The house at 330 Spring St. in Portland where housemaid Lena Megguier of Windham was employed in 1898. Photo by Haley Pal
“1898 has come in with a blustering snowstorm,” wrote young Lena Megguier in her new diary, which she planned to write in every day of the coming year. She was then living at home in South Windham where she was nursing her ailing mother. By the 18th of the month, her momma had passed away at the age of 39 and on Jan. 22, her funeral took place.
The next day, Lena was to return to work in Portland for her mistress, “Mrs. B,” who lived in the city’s West End. Most days in her employ, Lena did the physically demanding and repetitious work of a Victorian housemaid. She was responsible for cleaning, washing, ironing and all other tasks that were necessary to maintain a neat and tidy home.
Domestic service was the leading occupation for young Irish immigrants like Lena. The position included room and board. Dusting and sweeping were expected to be done daily and furniture, glassware, porcelain and silver were to be shined as needed. Fires had to be lit and kept going and due to the soot they produced, curtains had to be cleaned regularly.
Monday was wash days and on Tuesday many hours were spent ironing the laundry she had done the day before. She often rose at 4:30 in the morning and finally finished her chores at 6 in the evening. Lena’s favorite weekday was Wednesday when she was able to get out of the house to run errands in downtown Portland with her best friend, Rose.
On occasion, one of her family members might be allowed to visit. On March 16, Lena kept herself occupied polishing silver while waiting for her sister to arrive on the train from Windham. She had the whole day off, so she also read “a bit of the interesting book, ‘A Devotee and a Darling.’ ” Elva arrived at 4 p.m. and then the girls had a “red-letter day.” They made an orange pudding and a plain cake together and both turned out “tip-top.”
The next day, they attended service at the Church of the Advents and heard the Rev. Joshua Denton preach. Lena was a member of the youth group The People’s Society of Christian Endeavor and went to various different churches on Sundays to hear services. Started by the Rev. Francis E. Clark of the William Congregational Church in Portland, the organization grew from a small group of young people to a world movement by the time that Lena became a member. She often talked about going to “the Endeavor” on Sunday evenings with Rose.
Mrs. B kept Lena abreast of major world events by reading her newspaper articles. On March 30, Lena commented in her diary that the “world is a dark place, as if a war will come any day.” The month before, the USS Maine had been sunk in Havana Harbor and war with Spain was imminent. It was declared on April 21. On May 2, Lena and Rose went to Union Station to see the local soldiers off. “It was a very pretty, but sad sight to see them marching for no one knows how many of them will never see Portland again,” she wrote.
On June 17, Lena got the bad news that Mrs. B was doubling her workload, but not her pay. Her salary was $3.50 a week and now she was expected to clean the windows and the carpets as a part of her job. Carpet cleaning was very difficult work. It meant moving all the furniture in the room, pulling up the carpets, dragging them outside to beat them clean and then putting the carpets and furniture back in place, and doing all of this by herself. This could take her two days as she was so tired after getting the carpet cleaned, she could barely wait to get into bed.
In the summer, Lena tended the household gardens and in the fall she did the harvesting and canning and made jams and jellies. She even had to work on Christmas Day, preparing the holiday meal. “My dinner was a huge success,” she wrote. “They liked the food so much at dinnertime, they were still too full to eat an evening meal.”
Sometimes Lena complained about her job and how she hated housework. She wished she had more time to study so she could find better work. She loved reading and writing and wanted to do more of both. But most days, she made the most of things. And if something went terribly wrong or was discouraging, she simply wrote, “Oh lackadaisy.”
Lena’s diary is part of the Windham Historical Society’s collection.
Haley Pal is a Windham resident and an active member of the Windham Historical Society. She can be contacted at haleypal@aol.com.
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