A land with more orchards than indoor toilets?

People lived a little simpler in Lawrence County a century ago.

A survey of 132 Lawrence County homes made by the county Home Demonstration Agent in the spring of 1926 showed what “modern” amenities were uncommon.

Of the 132 houses surveyed:

7 homes were “named and posted”

105 were screened

120 had one or more shade trees

5 had base plantings

63 had grass lawns

4 had running water in the kitchen

7 had sinks or drains

1 had a bathroom

0 had septic tanks or indoor toilets

31 had provision for “cold storage” of food (of these, 13 were cellars and 8 were spring houses)

8 had “high tools” in the kitchen

19 had oil stoves

118 were doing their own laundry work

7 had barrel churns

1 had a vacuum cleaner

7 had oil mops

19 had floors painted or stained

53 had linoleum on one or more floors

132 subscribed to a newspaper or magazine

132 had summer gardens

81 had orchards

11 had incubators

20 had modern poultry houses

Source: Bass, Marvel. ‘Survey Reveals How They Live,’ The Nashville Tennessean, 19 Apr 1926, p. 6.