Working at the Langdon Mansion

 by Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

Wandering through our current exhibit on the Langdon mansion, “Grand, Domestic and Truly Comfy,” it’s tempting to imagine one’s self living there. But what about working there? Can you imagine that? Statistically speaking, it’s the more likely option. After all, the majority of the people who lived there over the years were the family’s employees. From when the Langdon’s purchased the home in 1863 to when it was demolished in 1939, they never employed less than three live-in servants. Some were employed there for decades, others barely made it a month. Who were these people and what were their lives there like?

Grand, Domestic, and Truly Comfy

Most of what we know about the servants employed by the Langdon family comes from census records. Conducted every 10 years, the US census provides us with the names and details of 17 of the various women who worked and lived in the Langdon household between 1870 and 1930. For example, in 1870, they employed Laura McCuin, a 20-year-old maid from Ireland, Nora McCan, another 20-year-old maid from Ireland, and Laura McInan, a 60-year-old Black woman from Pennsylvania. McInan was the only Black woman known to have worked at the Langdon mansion. Although her profession is simply listed as servant, given her age, she was likely either the housekeeper or cook. 

Census record for the Langdon home, 1870

Being a housemaid in the 19^th century was a young woman’s game. They not only had to dust, sweep, mop, and beat the carpets, they also had to tend the fires and gaslights, and scrub the resulting soot off the walls. In the 1870s and 1880s, the majority of the Langdon’s servants were in their 20s. They had to be in order to handle the strenuous work. Most of them would leave the profession within a few years in order to marry or take better-paying factory jobs. By the 20^th century, once the gaslights had been replaced by cleaner electric lighting and modern tools like vacuum cleaners made life easier, the Langdon’s servants tended to be older. These were no longer young women hoping to build a bit of a nest egg before leaving service to marry. These were older women who had decided to make a real career in the profession. One woman, Elizabeth Gagan, was 40-years-old when she appeared in the Langdon household in the 1920 census and was still there 10 years later at age 50 in 1930.

The vast majority of the known Langdon servants, 13 out of 17, were either from Ireland or were the children of Irish immigrants. This was in keeping with national trends. Starting with the Irish Potato Famine from 1845 to 1852, there was a massive influx of Irish immigrants to the United States. Unlike many other countries where women arrived as part of a family unit, many young Irish women immigrated alone so that they could send a portion of their wages home to their families. Irish maids had advantages over other immigrants in that they already spoke English. While immigration guides published in Ireland recommended that men only come in the spring and summer when they were likely to find jobs as seasonal laborers, Irish women could find work year round.

The servant who worked at the Langdon mansion the longest was not Irish, however, but of WASP-y New England stock. Esther C. Burr, worked for the Langdons for over 50 years. She was born Esther Hudson on February 28, 1847 in Alder Run, Pennsylvania near Milerton to parents who had come from Connecticut. She herself had moved to Elmira as a young woman. Here, she found work as a seamstress and a demonstrator at the Singer Sewing Machine store. She also found a husband. After he died, she took a job with Langdon family as a seamstress and lady’s maid for Ida Langdon, wife of Charles Langdon, in 1885. By 1900, she was 53 years old and had worked herself up to become the housekeeper. When her mistress died in January 1935, she willed Esther $500. The other servants got another $500 to split between them. Esther herself died a few months later at age 88 in the Langdon home.

 

Headline from Star-Gazette June 3, 1935

 The Langdon mansion was demolished in 1939. By then, the era of the live-in servant was largely over. Certainly no one would live and work at the Langdon home again.

 

Langdon home, ca. 1930s.