When we bought our 200+ year old farmhouse ten years ago, I was very smitten by its character and charm. It was old and full of history, but what was important to me was that it just felt right. Comfortable.
Over the years we've found all sorts of little treasures, including old tools, garments, bottles, china, and printed materials. My favorite find is an empty bottle of food coloring for tinting home made butter yellow. The label is still intact. These little bits of history wouldn't have meant much to me if I'd seen them in a museum someplace, but finding them here in the place where they were used is different.
The longer I live here on this farm the more curious I become about the people who were here before us, especially during the early years. I often wonder what their day to day lives were like, and how they lived in the house. What was their daily routine? What were their farm chores like? Who slept in our bedroom? Where were the children born? Where did the Christmas tree stand each year? What kind of music played? We know that at least one person who has lived here did not enjoy opera, but that's another story for another time.
There have only been a handful of families to live and work on this farm since it was established in the early 1800s. The founding family, the Hurlbuts, lived here until the 1950's, as the property was passed down from generation to generation. Some records say the first structure was built around 1805, with a more 'proper' home added on around 1820. We do know that the front part of the house (the two story part) was added on in 1865 by Edson Hurlbut (photo below). The timbers used in the addition were brought over two winters from Morrisville by sled.
I wonder about Edson and the trapdoor he had built during that renovation in 1865-- the one that leads to a secret chamber in our cellar. We've had Hurlbut family descendants tell us stories told to them by their grandparents of the special chamber for hiding escaping slaves, a part of the Underground Railroad. I wonder about the discussions that must have occurred around the diner table and the courage and conviction Edson and his family must have shared.
Our town historical society has a remarkable collection of old photographs, and after we bought the property we were able look through the collection and make copies of those related to our farm. There's no date on this photo but it had to have been taken sometime after 1865. The house today looks very much the same from the outside as it did when the photo was taken except for a couple fewer chimneys, and, unfortunately, that sweet side porch was replaced with a pretty awful, three season room during the 1970s.
One day as I was cruising around the internet, I stumbled upon some very old books on Google Books. Scans, actually, of very old books. I don't remember my original query, but I was searching for fragrance ideas for mens' products. I found mention of something called Brown Soap, which led to more searches and more old books, including a really great one:
Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes: Containing Over 6400 Receipts by William Brisbane Dick. It was first published in the 1870s. The book is filled with recipes (receipts) for all sorts of things, from washing bonnets to tanning hides, and there's a whole chapter on making soaps. In the "toilet soap" section--these are the fine scented soaps for ladies and gentlemen--I read all about the popular soaps of the day, including Brown Windsor Soap.
I found several other old sources, and learned that Fine Old Brown Windsor Soap was originally made in England, and was a favorite of Queen Victoria and Napoleon (who, apparently, was quite the scent man, loving all things heavily perfumed.) Brown Windsor Soap was equally popular in all parts of America, and accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition west. I read somewhere that Brown Windsor Soap could be found in most every household throughout the US until the early 1930s.
Here are images of two labels I found associated with Brown Windsor Soap. They're very elegant, aren't they?
The soap was originally made with palm oil, tallow and lard, and was scented with a blend of bergamot, caraway, cassia, lavender, cloves, and petit grain. Caramelized sugar was added to give it a dark brown color. The steps for producing the soap were long and involved, but I think much of this was due to the variability and impurities of the lye solutions that were used. Multiple stage processing (similar to re-batching or milling today) created a milder soap which helped this soap earn its reputation as being emollient as well as fragrant.
Did Edson and his family use Fine Old Brown Windsor Soap?
Most of the recipes I reviewed only listed the ingredients for the fragrance--I'm sure that was proprietary, just like it is today--but I did find one recipe presented in a research paper written about historic soaps that included the ratios of essential oils for the fragrance blend. It originally appeared in a trade manual. I decided to make a batch following the recipe for the fragrance blend, but using modern lye (much safer and purer!) as well as my preferred vegetable based oils and fats instead of the lard and tallow (though both of those fats do make a good bar of soap). I was familiar with all of the essential oils in the recipe, but had never soaped with caraway before. What an interesting fragrance this has turned out to be! The caraway adds a very unusual note that completely changes the dynamics of the other essential oils. When I first read about the caraway essential oil, I thought of my friend, Ellen, who told me a story about her mother boiling cabbage with caraway, and the not-so-welcome scent that was created. Here, the caraway is subtle, and almost unrecognizable, but it's definitely the most important note in the blend. The longer the soap cures, the better it smells. I really like it, and can understand why it was so popular for so long. Our first historically accurate fragrance blend! We'll be making more of this.
I discovered another old wonderful book titled,
The Manners that Win. I've added it to my book wish list. It appears to be written about the same time, and is a collection of essays and recommendations by noted writers of the period. There was mention of Brown Windsor Soap, which is how I found it, but there's also a really great section about women and their diets that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. It was contributed by "Ugly Girl Papers." I've leave excerpts of it below for your consideration. Seems like good advice to me.
Here's to Edson and his family, the wise writer(s) behind Ugly Girl Papers, and brown windsor soap!
Diet. Beauty without good, wholesome, nourishing food, is impossible. Good beef steak, properly cooked, and plenty of it, good bread, oatmeal, brown bread, fresh vegetables--all are appetizing and nourishing food. If the appetite is weak and needs coaxing, more exercise, more fresh air and sunlight will bring it back, which coaxing with dainties and sweet-meats will never do. The dinner ought to be the heartiest meal, the breakfast next, and supper light. … In this age the world has little use for candy-loving idlers; what it needs is well nourished women, whose brains are not addled or beclouded, and whose bodies are strong and vigorous enough to digest a generous dinner. … Activity of body or brain means waste, and waste requires food. Flabby muscles that hardly hold the bony frame-work together, have none of the grace, the well-poised shoulders, the round arms and neck, the profusion of hair, and the strength of nerve that go with well nourished bodies. It is want of sunshine, and badly prepared and improper food, that makes woman weak, nervous, coarse, and uninteresting.
