Bicentennial Story #113-Slabtowns

Bicentennial Story #113-Slabtowns

Description of the slabtowns on the frontier army posts, quarters for enlisted men and their wives.

10/6/1975

Father Louis Pfaller

This recording cannot be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the Dickinson Museum Center. This recording may be freely used for education uses, so long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this recording file is permitted without written permission of the Dickinson Museum Center.

mp3

audio reel, analog, 1/4 inch polyester tape

English

BS-113

Copyright Stark County Historical Society and Dickinson Museum Center

In the frontier army posts, most of the enlisted men were single, or at least did not have their wives living at the post. Though at this period the army made little provision for the wives and families of the soldiers, army wives braved the hardship of the frontier posts to be with their husbands. The officers' quarters provided tolerable conditions for family life, but the married enlisted men lived in a sector called "slabtown." Many of the poor wives, to help to make ends meet, served as laundresses, charwomen, and servants for the officers.

This is Bicentennial Story No. 113, prepared by Father Louis Pfaller, for the Stark County Historical Society.

Sound recordings

0:58

128kbps

1970 1979

Bicentennial tape #7, Bicentennial stories 108-127