The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 103, July 1999 - April, 2000 Page: 36
554 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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36 Southwestern Historical Quarterly July
higher wages: $72 per month for a butler, $48 for a maid, compared to
$40-$45 she paid the butler, $40 to the maid; $72 in Huntington to her
$6o for the yardman. The next month Ida wrote Mamie to raise the
yardman to $7o a month; the maid to $70 if she were doing upstairs and
downstairs, otherwise to $50; and the cook "a little to help along."
(There is no record that the cook's wages increased at that time.)
Ironically, World War II, which generally improved women's wages,
brought economic inequity to the McFaddin household, as Ida and
Mamie sought increasingly scarce male employees. Upstairs maid Car-
rie Chatman's $40 per month wages in 1936 put her on a level with the
chauffeur, the butler, and the yardman, and above the cook. By 1942,
upstairs maid Cecelia Smith made $36, compared to the butler and
chauffeur's $45 and the yardman's $48; and by 1949, her monthly
wages came to only $60, while the butler and the yardman earned
$100.37
The paternalistic nature of the employer-domestic employee relation-
ship decreed that employers in some measure offset long hours and low
wages with other employee compensation. Benefits included room,
board, clothing, medical treatment, some type of old-age support or
housing, and finally, funeral expenses. Non-cash benefits actually
served to reinforce paternalism by emphasizing employer control and
social distance."
McFaddin domestic employees could live rent-free in the carriage
house. Contemporary employee manuals urged employers to make
quarters roomy, clean, and comfortable for the sake of hygiene, appear-
ance, and employee morale; however, reality often varied widely from
the ideal. Although furnishings for McFaddin employees were generally
second-hand, sometimes spartan, the rooms were well built, relatively
spacious, and equipped with electricity, indoor plumbing, and eventual-
ly hot water and gas heat, features lacking in many contemporary ser-
vants' quarters in Beaumont.39
17 Wage Records (MWH); Haynes, "Negroes in Domestic Service," 415; Jones, Labor of Love,
196, 206, 234-237, MMW diaries 1942-1946; ICM to MMW, Jan. 20, 1942, May 2, 1943, May
28, June 4, 1943; Cecelia Smith, interview with Jan Reitz, Aug. 8, 1983, Tapes 7-8, transcript p.
52 (MWH). It is unclear whether wartime conditions were solely responsible for excessive
turnover. All employees received a pay raise in November 1941, yet in January 1942 the butler
and chauffeur quit and the yardman almost did, after an apparent altercation with Mamie Ward.
*1 Sutherland, Americans, 112-114, 127; Wilson interview, Tapes 77-78, transcript pp. 13-17,
22-24, 27-28; Wilson interview, Tape 79, transcript pp. 9-11; Parker interview, Tapes 30-31,
transcript p. 44; Parker interview, Tape 32, transcript p. 19; Floyd Frank, interview by Judith
Linsley and John Marks, Aug. 6, 1991, Tapes 101-1o02, transcript pp. io-11 (MWH)
39 Haynes, "Negroes in Domestic Service," 429-430; Jones, Labor of Love, 128; Barbara Caye,
"Our Servants' Quarters," American Homes and Gardens, II (Mar., 1914), 107; ICM to MMW, Nov.
23, 1943; Parker interview, Tapes 30-31, transcript pp. 32-33; Anderson interview, Tape 66,
transcript p. 8-9; White interview, Tape 113, transcript p 2-6; Lemons interview, Tape 69, tran-
script pp. 4-6.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 103, July 1999 - April, 2000, periodical, 2000; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101220/m1/62/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.