Carney Farmhouse (ca. 1893)
Carney Farmhouse (ca. 1893)
William Morris Carney
and his wife, Sallie E. Carney were both of Native American
ancestry. The Carney's built their first house on five acres of land in Cheswold, Delaware in 1893. In the years that followed, the Carney's had three children -- Thomas, Frazier, and Elizabeth.
The architectural design of the Carney home was typical of those found in rural Delaware. Downstairs, the house had an eat in kitchen
and parlor. Upstairs, there were four bedrooms, one of which contained a large tin tub for bathing and a wooden commode with chamber pot. There was no indoor plumbing. A well was situated as near to the house as practicable, from that a handpump was used to draw water for cooking and bathing. An outhouse, the primary "convenience" used to answer nature's call, was situated 50 feet or more from the house to prevent odor from drifting into the family home.
Like many 19th century farmhouses in Delaware, the Carney home had a "summer kitchen". During the warmer months of the year, meals were prepared in the summer kitchen rather than the farmhouse kitchen, which helped to keep the house cool. Before electricity, all the cooking was done on wood burning stoves which radiated intense heat. The warmth of a wood stove was welcome in the winter but could be unbearable during warm weather. Another function of the summer kitchen was to separate the dangers of fire (ever present with a wood burning stove) from the main house.
