Women Cherish Their Dishes - A 1799 pioneer historical remembrance

In studying the history of a family primitive homestead painting ca.1775, I ran across a charming remembrance of my 4 x Great-grandmother, Hannah Brown Skinner, of the pioneer journey her family took in migrating from Bucks County, PA to found the town of Brownville, NY in 1799.

You can find the story here: http://hannahbrownskinner.blogspot.com/

The whole story was charming to me, but as a dish lover this passage really struck me. Here is a 75 year old woman thinking back on a challenging part of her life when she was 15 years old and her memory involves taking care of her DISHES:

"Mrs. SKINNER thinks now, that she never felt so rich in the acquisition of any other article of household furniture whatever, as she did when she had persuaded her father to make a couple of rude shelves for dishes, by driving wooden pins into auger holes made for the purpose, in the logs, on the inside of their house, and placing rough hewed shelves upon them. Her crockery was now arranged in order, after the most approved notion of good taste, instead of being huddled together in some corner of the room, or shut in one of the pine board chests which had served as packing boxes for their "plunder"."

 

 Here are some pictures of a kitchen of this period from the Paddock Museum in Watertown, NY .