John Janney
Cleanliness
Soap
Janney states that making soap was the worst job for women to do. The ashes from the fireplace were saved. The ashes were placed in a lye hopper and water pulled over it. As the water filter down through the ash it would collect lye and come out the bottom into a bucket. The lye water was mixed with lard in a large kettle. The lye soap was removed from the kettle and placed in molds to dry. When the soap dried the farmer would have either a soft of hard soap (soft and hard soap was determined by the type of lard used.) Soap was made in the spring by the Janney family but it wasn't unusual to make soap in the late fall during butchering.
Bathing
Janney states that they would work all day in the hot and dusty fields and come home and wash their faces, hands and feet. They would go to bed in the same shirt they worked in. Janney comments that men took little value in bathing.
