The Cast Iron Stove

When is the last time you used a stove? Now, even more importantly, how easy was it? I bet all you had to do was turn a knob and *whoosh* a flame appeared and you were cooking. You all know where this is going, right? Yeah, let’s talk about stoves.

               In the 1860’s (when the Farm House was built), you might have found yourself with a cast iron, coal burning stove. These things are not to be trifled with because they are beastly, weighing around 500 lbs. Maintaining the fire in a coal stove was tough work and whose plate was it dropped on? Yes, the woman of the household. As if she didn’t have enough to do already, right? In order to keep the coals burning, they had to be stoked about every ten minutes. Try getting any cleaning, sewing, or laundry done, while caring for children, cooking, AND having to keep that up.

               I can even top that…there were no thermometers during this time period so how was the cook supposed to judge temperature? Well, the common rule was to hold your hand in the oven until you just couldn’t bare it anymore. Some old ‘How-to’ books say if you only last 20 seconds, it’s hot enough for a good sized roast… Are you kidding me?

               What does this tell us about the mid-19^th century?

Times were tough on the American frontier. The typical family didn’t even have some of the simple amenities you can find in the Farm House. Having kids was also an economical decision. People needed as much help as they could on the farm and in the house. So, it was common to see larger families. We’re talking 8+ children, each with different chores to do in order to contribute to the household. House chores like cleaning, sewing, caring for younger siblings, and washing clothes were given to the girls. When boys were old enough for physical labor, they basically became apprentices to their fathers, helping on the farm and doing any repair or construction work that needed to be done.

Living space was a luxury. This should be surprising! What did all of these farming families have so much of? Land! So, why did these early frontier homes only have a few rooms? One answer, that has to do with our coal burning stove, is it wasn’t easy to heat big homes. The cast iron stoves were the only source of heat in the brutal Iowa winter (that we all know and love) and usually there was one, maybe two in each house. Therefore, the better option was to cram all 8 kids into one room, the mother and father in their own room, then have one main room for everything else (cooking, sitting, reading, bathing, etc).

I think it’s safe to say we can all be grateful for being born in the current era. Electric and gas stoves, central heating, separate rooms for cooking, bathing, and sleeping. These things are all commodities now, but in the decades surrounding the beginning of Iowa State, this was not the case.

A Little About Why We're Here

History is fun! So why do we mess it up and make it boring by JUST reading about it? I'm not saying reading isn't helpful...that's how we learn a lot of information. BUT...not every author is really captivating AND that can make some historical topics seem pretty irrelevant. That's a shame, because ALL history is relevant and it can be way more engaging than words on a page!

The answer: objects. Things from the past help us make sense of it all. Objects that survived millennia tell us about how and where people lived, what they ate, who they worshiped, what they valued and so much more. Look, we know a lot of stuff about history, from the powerful ancient Chinese dynasties to that good ole’ American western frontier. Do you think we know about these things because somebody tweeted it….or even just wrote it down? Mostly no! A lot of what we know about day-to-day life (the stuff that actually matters) comes from objects. Objects visually take us into the past so we can understand how people lived, look at their actions and lifestyle, admire the triumphs and gasp at the evils.

Iowa State has a lot of history that is important not only for the university, but for the state of Iowa and the nation as a whole. Lucky for us, we have a living piece of ISU history right on our campus: the Farm House Museum! Step into the past and see what life was like in the Midwest at the turn of the 20^th century. Look at the objects so you can understand how people lived and learn specifically about important people and events from ISU’s history!

We plan on posting about an object every two weeks, so keep your eye out for more!

Also, stop by the Farm House Museum anytime between 12 and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday!