For many, working at a US Mint was a lifetime commitment.
RogerB
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This letter from October 1886 documents the career of a female adjuster and later counter at the Philadelphia Mint. Except for brief mentions, this is all we know about Miss Dorff.
The transcription is by one of the great volunteers helping with this project.
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Don't know if there was any question about the date that women were first employed at the Mint as adjusters, but this would certainly establish it.
Thirty six years of service...certainly notable. I wonder what her age was at the time of passing. Cheers, RickO
I wonder how many in government today sign correspondence with "your obedient servant".
Church burial records state she was 65, putting her birth date in 1821. This matches the 1870 Census. She and an unmarried sister lived with her brother-in-law.
Daughters of temperance - that can't be good! She'd hate Friday evenings around this site!
thats an interesting piece of history for sure.
It's possible that her temperance (no alcohol) beliefs got her the Mint position.
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I was under impression that there were female adjusters at the mint almost from the very beginning. I checked into my copy of Frank H. Stewart’s History of the First United States Mint, and my thoughts were confirmed. Under a section entitled "Names and Salaries of the Officers, Clerks and Workman Employed at the Mint the Tenth of October, 1795" there are two listings for "Sarah Waldrake, Adjuster" and "Rachael Summers, Adjuster," pages 97 and 98. Both of them earned 50 cents a day, which was lowest paying job at the mint. Even "John Bay, Boy" got 66 cents a day!
As for "lifers" who worked for only one company, I don't think that was so unusual, not that many years ago. When I worked at AT&T years ago there were many people there who had been working for the company since high school. They got good pensions at the end and seemed to be quite happy. One gentleman who retired at Allied Chemical when I worked there put in 56 years with the company when they made him retire at age 70. They immediately hired him back as a consultant.
Female adjusters were not common until Franklin Peale hired some as regular employees. This is confirmed by numerous documents. Women also were cleaners and made coffee, among other tasks.