Society Character Feature #9
This issue's featured girl: Kirsten
From the American Girls Club Handbook:
Many pioneers recorded the events of their lives by writing in diaries. Diaries are still a good way to record and remember. Imagine you are Kirsten. Write a diary entry about a day she would want to remember.
1) Choose a pen and paper for your writing. If it's dark, ask an adult if you can write by candlelight. Pioneers didn't have electric lights!
2) Pick a date in 1854. It can be a special day or just an ordinary day. Write about the people and the events that were important in Kirsten's life.
A Pioneer Journalist
Jane Grey Swisshelm started her newspaper career as a girl writing stories, poems, and articles for her local paper. In 1847, she became the first woman to own and operate a newspaper. She was known for her strong opinions. She fiercely opposed slavery and fought for women's right to vote. In 1857, Jane started a newspaper on the frontier in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Businessmen who didn't like her ideas broke into her office and destroyed her printing press. But Jane would not be quieted. She replaced the press, renamed the newspaper, and reprinted the article that made them so mad in the first place!
Did you know?
Some women were drawn to the frontier by the promise of adventure. Other women, including teachers like Miss Winston, came for the job opportunities on the frontier. Being a pioneer teacher in Kirsten's time was difficult. Teachers weren't given enough money to buy books. Sometimes they weren't given coal for the schoolhouse until halfway through the winter. The log walls of one-room schoolhouses let in biting winds, and the ceilings leaked when it rained. One teacher wrote that "when it rains we take the books up so they don't get wet, and we stand in one place 'til [the rain] begins to drop down. Then we move to another spot and another." Teachers couldn't afford homes of their own, so they often "boarded round" at students' homes. Some of these homes were not very comfortable. One teacher wrote about waking up with snow covering her bed. Sometimes a teacher even had to share a bed with one or more children in the family!
Pioneer Dress
Imagine popping out of bed in a frosty cabin on a cold, snowy morning. What is the first thing you do? On a chilly morning, Kirsten would hurry to put on:
1. Hand-knit woolen stockings
2. A flannel chemise or undershirt
3. A pair of snowy-white pantalettes
4. At least two of three flannel petticoats, quilted for extra warmth
5. A calico dress with grow stripes along the bottom
6. An apron made of material left over from her mother's dress
7. A pair of sturdy lace-up boots
8. A woolen shawl called a heartwarmer.
All those layers were heavy, and they sometimes made it hard to move around. But they did keep Kirsten warm and toasty!
Want to know more?
Fiction books set in Kirsten's time:
"A Family Apart" by Joan Lowery Nixon
"Next Spring an Oriole" by Gloria Whelan
"Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Nonfiction books about Kirsten's time:
"A Pioneer Sampler" by Barbara Greenwood
"How the Settlers Lived" by George and Ellen Laycock
Movies set in Kirsten's time:
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie
Sarah, Plain and Tall
Little House in the Big Woods
Music from Kirsten's Time
Fiddle tunes for dancing, such as "Buffalo Gals" and "Old Dan Tucker"
Piano music by Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt
Special places to visit:
Bishop Hill Heritage Museum
103 N. Bishop Hill St.
Bishop Hill, IL 61419
an 1850s Swedish immigrant village
Old World Wisconsin, S103 W37890
Hwy. 67
Eagle, WI 53119
An outdoor museum of immigrant farm and village life
