Denver again. She was 47 years old with gray hair, and she wore gold eyeglasses. Her days were filled with hard work and earning money through washing, sewing, cooking, nursing, and house-keeping jobs. Her main concern was with her family, and that year, she started to build a 4-room house. Her daily entries are often just a few paragraphs that tell plainly what she did each day. She would worry about a child being ill, whether she sold her horses for too little, and how much she received for that day's work. Here are three excerpts from her journal entries: January, Thursday 9, 1890 He will be our god even unto the end. I went to wash for Mrs. Oaks today. I am not able to work a single minute, yet here I am & must do the work, well or sick. Mrs. Sloans sick all the night, I up with her, the child a girl, still born at 8 this morning. She has a strange growth in her abdomen. Her Annie, 16 months old, is her baby yet. I put all away as best I could, got a place for the child, a nice smooth box. I had made her as comfortable as we could, the Dr promising to come in the morning. February, Monday 10, 1890 Up at 1 A.M., fed the horses grain & hay, caught the chickens and tied them so they can be safe in the basket & the box, had my breakfast at 3, oatmeal & tea, started at 4 1/2. On the way tried to hitch Ric beside Fanny, no go. She will not lead good. I had 1 stand, 2 chairs, 1 rocker, my feather bed, a few tins, the chopping bowl. I turned into the road leading out by the sheep ranch, 2 of the chickens got away. Was going along, the sun shining so nice, suddenly it grew dark, the wind blew oh so hard. June, Monday 23, 1890 Was not able to work for anyone, so sunburned and exhausted. Went to the Fort Worth Gen office to see about the RR paying for the colt, Rock Marie's colt, 1 year the 4th of May, killed by them on or about the 20th, worth to me $50.00. Will I ever get 5 C, I hope so. Went to the Freight Depot on Wyancoop & 19th, so hot. Throughout her journal, it's clear that she was a deeply religious woman and that her faith helped sustain her day after day, in a life that was so filled with hard work and that must have felt hopeless at times.