The Outhouse

Toilets were small wooden buildings commonly with two seating spaces (diamond shaped or round holes in the bench-like seat ). Unheated, the privy was a cold place in the wintertime. Waste built up under the seat until it was necessary to either remove the waste, move the privy, or construct a new one.

At night, women and girls made use of a flanged bucket usually known as a “slop jar” and kept under their bed. Indoor plumbing did not come to most farms until the 1930's, 1940's, or 1950's.