Who We Were, Occupations Before The Uniform

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
There was an ' Occupations ' thread I'd started in Ladies Tea on the grounds that our era women encountered tradesmen in the course of everyday life, be great to see who. It's only recently occurred to me that these same photos were most probably men who later put on different uniforms- the reason this occurred to me ( finally ) is from reading various profiles. " Private Kahelsephat was a chemist pre-war.... ", and " Sergeant Schlinleschleafferhoffer, a successful attorney pre-war, left his practice to enlist in the.... "

There must have been a fascination with occupations, either that or the men and women engaged in them were seriously proud to follow them because there seems to be an inexhaustible supply. As far as I remember, these are new, never posted here although may go back and borrow a few.

Another aspect of these photos which I find riveting ( truly ) is wondering how many would have found their niche within the armies, said army making use of one's trade. Guessing it wasn't terribly common- perhaps the blacksmiths, doctors, metal workers. One grgrgrandfather of mine ( OH! Did I mention he was in the 6th US Cavalry? Trooper George Knarr? Hee..... ) took care of horses, his family built and ran canal boats. He pursued that by himself, being familiar with horses. You just wonder how many were able to contribute pre-war knowledge. Not many.

Not, I'm guessing, this guy. Lepidopterist.
o butterfly collectr.jpg


Goldminer
o goldminer.jpg


Sailor- yes!
o mm sailor.jpg


Rail Road surveyor, planner
o rr desgner.jpg


Shoemaker
o shoemaker.jpg


Acrobat
oacrobat.jpg


Artist
oartist.jpg


Architect
oarchitect.jpg


Blacksmith
oblacksmith.jpg


Butcher
obutcher.jpg


Carpenter
ocarpenter.jpg


This was labeled ' Carver', am doubting it's what his title was- maybe pattern maker?
ocarver.jpg


Chemist again

ochemist2.jpg


Cobbler/Shoemaker
ocobbler.jpg


Butcher, seems to be a gentleman butcher!
obutcher2.jpg
 
Cook, do not know if chef is more appropriate for the era and his work clothing?
ocook.jpg


Dentist, what a dreadful occupation in that era. LOVE the blood-red tinting on the photo! ( tintype )
odentist.jpg


Carraige driver
odriver.jpg


Embroidery worker, one of the few female occupational photos, and who says she did not run off and put on a uniform? :smile:
oembroidery worker.jpg


Frame maker, which was big stuff in the era. Gold leaf, plaster embossing- ever have one of the old frames crumble with age and damage? Think of all that, backwards.
oframemaker.jpg


Someone on Pinterest had this surveyor labeled furniture maker- not sure where that came from. Super image of the tools of the trade.
ofurniture.jpg


Fur trapper, tough way to make a living. If one ever became an enlisted man, not sure he'd have a hard time adjusting to life on the march.
ofurtrapper.jpg


Harness Maker, holding up a sample of how well he sews through leather. And he did REALLY good work!
oharnessmakr.jpg


Hunter, same, not a tough time adjusting to tents or shooting- or bloodshed
ohunter.jpg


Inventor, this man had one of the thread feeders to his credit. Holy Cow- but you do hear of so many, many stories, men went to war as professors, clerks, inventors, farmers- everyone was the same once they shooting began.

oinventor thread machine.jpg


This says " Ironer"- she was probably a tailor, or lace makerwho used these tools as part of a specific trade. Pinterest ' pinners' frequently make stuff up which fits the photo.
oironer.jpg


Locksmith
olocksmith.jpg


Machinist
omachinist.jpg


Dairyman, milkman
omilkman.jpg


Milliner, love the hats ready to be trimmed.
omilliner.jpg


Mule driver, he'd have been hugely handy in both armies!
omuledriver.jpg
 
Musician
omusician.jpg


Peddler
opeddler.jpg

Plasterers
oplasterers.jpg


Plumbers, although am unsure what year this would be
oplumbers.jpg

Scene painter, no need of him anywhere on a battlefield, he'd have been retrained. :smile:
osene painter.jpg


Sign Painter- not as easy as you'd think either. Same as the frame maker, with gold leaf skills, lettering, not to mention various crafting requiring. OH and use of explosives. Yep- for billboards. May have been helpful, just thought of that.
osignpainter.jpg


Surgeon, could have used more
osugeon.jpg


More surveyors
osurveyers.jpg


Sweep, we think of these as only England, but chimneys all over the world caught fire of you did not get the creosote out of there,
osweep.jpg

Another photo, someone had posted as ' Toleware painter', Looks like a silversmith.
otoleware painter.jpg


Watchmaker
owatchmaker.jpg
 
Expired Image Removed



My husband's grandmother worked in a laundry in London, before coming to Canada. She was an ironer at first but later graduated to gofferer, which meant she ironed the lace and the ruffles on the edges of clothing. Apparently it was a very exacting job!
 
Last edited:
Expired Image Removed



My husband's grandmother worked in a laundry in London, before coming to Canada. She was an ironer at first but later graduated to gofferer, which meant she ironed the lace and the ruffles on the edges of clothing. Apparently it was a very exacting job!

Ok, that helps a TON thanks very much! Plus it makes sense, looking at some of the astonishing work you see- not only in photos but we have some examples of old lace and trim in awfully good condition. More of a skill then than merely someone setting out to iron clothing- although from what I've read ( a lot here on the forum ) even that was difficult, took knowing what you were about not to ruin clothing. It's always fascinated me, the real thing, looking at these endless photos we have from the era- all over the internet- pristine articles of clothing, dripping lace, SO white and perfect, when you consider what it took to keep it that way.

Love to hear more on her, if you have anything? Not just her profession, all these immigrants have very cool stories.
 
Ok, that helps a TON thanks very much! Plus it makes sense, looking at some of the astonishing work you see- not only in photos but we have some examples of old lace and trim in awfully good condition. More of a skill then than merely someone setting out to iron clothing- although from what I've read ( a lot here on the forum ) even that was difficult, took knowing what you were about not to ruin clothing. It's always fascinated me, the real thing, looking at these endless photos we have from the era- all over the internet- pristine articles of clothing, dripping lace, SO white and perfect, when you consider what it took to keep it that way.

Love to hear more on her, if you have anything? Not just her profession, all these immigrants have very cool stories.
She was a lovely woman, played the piano by ear, and always seemed to be laughing, at least in the brief time I knew her. She came to Canada with her mother after the Great War, lived in a small town near Niagara Falls, where she met her future husband. Ma-maa did not approve, so took her back to England to marry some cousin who had more money. Grandma had no intention of doing that, but stayed a year or so and then came back to Canada by herself, and married the "old coot" as he was known in later years. They were married in January, and she forgot to take her galoshes off before the ceremony, much to her dismay, and then the priest who married them, intoned" Those whom God have put asunder, let no man join together". She always laughed that she was never sure if she was really married, or not!
 
@Northern Light ( I tried to 'reply', kept getting the whole thing caught up in the blue, quote portion of the reply, so ditched the whole thing. )

Not the same thing, for some reason that made me think of an account I read, wish I knew where. Cannon balls would look fairly harmless spent, deceptively bouncing towards the enemy. A new enlisted man ran out, before anyone could stop him and kicked one, of course losing his leg in the process, poor guy. Not such a crazy idea missing the thing by leaping over it, maybe he would do well in a pinch.


Your relative sounds delightful, truly! What bride today would think it hysterical to have kept her boots on accidentally- it would have ' ruined' the whole wedding these days! Heck seems a wrong shade of flower being delivered ' ruins ' entire weddings now. That generation took things in stride, not only made the best of what life threw at them, they incorporated it into their whole outlook. Just refused to let whatever adversity they faced stop them, amazing.

Who do we know now, plays piano by ear? Some extraordinary children of stubborn parents who disallow internet connections possibly. Not really doing the ' This generation is for the birds ' thing, but I will say an awful lot of youth are too easily entertained via electronics, do not have to cure boredom by finding their own creative outlets
 
Last edited:
@Northern Light ( I tried to 'reply', kept getting the whole thing caught up in the blue, quote portion of the reply, so ditched the whole thing. )

Not the same thing, for some reason that made me think of an account I read, wish I knew where. Cannon balls would look fairly harmless spent, deceptively bouncing towards the enemy. A new enlisted man ran out, before anyone could stop him and kicked one, of course losing his leg in the process, poor guy. Not such a crazy idea missing the thing by leaping over it, maybe he would do well in a pinch.


Your relative sounds delightful, truly! What bride today would think it hysterical to have kept her boots on accidentally- it would have ' ruined' the whole wedding these days! Heck seems a wrong shade of flower being delivered ' ruins ' entire weddings now. That generation took things in stride, not only made the best of what life threw at them, they incorporated it into their whole outlook. Just refused to let whatever adversity they faced stop them, amazing.

Who do we know now, plays piano by ear? Some extraordinary children of stubborn parents who disallow internet connections possibly. Not really doing the ' This generation is for the birds ' thing, but I will say an awful lot of youth are too easily entertained via electronics, do not have to cure boredom by finding their own creative outlets
it doesn't help when parents plunk their kids in front of the TV all day from the time they are born. Oh Goodness that sounds so OLD! LOL
 
In my reading over the years I have read that almost anything needed to be done now!, there were men in the ranks that were able to do it in the regiment if not in the co.

That would make a great thread, taking a typical regiment and breaking it down to each man's pre-war occupations. Guess it would also depend on some of the areas where they mustered. Here in PA we had some heavily composed of miners and boatmen ( canal ) , farmers and immigrants who did all of those occupations. Of course others also, don't mean to imply that's all there were. Within those groups I'll bet they really could do pretty much anything. Well, almost- the Engineers could come along, take care of the big stuff like getting entire armies across rivers. :smile:
 
it doesn't help when parents plunk their kids in front of the TV all day from the time they are born. Oh Goodness that sounds so OLD! LOL

No, not really. Children are beginning to grow up without an understanding of how to interact with each other, little worrying. Maybe extensively via text and messaging but not face to face- not as much. Not nearly as much but there's not test group to tell us if this is a ' good ' or ' bad ' thing, or just a ' thing '. I mean, compassion begins with understanding other people from the inside out, their conditions in life, their needs, putting ourselves in their shoes. If this generation never really touches each other in a meaningful way, not sure they'll develop the skills required to really live well together on a crowded planet. TV to text to Facebook instead of what we had, which was 3 channels of TV, then ' Go outside and play '. Entire neighborhoods of children playing the endless game of kickball at the local playground until mothers came to remind us ' Come home now, people! ' Ours had a police whistle- boy, if we did not arrive within 5 minutes after hearing that, better be a very good reason.
 
This could be an endless thread. When it seems it should be allowed to just peter out, will bump into a few more which turns into another search. We only have one photo of an ancestor in uniform if you don't count third cousins- can't imagine having some and allowing them to slip through your fingers like the constant stream you see on Ebay!

fow1.jpg

fow3.jpg

fow4.jpg




fow6.jpg


fow7.JPG

fow8.JPG


fow9.jpg

fow10.JPG







fow11.jpg



fow12.jpg
 
Back
Top