Home Life in 1902
By Mrs. Frank C. Merrill

In writing of home life in Peabody for the entertainment of people one hundred years hence, I think I may be permitted to write of my own family life, as that is the home life I know most about. I am living at 38 Main Street, opposite Park Street, to which house I came when I was married nearly twenty-five years ago. This lot of land upon which the house stands has been in the Upton family since the town was laid out; naturally my husband has felt a little pride in continuing to occupy the house which his grandfather, on his mother’s side, built about seventy-five years ago.

My parents and brother live on a farm on the outskirts of the town. Mr. Merrill’s father and mother are in our own family, and we also have a son of twenty-two and a daughter fifteen living at home. My husband has also another son who is married and lives nearby, and also two married brothers living in town who have children. Therefore, when we have any family merry-makings we are quite a little party.

Our everyday home life consists of breakfast at quarter past seven, after which one son goes to Boston for the day, as he is a student at the Institute of Technology. Our daughter goes to the High School, my husband to the Bank where he is cashier, and his father to his office, as he is trial justice for the town.

My forenoon is spent in performing household duties with the help of an Irish servant girl. We dine at one thirty, after which I am at leisure unless I have a dressmaker or other sewing, or some outside work to do. Frequently in the summer time, we take a car ride in the open electrics, either to Marblehead, Danvers, Salem Willows or oftener still to the Farm where my parents live. We have supper at a little past six after which the evening is spent either in reading or receiving a caller, or in playing a game of Whist either in our own home or with some of our friends.

Perhaps our Thanksgiving day is as pleasant as any. We usually number about twenty-three at dinner, sometimes one or two more, as the older nephews are interested in some young ladies, who sometimes unite with us on this occasion. When we entertain the family at our own home, we set two tables in our dining room, and by close squeezing all manage to sit down.

Our menu is the regulation fare for this day, consisting of roast turkey and cranberry sauce, potatoes, onions, turnip, squash followed by plum pudding, ice cream, nuts and oranges and grapes, and tea and coffee. After dinner the time is spent in playing games, or we are entertained by music, as all of the young men of the family are good singers.

Almost before one knows it, after Thanksgiving comes Christmas. We all try to remember each one of the family at this time, and usually get together Christmas eve to exchange gifts and have a little social time. The day passes quietly as our servant girls are Catholics, and Christmas means much to them, and they expect to have the holiday so we do not try to entertain on that day.

After Christmas, we are usually quite busy the remainder of the winter either in working for the Church Woman’s Club, Benevolent Society or Old Ladies Home to all of which I belong and in which I am very much interested.

In the meantime, we have the two holidays of Washington’s Birthday and the nineteenth of April, which are simply spent by most people, in any enjoyable manner they may see fit. The thirtieth day of May is a holiday that I suppose cannot be observed long as it is at present. It is Memorial or Decoration Day when the survivors of the Civil War go to the cemeteries and place flowers on the grave of their dead comrades. I think it is an impressive scene to be in the cemetery, when they have a short religious ceremony, then the old soldiers present go to the different graves and standing with uncovered heads, wait for the signal of the firing of a gun, then each one places his flowers on the different graves, all at the same time. It has also become quite universal for everyone who has lost any relative or friend to at least go or send flowers to their loved one’s graves on that day.

The Fourth of July is a very noisy time for us living as we do on the Main Street of the town. The small boys begin the night before with their firecrackers and cowbells and tinhorns and at midnight the holiday is ushered in with several large bonfires. The church bells are rung at sunrise, noon and sunset. This year it rained very heavily all day on the third of July clearing off at six o’clock ? much to the relief of the older people, young America’s ardor was considerably dampened.

The church picnic is one occasion much enjoyed by the young people. Yesterday our society, the Universalist united with the Unitarians as it has done for several years, and went by electric cars to Centennial Grove, Essex. Each one took a lunch and enjoyed themselves while there in boating, dancing, swinging or roaming about in the woods. It was a delightful day and all enjoyed themselves.

Our conveniences for doing housework have improved in the last few years. The use of the gas stove has become quite general and I consider it indispensable. We also have an attachment connected with the hot water boiler for heating water for the faucet so that we can dispense with a hot fire in the coal stove in warm weather. I imagine that in a hundred years from now there will be great improvements in the use of electricity in cooking. The Done eggbeater, Enterprise chopping machine, raisin seeder and White Mountain ice cream freezer are all good machines which are in constant use in my family. My Singer sewing machine can hardly be improved upon I think, and I sometimes wonder how the poor women a hundred years ago did so much work without one.

At our church fair held during the past winter, we had a little cookbook made up of receipts collected from ladies in our Society. I will enclose one in my envelope to show our manner of cooking at the present time. This little account of home life I consider as the ordinary home life of the average family at the present time.

Respectfully,

Effie Harrington Merrill