{"id":4697,"date":"2014-03-07T15:16:39","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T20:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=4697"},"modified":"2014-03-07T15:16:39","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T20:16:39","slug":"iron-and-steel-museum-recognizes-womens-history-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=4697","title":{"rendered":"Iron and Steel Museum recognizes Women’s History Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women ran businesses at home, supplied front lines during Civil War<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kyle Carrozza<\/strong>,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. Florence K. Williams presents recreated artifacts to attendees. Items included slippers, a brandy bottle, faurina packets, and lemonade mix, which used the same recipe still used today.<\/p><\/div>\n

COATESVILLE \u2013 While men are very often the ones recognized with songs and medals during times of war, women are the ones who take over duties while men are off fighting.<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

During her lecture Thursday night at the National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum, Dr. Florence K. Williams recounted the stories of Coatesville women during the Civil War.<\/p>\n

Williams said that she originally set out to study the actions of women during the Civil War but found so much information through U.S. Census and newspaper reports from the time that she ended up focusing her efforts on women in Coatesville, particularly in 1862.\"\"<\/p>\n

Many of the contributions came through women sending supplies from home to hospitals and the front lines during the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do we need to get to the soldiers, and how do we get it there?\u201d Williams said that the women asked themselves.<\/p>\n

Wealthy and poor alike sent items to soldiers, and each citizen\u2019s donation was listed in newspapers. Donations ranged from clothing to food (including corn starch, dried beef, jam, and chocolate) to bedding to lint (used for absorbing blood during medical treatments), and reading material\u2014Williams noted that even three month old newspapers gave soldiers something to occupy their time with.<\/p>\n

Much of the aid was organized through church groups. The women of Coatesville eventually founded the Coatesville Ladies Aid Society in 1861. The society organized shipments to the front lines and always made sure to send one of their own to ensure the items reached their destination without getting caught up in government red tape.<\/p>\n

Williams also gave a glimpse of the town that was able to provide that aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of trades in this small community was quite extensive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Williams said that, like much of its history, the city\u2019s economy was based around iron and steel. However, the coal, brick, and lumber industries were also represented, and farms surrounded the city. In addition, over half the residents made livings as tradesmen. Samuel Greenwood, a wool mill owner who specialized in fine clothes, made uniforms during the war. In order to make many of the uniforms, he produced pieces of fabric that were then given to local women to sew together.<\/p>\n

In addition to the businesses in the area, Coatesville, at the time had integrated common schools\u2014that is, schools that girls and black students attended alongside white males.<\/p>\n

Williams said that women took over many of their husbands jobs during the war. Martha F. Gordon became postmistress and was so loved by the community that when she was fired after the war, protests ensured she was reinstated and even received a raise.<\/p>\n

Williams said that women running their husbands\u2019 businesses and farms proved that they could do these jobs, giving them a sense of independence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learning we could do those kinds of things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s dependence on women during times of war has been a recurring theme throughout history. Williams mentioned Rosie the Riveter as a World War II example of the nation\u2019s need for women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe women come to the rescue. The guys can\u2019t do without us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women ran businesses at home, supplied front lines during Civil War By Kyle Carrozza,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times COATESVILLE \u2013 While men are very often the ones recognized with songs and medals during times of war, women are the ones who take over duties while men are off fighting. During her lecture Thursday night at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[3035,185,1358,2688,3036,3037,3038],"class_list":["post-4697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-3035","tag-coatesville","tag-history","tag-national-iron-and-steel-heritage-museum","tag-soldiers","tag-the-civil-war","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}