Tina-Kate @ Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:18 am wrote:Certainly Andrew's house was largely stuck back in the 1860s era too (keroscene lamps, heavy furniture, etc). His clothing wasn't much better.
Andrew was not particularly backward or out of style. Fairhaven only got electricity in 1889 and when the Town Hall was built (beginning in May 1892) both gas and electric lights were installed because electric lighting was still considered very unreliable. There were frequent brownouts and blackouts in those days. Our Millicent Library, which opened almost half a year after the Borden murders, quit using its electric lights and installed Rochester oil lamps because they provided better light.
Men's fashions did not change a whole lot between the Civil War and WWI, really. There's no reason why a man wouldn't wear a couple of good, well-made coats through most of his adult life. Only a generation or two before Andrew, people actually left coats and boots in their wills.
Besides being "Amish-Mennonite" as mb points out, that beard was also typical of the Quakers, who certainly were part of Andrew's religious background.
My friend, the late Edie Nichols, who used to portray Hetty "Witch of Wall Street" Green, argued that Hetty was unfairly characterized as a miser when she was, in fact, living up to the plain and frugal standards of her Quaker beliefs.
I believe Andrew was a thrifty Yankee. And I don't think Lizzie liked that at all.
