Finger Lakes history · regional story
Developing historyThe workers in Rose Hill's account book
Historic Geneva's research puts paid workers beside the Swan family in Rose Hill's history.
Research status
This history is still developing.
Parts of this account remain unresolved. Here is what the sources support, what is uncertain, and what we are looking for next.
About this review. Written and source-checked with AI assistance under an owner-authorized editorial process. This is not a personal review by Riley or an independent historian. Sources and unresolved questions are listed below; corrections are welcome.
- What the records establish
- The wage figures and household counts come from Historic Geneva's published interpretation. We have not independently inspected the account book or census sheets for this article.
- What remains uncertain
- Names alone do not settle identities. This account omits proposed family connections and does not turn likely household duties into documented assignments to particular workers.
- What we are researching next
- Seek worker-authored letters, corroborated family records, and exact census and account-book references. Keep employer judgments separate from independently established facts.
In her 2014 article, Anne Dealy reports that Robert Swan's 1850s account book listed female servants' monthly wages at $4 or $5, compared with $10 for male workers.
The census adds another set of glimpses. Dealy found two female domestic servants in the household in 1850, four in 1860, three in 1870, and two in 1880. Only one census-listed servant also appeared in Swan's account book.
There is a limit to what those records can tell us. As Dealy cautions, the papers preserve the employers' view. They do not give us the workers' own accounts of their lives.
Sources
- Anne Dealy, Domestic Service at Rose Hill, Historic Geneva, May 30, 2014. Paragraphs on Robert Swan's 1850s wage records, the papers' employer perspective, and the 1850–1880 federal census counts.