1860 Census and Phillip Dinkell

[L Verge]

(12-10-2015 06:05 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(12-10-2015 05:36 PM)L Verge Wrote:  As to servant "Mary," we are talking of a period when there were many young girls who left their own homes in order to serve as housekeepers in someone else's as a legitimate way to earn a wage or to support one's self. This was especially true once the Irish (especially) and Germans began to immigrate here in good numbers, but it had been fairly common among American families earlier who had to send their children out to support the younger children at home. It was an honest and respected form of labor. This could apply to single women, widowed ladies, etc. who needed income. Do we have a clue as to this Mary's age?

In their book about Lincoln's neighborhood, authors Bonnie Paull and Richard Hart indicate she was Irish. I think she was in her late teens.

Fits my idea to a T. I believe that many such laboring children were as young as twelve when they were hired out. If I were Mary Lincoln, knowing her personality problems, I would select a young servant that I could mould to my standards -- not some elderly lady over the age of twenty who had ideas of her own!