March is National Women’s History Month

Laura Young
ECB Publishing, Inc.

Every March, people in the United States celebrate the achievements and history of women as part of Women’s History Month. Often the focus is on nationally known women with far-reaching accomplishments, like Sacagawea, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Amelia Earhart, Madeleine Albright and Misty Copeland.
In Florida, the Florida Women's Heritage Trail has established sites that recognize influential women like state legislator Elaine Gordon; Louise Maclay, who opened Maclay Gardens; Muskogee princess Millie Francis; author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings; lighthouse keeper Maria de Los Dolores Mestre Andreu; storyteller and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston; educator Mary McLeod Bethune; environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas and many others.
No doubt residents of Jefferson County can recall many remarkable local women who have made their mark close to home whether through participation in local government, church, civic action, family life, business, agriculture or community events. Below, historian and local author Rebekah Sheats gives us a close-up glimpse into the lives of two brave Jefferson County women who will be featured in one of her upcoming books.
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Fearless Females: Remarkable Lives of Jefferson County Women

Rebekah Sheats
Contributor

What was it like to be a woman in Jefferson County history? Though Jefferson may be a rural, quiet county, life was by no means boring for ladies of long ago. Here are two sketches of what life was like for some women of the past:

Nancy Brown: Untiring and Always Smiling
Born around 1900, Nancy grew up in Lamont. Her parents, Sampson and Betsy McIntosh, were farmers. Even though she was a girl, Nancy helped in the field with the rest of the family. “Honey, I plowed like a man,” she recalled.
The family grew cotton, corn, peanuts, sweet potatoes, sugar cane and watermelon. They didn’t have running water in the house, so Nancy would carry the produce to a nearby stream to wash it.
In the evenings, Nancy or one of her siblings would draw water from the pump in the yard. They heated the water on the wood stove and then poured it into a metal tub.
“I’d take my bath, and then my sister would take her bath, and we’d just go round and round till we’d get through,” Nancy explained.
Nancy also helped with the livestock by milking the cows and making butter and clabber. She did all this by hand, leaving her the possessor of many treasured farm recipes. How was the butter and clabber made?
She explains: “You set the milk in a container to let the cream come up on it. And then you skim the cream off and churn the butter. Then you have buttermilk [left]. And then if you have any cream, you sit down and get a piece of cornbread and mash it up on a board or something. Then get out a spoon for the clabber, and put cream on it. Boy, that’s good.”
When she finished with the cows, Nancy also tended the hogs. To wash clothes, the family made their own potash soap.
“You would take potash, and put in your grease or hog chitlins. Then pour about a cup of water on it, in there to grind it up until you couldn’t see it. Then you’d take the potash and pour more in there, then add more water. The more you cook it, the more you’d add water. And so that’s the way I usually made potash soap.”
Nancy would use the soap and a rub board to wash their clothes.
Nancy and her family attended church at Mt. Olive Primitive Baptist in Lamont. Faithful members, they were present at Sunday services and weekly prayer meetings. For her entire life, Nancy loved to sing the songs and hymns she had known from childhood.
Life in Lamont was many things, but it certainly wasn’t boring. Nancy loved it, and her cheerful countenance was a constant reminder that her upbringing, with all its hard work, was something she cherished even in old age.

Louisa Ann Peurifoy: Courageous Survivor
Another tale of indomitable femininity is the story of Louisa Ann Peurifoy. Born in 1816 to Daniel and Lucinda Bird, she moved with her family to Jefferson County when she was a teenager. Louisa married Tilman Dixon Peurifoy in 1833, and the couple had two children, Lorick Pierce and Elizabeth.
Tilman was a Methodist circuit preacher. He traveled throughout Middle Florida, preaching at various country churches of the region. In his absence, Louisa was often left to run the household alone for days or weeks at a time.
In March 1838, Tilman left home for several days to visit other churches of the Alachua mission. This was during the Seminole Wars (1816-1858), and on the afternoon of April 1, their home was attacked by warriors. A young household slave escaped, but Louisa's two children were killed by gunfire. Louisa herself had been severely wounded and was left for dead outside the log cabin. After the attackers' departure, Louisa managed to drag herself to a nearby stream. Her father’s home lay only two miles away, but she was too weak to reach it. She collapsed at the stream and waited for death. A night and a day passed while she lay, unable to raise herself or call for help. Finally, as the sun was setting on the second night after her escape, Louisa’s father Daniel Bird and a search party discovered the still form by the stream.
Louisa was carefully carried to her father’s house, where she received immediate medical attention. Her wounds were numerous and severe, but she was a strong-willed woman, and the Monticello doctor hoped for the best. A local newspaper optimistically reported, “her physician entertains strong hopes of her recovery.”
Amazingly, Louisa did recover. Bedridden for months, the twenty-one-year-old woman at length regained her strength and was able to walk again. She and her husband Tilman continued their work among the Methodist churches, and Louisa would give birth to seven more children. In old age, one of her favorite pastimes was to show her grandchildren the scars she still bore from her encounter with the Seminole Indians.
No matter their profession or position in society, women certainly had a role to play in Jefferson County history. Their part is often overlooked, but theirs is a most fascinating, significant role, and it is one that should be remembered today.