Laundresses Row - San Francisco, Ca - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

"Following British Army practice, the U.S. Army made provision for laundresses in 1802. The Army allowed them space for quarters, rations for food, straw for bedding and medical care. Four laundresses were allowed for each hundred men. Later this was expanded to one laundress for every 19 1/2 men. The captain of each company appointed them. Many laundresses were Irish immigrants. Soldiers paid them through deductions from their pay while officers paid the laundresses directly. An industrious laundress could make several times the pay of a thirteen-dollars-a-month private. Some also worked as tailors, part-time cooks or midwives. Many married non-commissioned officers (sergeants) or soldiers and raised children on the post despite an Army regulation forbidding married men, or men with children, from enlisting. In 1878, the Army banned the enrollment of laundresses with the provision that those already at work could remain. Rations stopped being issued to laundresses in 1883. The laundress' wooden cabins at the Presidio were demolished in the mid-1890s for the construction of the Montgomery Street barracks. Not much is known about the individual histories of these working women. There was a second cluster of laundresses' quarters near Fort Point and a third near what are now the stables. A post-shaped, rose-colored granite grave marker in today's pet cemetery is inscribed: "In Memory of Margaret O'Brien a native of county Donegal, Ireland, died February 25, 1889, aged 52 years. May her soul rest in peace, amen."

Group that erected the marker: NPS Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: 7000 Taylor Rd San Francisco, CA URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

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