Arnott, Sigrid wrote:
>
> I am wondering if anyone is aquainted with a privy type found at an
> 1860s elite home in small-town Minnesota. The privy is contained in a
> corner of summer kitchen addition and entered from the house. The holes
> are suspended over a small cart that is accessible from the back
> exterior.
The arrangement you describe sounds like it might have been an earth
closet. This seems to have been something of a fad beginning in the
late 1860s and would fit the bill for a progressive 'book farmer' in the
mid-19th-century. The idea was that after each use of the toilet a
small bucket of dry and fine ground or crumbled dirt would be used to
cover the wastes. It was claimed that the dirt disinfected and
deodorized. When the receptacle became full it was removed and the
contents were emptied on the manure heap (at least in the farm
context). The sensitivity to smells may or may not have been a concern,
but it was believed that the 'noxious gases' and 'emanations' were
harmful to one's health. Several sources recommended adding coal ashes
to the dry earth and that probably did help in deodorizing.
There didn't appear to be too much concern with using human wastes as
fertilizer, although I'm fairly sure that the connection had been made
at that time between its use and the spread of certain diseases
(cholera? diptheria?). I seem to recall reading advice earlier in the
19th C prohibiting the use of human manure on fruit trees. Perhaps it
was still considered safe for certain crops, perhaps animal feed. One
of the bigger concerns, in the literature of the time, was the waste of
valuable fertilizers through the use of water closets. For more detail,
including some diagrams, see:
"Earth Closets vs. Water Closets." _American Agriculturist_ 26, No. 10
(October, 1867) 360.
"Earth Closets in Country Houses." _American Agriculturist_ 28, No. 11
(November, 1869) 414.
--appropos your building: "The application of this principle
allows the occupant of a house in the country to dispense with the
unsightly building at the foot of the garden, --approachable by delicate
women only by means of a long walk" . . . "always exposed to the
weather, and not seldom to public view,--and to provide suitable closet
accommodations in any part of the house in which it may be convenient to
have them, more completely inoffensive, and much less costly that the
water-closet which is in universal use in sewered towns." --also-- "A
seat over a wooden box in the cellar or back shed, with a box of earth
and a tin scoop at hand, may be used by an entire family . . ."
--and-- "Home-made earth closets may be constructed in the house, --or
at least in a rear building which may be approached from the house
without exposure to the weather."
[Not so much a problem in the south, but definitely worth considering in
Minnesota. <g>]
"A Warning to Every Housekeeper." _American Agriculturist_ 37, No. 6
(June, 1878) 224-225.
--Reports on the death of 6 members of a family of 8 in Newport, RI,
from diptheria as a result of the "utter and shocking neglect to remove
the wastes of the bodies of those eight persons." Recommends the earth
closet and includes a cut-away illustration "Changing a Common Vault to
an Earth-Closet."
"Night Soil--How to Manage." _American Agriculturist_ 44, No. 3 (March,
1885) 103.
Marty
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Martin C. Perdue
Bibliographer
Vernacular Architecture Forum
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