Youth & Family News - Children at Work

This photograph shows the Hamilton Woolen Company in Amesbury, circa 1905, with children working in the spinning room. (Photograph courtesy of the Amesbury Public Library, Local History Collections.)

How did children spend their time into the early 1900’s?

Working families and farm families expected their children to help out at home with chores as soon as they were able—carrying wood, tending chickens, helping in the fields and gardens. All kids helped around the house. For example, both boys and girls were expected to learn to sew and knit to keep up with the never-ending task of making and repairing clothes.

While most of these kinds of tasks occurred in the home, with the coming of industrialization, children also began working outside the home in mills and other businesses. By age 10, many kids from working families were employed for long days of work in textiles mills. They sorted bobbins, ran beneath power looms tying up broken threads, and did other jobs. These children contributed necessary resources to their families and perhaps only had free time on Sundays. Next month we’ll take a look at what kids might have been doing with their free time.

We hope you’ll come to visit and share your family stories with us–our visitors to date have helped us to learn much about working in the Mills, for both kids and adults. We heard about a grandmother who, in the early 20th century, was sent away from her home to live with distant relatives to learn a trade around age 8, and then going to work for pay. This is something she never forgot.

We’re opening the IHC on Saturday, April 2nd for the new year—and we hope you come to visit and share your stories about life in Amesbury.