As you enter the master bedroom from the hall, the fireplace is to the left, on the back wall. Besides noticing that the trim is simpler than that of the downstairs fireplaces, you notice that the fireplace itself is not centered on the wall. This is because it uses the same chimney as the dining room fireplace and is set slightly to the side to let the flue of the dining room fireplace pass beside it.

Besides being this master bedroom, this was also the children's bedroom until they were around five or six years old. They would start out sleeping in a cradle, and when they got too big for that, they would move to the trundle bed. Since Ezekiel was labeled "weakly," it is possible he did not graduate from the trundle bed until he went off to school.

A trundle bed is a low bed that slips under a higher bed in the daytime and is brought out at night for use. You can see a trundle bed in the pictures below.

The reasons younger children slept in the room with their parents is because the parents wanted to keep an eye on them and to conserve wood fuel. There was a high infant mortality rate, running around 20 to 25 percent, and there was also a danger of fire at night.

The large bed is a rope bed. This means the mattresses are setting on a web of rope rather than on board slats, as in some other 19th century beds. They had not invented box springs yet and the rope or slats took the place of the box springs. These ropes had to be tightened about once a week or they would be too loose for comfortable sleeping. Anyone on the bed would roll to the middle because of the sags. The T-shaped object on the trundle bed in the left picture above is a bed wrench. This is what they used to tighten the ropes.

The mattresses were generally made of feathers. In the winter, it was a luxury to have a top mattress made of goose down. In the summer, it was preferable to have a top mattress stuffed with lady straw or leaves or some other similar material because it felt cooler. The problem with using this type of stuffing was that bugs were often introduced with it.

Between having bugs in the mattress and having to tighten the ropes, "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" had meaning to these folks and the saying had its origin in this time period.

Next to the bed is a table that serves as a nightstand. The cup and saucer on top of it belonged to Jane. If you click on the picture and enlarge it, you can see the pattern on the china.

Even wealthy people did not have enough changes of clothes to need closets. Putting clothing in dressers, tossing it over chairs, or hanging it from pegs provided plenty of storage.
The dresser in the master bedroom was made in North Carolina and is a very attractive piece. The mirror that is on top and the box that is attached to the mirror are not part of the dresser. These constitute what is called a "shaving stand." The man of the house would use it when he was shaving in the morning. Remember they did not have sinks or running water in the house.

What they did have was a washstand outfitted with a bowl and pitcher, as in the picture at the left. The piece of wood furniture is the washstand. The pitcher is on its lower shelf and the bowl is on the upper shelf. They would keep water in the pitcher, and when they were ready to wash, they would pour what amount they wanted into the bowl and use it from there.

In the morning they would use the bowl and pitcher to splash water over their face and hands. Practically no one used soap on their skin. The lye soap they made was harsh and used for laundry. Besides, they felt that the natural oils on the skin should be left there as a protection from various diseases like typhus.

You do not see any signs of a bathtub. People rarely bathed. Some bathed only every three or four months and some even less than that. Bathing was not considered healthy. Even Saturday night baths did not become popular until the late 1800's. People would use "scents" to make themselves acceptable and to, hopefully, mask the smell of others around them. One men's after shave that was popular is still sold today: Caswell & Massey's Number 5, a bottle of which Lafayette gave to George Washington as a gift. Women frequently used lavender water, rose water, Hungary Water, or Tosca.

Bed linens frequently had lavender tucked in them. In addition, the strewing herbs mentioned during the tour of the dining room, must have helped keep the home fresh.