 The Women's Legacy Project of Snohomish
County, Washington seeks to honor our foremothers by recording and
sharing their personal histories, their ability to adapt to the forces
of change and their constant vigilance as stewards of the
diverse cultures of our society.
www.snohomishwomenslegacy.org |
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Mabel Monsey: Chronicles of a Farm Wife, 1891-1903
By Louise Lindgren
Originally published in the
Third
Age News: June 2001 |
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| The Monsey family came west from Ohio in about 1888,
first settling in Snohomish and then, in 1890, taking a
forty acre preemption claim near Hartford, a railroad
junction northeast of Lake Stevens. They brought four
girls with them, ranging in age from nine years to
eighteen months. In an article describing their arrival,
which Mabel wrote for a publication back east, she told
of their trek from the train station at Hartford to
their new property: “ …we walked the mile and
three-quarters down the railroad track, then one-quarter
of a mile to our new home, over a good road. … on either
side of the road, was dense forest, and to see the sun
one must look straight up.” |
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| Their furniture was hauled to a drop-off point in front of
the shake cabin Mr. Monsey had built. The only problem was
carrying all that furniture, including a heavy sewing machine
and an organ, over, around, and through an immense pile of logs
that filled the area from the road to the cabin door. A large
fir log, eight feet in diameter, lay in front of the front door.
Mabel writes, ‘We had to make a ladder to climb to the top of
this log, and then walk down the log to a smaller one, down the
next to a still smaller one, and so on to the road.” The road
was completely hidden by felled logs and forest debris, while
nearby Lake Stevens was hidden by the dense stand of timber.
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The month was November. Only one room of the two-room cabin
had a floor. The night before, Mr. Monsey had slept in the house
while numerous skunks had played in the room all night. On the
day of his wife’s arrival, he laid the second room’s flooring.
Excess furniture was placed in the woodshed where it promptly
became unglued, owing to the damp weather. Yet with all the
confusion of moving, a tiny cabin as opposed to the normal home
they had left behind, the cold and wet, the young children
needing constant care and attention, Mabel wrote, “We were young
and brave, my husband and I. We were ready to work hard in our
struggle for a home.”
The Monseys were well-educated and had money in the bank. With
their background and advantages, and particularly with their
optimistic attitude, they were well equipped to handle their
pioneer challenges. Mabel was also a writer, and determined to
help out the family with income from that skill. She wrote a
column about their lives for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
another column about housekeeping and motherhood for
“Housekeeper" magazine, and many articles for the “Ohio Farmer.”
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Education was extremely important to the Monseys. Mabel
wrote, “One of the first things I did was to subscribe for a
number of the best farm journals, a floral magazine, several
ladies’ magazines and journals and the leading county paper.
Also a good eastern paper, some eleven or twelve altogether, and
they have been welcome inmates to our home ever since.” It was
natural then for her to teach school in her home until a new
school could be built nearby. And, since their family grew from
four children in 1888 to eleven by 1903, the education of her
children was always front and center as one of her major
responsibilities.
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| The chronicle of their life from 1891 to 1903, when they
moved from the area, is told in a variety of ways for the
various publications, including straight-talk “advice” columns,
poetry, story-telling and one humorous series written under the
pen-name “Jerusha Josh.” Considering her educational background,
it must have been a challenge to write the Josh “Letters to the
Editor.” In them she used all her satirical skills, completely
mangling the English language as she pretends to be an almost
illiterate country bumpkin. All of the Josh letters are sent
from “Fordhart Corners,” a reversal of “Hartford.” One deals
with her spring routine: “Dear Mister Editur: I neow take my pen
in hand to answer yeour kind and welcome letter, it done me lots
of good tew know you missed my letters. No, I havn’t forgotten
yeou, but land sakes I have been so busy don’t you know spring
time is a busy time fer wimmen folks. why I have cleaned tew or
three rooms and I haven’t but just begun tew clean house, then I
am making posy beds. I will heve my posies same as Jeremiah will
heve his terbaccer, but I wont chaw Jeremiah’s terbaccer an he
wont make my posy beds, so I heve tew do it my self and its
purty hard work … “ |
In other articles, Mabel wrote quite seriously about
everything from politics to home remedies and a woman’s proper
role within the family. She had an interesting take on the women
who were fighting to achieve full voting privileges. One article
is titled “Women Not Slaves” and takes one of the most famous
suffragists to task for her views: “When I think of the Woman’s
Bible I am sorry that Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her old age
should have been at the head of such a movement. For a woman to
admit she is a slave is to admit she is not sensible. If a woman
is a slave it is in nine cases out of ten her own fault. Any man
will honor a woman who will assert her own rights.”
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Motherhood was the most important “profession” in Mabel’s
opinion, but motherhood did not mean servitude. She admonished,
“Dear wives and mothers, we are equal with our husbands; ‘tis
our right to be and we should see that they understand it so,
but when we want to be more than equal we are in the wrong.
Women seem eager for a professional career. I am myself. I am a
doctor, my family are my patients. I am a lawyer, my family are
my clients. I am a minister (the best of all), ministering daily
to my loved ones, yet finding time to bestow on others, but
never to the neglect of my own family.” In all the articles she
rarely mentions that she is a professional writer, often writing
at midnight or later because her duties as a wife and mother
come first.
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Eventually the Monsey’s achieved their dream of building a
new frame house using timber from their property, milled
locally. As the trees came down, Lake Stevens came into view, a
daily joy. Flower beds were planted, even a greenhouse built, as
Mabel also practiced floral arts and wrote about gardening for
the various publications. In all her writings, her sense of joy
and accomplishment pours through. In spite of exceptionally hard
work, she seemed to retain her energy, and in fact attributes
that energy to the hard physical labor. She wrote of the
benefits of hard work, plain food, honesty, not “putting on
airs,” and the value of education. And always, the joys of
motherhood. She believed in working first for the family and
only after their needs are met, for others, including the
church. Mabel Monsey would not have considered herself an
extraordinary woman. I beg to differ.
Photo credit: Lake Stevens Museum
Information and photo
gathered from the Mabel Monsey album held by the Lake Stevens
Historical Society Museum, Lake Stevens, Washington |
| ©2001-2006 Louise Lindgren All Rights Reserved
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