By Gina Warren, Duck River Electric 

Early mornings, long hours and no such thing as a day off. This was the life of a farm wife without electricity — a blend of grit, endurance and a love for her family that most cannot fathom. She woke before the rooster crowed and lit the first lamp of the day as she prepared for the demanding tasks of both a homemaker and farmhand.  

There were no shortcuts. Before electric appliances, the kitchen was a workshop powered by fire and muscle. She was the strength behind the grinding, chopping, and kneading.  

She stoked the wood-burning stove, reviving last night’s embers to heat water for breakfast and prepare the hearty meals needed to keep the family fed, especially the men heading to the fields for another day of labor. By midday, the kitchen felt like a furnace, especially in the summer months. Any breeze drifting through open windows wasn’t enough to cool the home — or the cook.  

Laundry was an all-day commitment for the farmer’s wife. The typical washday involved pumping and hauling gallons of water for the metal washtub, heating it over a fire, and scrubbing clothes on a washboard. Her already aching hands wrung out the water before hanging garments on a clothesline. Farm life was muddy, dusty and sweaty, so the process was often repeated to satisfy her standards. A single load of laundry could take hours.  

Aside from the indoor chores, she tended to the livestock and gardens. She milked cows at dawn and dusk and churned fresh butter. There were chickens to feed, eggs to gather, and animals to water. She cultivated the garden with steady devotion, planting seeds, hoeing weeds and gathering the harvest that would sustain her family through the seasons.  

Without refrigeration, food was preserved by old-fashioned methods like canning, salting, and smoking meats in the nearby smokehouse. During hog-processing season, she stood for hours over a large, cast-iron cauldron slowly rendering fat into lard and lye soap.  

When the sun finally went down on her day, she lit the candles and lamps in the house. Although undoubtedly weary, she took a moment to rest peaceful beside the flickering light, reading aloud to the children, mending clothes and shelling peas until the day ended.  

You may hear people mention “the good ole’ days” when they reminisce about a simpler and slower-paced lifestyle. But a farm wife may have a different perspective on the realities of daily life before electricity. Whatever words she might use to describe those days, her hands and strength were the quiet backbone of the homestead.