Memories of the Coes 21: Mother - Deborah
Besides all her other accomplishments mother was very good at sewing and knitting. I remember - not too definetly, - of her carding wool from father's sheep and its being taken to Perry Center where it was made into yarn. This I think mother dyed and knitted into stockings and mittens for the family. Once when I was a little girl she knit me wool stockings striped around alternating rings of tan and brown. I cannot remember disliking any other garment, but I just detested those stockings and hated to put them on. She made the underwear and night wear for the family, shirts and trousers for the men as well as dresses for the feminine members of the family. I do not remember when we first began to wear "boughten" knit underwear. I believe I had red flannel "wrappers" the winter we were married. Dresses had high knecks and long sleeves then, and houses were not heated with furnaces. When I was married, in 1884, quite to my surprise she advised me not to learn to make men's trousers. I think that they were buying most of them at that time. I made shirts and night shirts for a good many years, however.
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Patty's notes on this entry
Mother - Deborah Prentice (1833-1910) , daughter of Southwick Prentice (1800-1876) and Elizabeth Ann Smith (1802-1846), was the first born child in her family. Over the next thirteen years, six siblings would be born to her parents. Her mother also had at least four, and possibly six, children from a previous marriage to Mr. Graham. Within a year of her mother's death in 1846 in Wyoming County, New York, Deborah was living in Pavilion, attending the same school as Albert Coe (1827-1907, son of Ezra Coe (1798-1869) and Elizabeth Sornberger (1795-1888)). Deborah and Albert were married on December 31, 1850. Albert and Deborah had five children Mary Isadore (1851-1924), Ezra Frank (1853-1942), Elizabeth Ann (1861-1956), Carrie Evelyn (1864-1948) an Carrie Addie (1864-1950).
Carding wool - the process of separating and straightening wool from a sheared sheep so it can be used to make yarn. Depending on the amount of wool the Coes got from their sheep, Deborah would have either carded the wool by hand or by using a small hand-cranked machine. Chances are, she did it by hand using a pair of carders.
Flannel Wrapper - Wrappers were a dress style that became popular in the 1870s and 1880s. They were often an informal loose dress in princess style, usually worn around the house and seen only by family and close friends. Wrappers made from flannel did not require any sort of lining, so were easier to make than ones made from other fabrics. This is an illustration of a flannel wrapper from the January 1881 issue of Peterson's Magazine.
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