The Army Laundress

    The army laundress was one of the few recognized female positions at a frontier fort. Along with the laundresses, the wives of officers and enlisted men, made up the female population. Wives were not officially recognized by the Army. They were considered camp followers and were not given the same privileges as the laundress. Although officers' wives did not enjoy the legal security of the laundress, she did have social standing. In a very class conscious society, laundresses were at the lower end of the social scale, and usually had no social contact with the other women at the garrison, particularly the wives of the officers. An officer's wife might hire a laundress as a midwife, nurse or maid, a step up socially but usually down financially.
    Two to four laundresses were assigned to each company of soldiers. They received daily rations of food and fuel, and some post services such as medical care and transportation when the company changed posts.
    The military inherited the tradition of a laundress corps from the British. Besides washing and mending the soldiers' clothing, laundresses performed some cooking and baking. In addition they were called upon as midwives and nurses on occasion.
    Since laundresses were paid indirectly out of the soldiers pay, Army paymasters often deducted laundry fees from the troopers' pay. Depending on the rank of the soldier, the laundress was paid $1 to $4 dollars a month for each man and could do laundry for 19 to 20 men. An ambitious laundress could make several times the wage of thirteen dollars a month paid to a private.
    The area of the fort where the laundresses were quartered was known as "Suds Row." Housing usually consisted of tents or roughly built wooden shacks. Furniture for a laundress was made by her husband. Many laundresses were married to non-commissioned officers. Few single women remained unmarried, and most were married within a few months after going out west.
    The majority of laundress were hardworking, honest women who added some civilizing influences to many isolated forts.  Nevertheless, a cost-conscious Congress objected to the funds necessary to house, feed, and move the women across the west. By 1883, laundresses had been officially eliminated from the garrison scene.
    Fort Concho's living history laundress unit works in conjunction with other military history programs at local and out-of-town events as an out-reach program of the education department of the Fort Concho Museum of the City of San Angelo, Texas.

Wash Day

The laundress first had to haul the water to be heated in a large pot. The clothing was put into the hot water, then removed one piece at a time by using a long stick. The article of clothing was then put into the wash tub. Lye soap was rubbed on the washboard or directly onto the clothing. After being scrubbed, the article was rinsed and hung to dry on a clothesline or nearby bush. The laundress was responsible for any clothing she ruined.