|
Pastimes
. . . The Not So Ordinary Woman Originally published in Needle Pointers, Volume XVIII, Number 4, June/July 1990 |
 Square cloth with Battenburg lace edging, typical of needlework described by Ann Ellis. Courtesy of Rio Grande County Museum, Del Norte, CO. |
Many of you, our readers, may not view yourselves as "ordinary" but may look upon your accomplishments as "ordinary." The word ordinary has a rather negative connotation - humdrum, mediocre, common - certainly not something special. In our opinion, all of you are special; as special as Ann Ellis, the author of The Life of an Ordinary Woman. Ann Ellis, who journeyed westward in 1878, lived in several mining camps - Bonanza, Gunnison, Iris, Chance, Coal Creek, and Victor. As a young child she immediately experienced the critical nature of the frontier lifestyle. Ann described her family's arrival in Colorado by relating, "We came into Pueblo and camped at the edge of town, with nothing to eat. And this brave country woman (Ellis' mother) leaving her baby in camp with oh! such a fear pulling at her heart that the baby might toddle under the feet of the oxen ... took one of her most prized possessions, a pieced quilt, and went into the city to sell it for food." |
|
Her book yields great insight into the everyday lifestyle of mining camp families.
At times, Ann Ellis was nearly destitute. Ann's first husband was killed in a mining accident, leaving her as a single mother. She baked and cooked for boarders in order to survive. At one point before she remarried she reported, "These two babies and the contents of that trunk; bedding, dishes, clothes -
very few - cooking utensils, the mirror, and books, were all I owned in the world."
Ms. Ellis also offers a graphic description of the typical miner's cabin in Bonanza, Colorado. In a childhood remembrance she penned, "The ceiling of our cabin was usually covered with canvas - in this dirt would collect, making it sag in places... Mountain rats also made their nests just on top of the canvas and this would make a big sag. Once a rat ran along the canvas and Mama saw the shape of the body and stuck a fork in him. The blood dripped through and I cried, not because I was sorry for the rat, but just at the sordidness of it all." |
 Detail of Battenburg lace on square cloth. Courtesy of Rio Grande County Museum, Del Norte, CO. |
 Woman's bodice embellished with pin tucks, drawnwork, and silk embroidery. The needlework embellishment is similar to several articles of clothing which Ann Ellis describes in The Life of an Ordinary Woman. Courtesy of Municipal Museum, Greeley, CO. |
The reader may be thinking that she could not cope with such an
environment. How did the mining camp women deal with these squalid conditions? In most instances, no
matter how dire the living conditions were, women found, purchased, or made some decorative item which would impart a small element of beauty in their surroundings.
Ann Ellis has offered several specific examples which serve to clarify and reinforce the evidence for the necessity of decoration. Ann's mother made several items for the family's home. She related that in the evenings "the rest of us would gather round the heating stove, Mama always with sewing and mending... Besides this, she would hook rugs and piece quilts." It is obvious that Ann's mother's stitching skills lay in other domains as well, for Ann tells of "throws made of meal sacks, drawn work across one end; these were snowy white from washing and were tied onto the backs of two rocking chairs." This quest for beauty, usually through hand-wrought items, was passed on from one generation to the next. |
As an adult, Ann Ellis likewise created small decorative items to enhance the aesthetics of her surroundings, as evidenced by these excerpts from her book:
Throughout The Life of an Ordinary Woman Ann Ellis repeatedly refers to the articles of clothing she made. Without exception she described the additional touches or embellishments which again point out the need for beauty, as in "I am getting our dresses ready, dark blue near (not very near) silk, trimmed in rows upon rows of tiny white lace" and "I had made Neita (her daughter) a much-tucked and lace-insert dress." Ann Ellis: an ordinary woman? Heavens, NO! You, the reader, dealing with the many stresses of our twentieth century lifestyle: an ordinary person? Likewise, NO! Like Ann Ellis, your courage, your stamina, your coping skills, your appreciation of beauty, and your generation of lovely needlework makes you and your accomplishments far from ordinary. Like Ann Ellis, you are very special. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ellis, Ann. The Life of an Ordinary Woman. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1929. |