If you think that only the men in your family tree were wage earners before a certain time period, you may be mistaken. Women often worked before they were married, or re-entered the workforce if they were divorced or widowed at a young age. Numerous women in my family tree held jobs, and some started working in their early teenage years. Below are six of these jobs, with details about the sources that revealed this information.

School Teacher

Several women in my family were school teachers at some point in their lives. When my grandmother, Harriet Carson, graduated from Mansfield State Teachers College in 1939, she taught home economics at Canton High School in Canton, Pennsylvania for a year before she was married. A local newspaper reported that she had joined the faculty that year, along with a photo of her and other new faculty members.¹ The 1940 census provided other details about her work. She worked 30 hours a week, 36 weeks a year, and earned $1,170 in 1939.²

According to the obituary of my great-great-grandmother, Mary Link, “She began teaching in the public school at the early age of 14 years and in the fourteen succeeding years taught nineteen terms.”³ The 1870 census provides supporting evidence for this. At this time, she was 18 and was enumerated in Richmond Township, Tioga County, Pennsylvania. School Teacher was given as her occupation.⁴

My great-grandmother, Jennie Hart, was married in 1907 in Chester, Pennsylvania. According to an item in the Chester Times, she was a teacher in the Eddystone Public Schools in Delaware County, Pennsylvania before she was married.⁵ When her husband died in 1944, she wrote to her son:

“Son, he left enough to take care of everything & a little left over…Janet [her daughter] attended to everything. She & I plan to keep on just as before & altho she will have more responsibility if I get teaching to do I won’t be altogether dependent on her.”⁶

Cigar Maker

Myrtle Dunbar was the first wife of my great-grandfather, Arland Loughridge. They were married in 1918 in Towanda, Pennsylvania. On the application for their marriage license, Myrtle’s age was given as 16 years, and her occupation was Cigar Maker.⁷

Wool Mill Worker

My great-great-grandmother, Mary Morgan, was 15 years old and living in Chester, Pennsylvania when the 1870 census was taken. The occupation field next to her name stated, “works in wool mill.” Working in manufacturing was a family affair in the Morgan household. Her 13-year-old sister listed the same occupation.⁸ Manufacturing jobs at this time likely involved working very long hours under dangerous conditions. In 1896 a local newspaper reported that their father, James Morgan who also worked in manufacturing, “had a hand mashed” while at work and he did not return to work for several weeks.⁹ This injury was minor compared to their brother’s horrific accident in 1912. Edward Morgan was killed after being caught in machinery while working in a plant in Chester, according to his death certificate.¹⁰

Dressmaker

Alice Romayne Richardson Riffle, my third great-grandmother, presumably divorced her first husband sometime between 1865 and 1870. As a divorced woman in the mid-nineteenth century, Alice likely had few job prospects, and she had a son and younger siblings to help support. According to the 1870 census she worked as a dressmaker in Penn Yan, New York.¹¹

Bank Clerk

In 1916 my great-great-grandfather’s second wife, Lydia Jefferis Higgins, filed for divorce. During the divorce proceedings she testified, “I always worked to help support the household. In Nov. 1914 I was taking care of defective children and children from Juvenile Court of Philadelphia.”¹² Following their divorce she worked as a bank clerk according to the 1920 census.¹³ Her 1926 obituary stated that she worked at the Delaware County Trust Company, Chester, and that she had worked there for eight years, until she had to retire a few weeks before her death.¹⁴

Restaurant Cook & Hotel Maid

My great-great-grandmother, Grace Riffle Kennedy, was widowed in 1929. She was 48 at the time, and three of her children were still very young. My granduncle told me that when this happened, she was left with no money and had to find work to support her family. He said that she took care of sick people, and worked at a restaurant where she arrived early in the morning to peel potatoes and bake pies. When social security took effect, she decided to find a job that would allow her to eventually collect it, so she went to work as a maid at the Hotel Stanton in Corning, New York.¹⁵ Several records verify this information. She was identified as a cook at a restaurant in the 1940 census. This record also says she worked 44 hours per week, had worked 52 weeks in the past year, and her annual income was $624.¹⁶ The 1947 and 1950 Corning City Directories list her as an employee of the Hotel Stanton.¹⁷

Domestic Workers

Domestic work was one of the few employment opportunities available to women with little education. Some of my female ancestors worked in their own homes or the home of another family. In the 1910 census a boarder was listed as a resident in the household of my third great-grandparents, William and Elthear Brown, which was not an unusual arrangement. This record lists Elthear’s occupation as “Boarding house keeper.”¹⁸

My third great-grandmother, Margaret Mousley Higgins, became a young widow with three small children in 1862. Her husband was killed in the Second Battle of Bull Run. She received a widow’s pension, but she still struggled to support her family. In 1864 she enrolled her son Thomas in Girard College in Philadelphia, a school that was created for “poor white male orphans.”¹⁹ His school application states:

Is the mother, grandparents able to maintain him: No.

How is the boy maintained: By the mother who keeps a boarding house.²⁰

My widowed fourth great-grandmother Elizabeth Higgins was identified as a servant in the home of Thomas and Mary Allen in Chester, Pennsylvania in the 1870 census.²¹

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¹ Carson, Maud. Scrapbook. Ca. 1939; privately held by Lindsey Harner, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 2021.

² 1940 U.S. census, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Canton borough, Sheet No. 11B, house number 68, household 284, Harriett Carson; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 August 2021); citing NARA microfilm publication T627.

³ “The Late Mrs. Carson,” The Wellsboro Agitator, 23 October 1918. HTML edition, archived. https://greenfreelibrary.newspaperarchive.com/ : accessed 2021. Page 1, column 2.

⁴ 1870 U.S. census, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Richmond Township, page No. 2, dwelling 16, household 16, Mary Link; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 August 2021); citing NARA microfilm publication M593_1457.

⁵ “Thirty Years Ago (From Chester Times Files of 1907),” Chester Times, 21 June 1937. HTML edition, archived. https://www.delcolibraries.org/delawre-county-daily-times-historic-archives : accessed 2021. Page 6, column 4.

⁶ Janet Higgins, to Frank A. Higgins, letter, 16 June 1944; Frank A. Higgins Hell on Wheels Scrapbook; privately held by Lindsey Harner, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 2021.

⁷ Bradford County, Pennsylvania, Application for Marriage License, No. 11294, Loughridge-Dunbar, 12 March 1918; Bradford County Historical Society, Towanda.

⁸ 1870 U.S. census, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Chester Township, page No. 2, dwelling 14, household 14, Mary & Sarah Morton; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 August 2021); citing NARA microfilm publication M593_1336.

⁹ “The G. A. R. Members,” Chester Times, 30 November 1896. HTML edition, archived. https://www.delcolibraries.org/delawre-county-daily-times-historic-archives : accessed 2021. Page 3, column 3.

¹⁰ Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate file no. 1239, registered no. 13 (1912), Edward Morgan; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 August 2021).

¹¹ 1870 U.S. census, Yates County, New York, population schedule, Penn Yan, page No. 51, dwelling 415, household 442, Alice Richardson; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 August 2021); citing NARA microfilm publication M593_1120.

¹² Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Court of Common Pleas, No. 263 September Term 1916, divorce, Lydia Jefferis Higgins vs Thomas H. Higgins, testimony before master, 13 February 1917; Delaware County Archives, Media.

_¹³ 1920 U.S. census, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Ridley Park, sheet no. 10 B, dwelling 196, household 213, Lydia J. Higgins; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 August 2021); citing NARA microfilm publication T625_1563.

¹⁴ “Mrs. L. J. Higgins Dies in Hospital,” Chester Times, 1 July 1926. Delaware County Historical Society, Media.

¹⁵ Thomas Loughridge, grandson of Grace Riffle Kennedy, interview by Lindsey Harner, 1 November 2014; video privately held by interviewer, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 2021.

¹⁶ 1940 U.S. census, Steuben County, New York, population schedule, Lindley, Sheet No. 12B, household 236, Grace Kennedy; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 August 2021); citing NARA microfilm publication T627.

¹⁷ U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995, Corning, New York, 1947 & 1950; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 August 2021).

¹⁸ 1910 U.S. census, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Lawrence Township, p. 121 (stamped), dwelling 108, household 108, Elthear Brown; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 August 2021); citing NARA microfilm publication T624.

¹⁹ Girard College, “A Brief History of Girard College: For Recipients of Girard College Student Archive Searches,” Founder’s Hall Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

²⁰ Higgins, Thomas H. Student #1195. Application for Admittance. Girard College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founder’s Hall Museum.

²¹ 1870 U.S. census, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Chester South Ward, page No. 157, dwelling 1172, household 1146, Elizabeth Higgins, line 33; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 18 September 2023); Roll: M653_1105.