During its hay day, Aristocracy hill in Springfield Illinois was dotted
with the large and elegant homes of Springfield's wealthy and influential citizens. Benjamin and Alice Ferguson constructed their home in 1883, on land granted to them by Alice’s parents, Benjamin and Helen Edwards. Alice became known as one of the wealthiest women in Springfield, hosting parties on behalf of her parents and herself throughout her life. She employed a staff who worked and lived on her property and handled the cooking, cleaning, lawn maintenance, her family's transportation, along with a variety of other duties.
One of her servants was a young girl named Sigrid Nelson. Sigrid arrived in America in 1893, at the age of 13, after leaving her home in Kristianstad, Sweden. Three years later Sigrid answered an ad in the newspaper looking for a young girl to help with housework at the Ferguson Mansion. It is unclear where she was for her first three years in America or why she decided to settle in Springfield, though census records show 1/6th of Swedish immigrants settled in Illinois by the early 1900s.
(Picture of Newspaper Help Wanted Ad)
At 16, she was the youngest member of the staff. Her chores would have begun before sun-up, around 5 in the morning; and included cleaning fireplaces, opening and closing shutters, dusting, polishing, cleaning mirrors, paintings and wall hangings, and a never-ending rotation of duties that depended on the season or events of the day. In her free time, Sigrid would have been able to catch up on her own chores and affairs, she could have visited friends, run personal errands, or traveled downtown to shop.
In her twenty-five years working for the Ferguson family Sigrid worked with at least eleven other employees, but never more than two or three staff members at one time. Many of them would stay for a few years before they left and sought employment elsewhere in the community. Unfortunately, public records do not accurately record Sigrid’s title or position as an employed member of the house, making it unclear if she ever worked her way up in the servant hierarchy.
In 1921 Sigrid married Thomas H Moore and moved her husband and stepson into the Ferguson mansion. They did not stay there long as later that year Alice Ferguson died, forcing them to move. The land on the north and east side of the Edwards Estate had been parceled and some of the lots sold, allowing developers to build smaller single-family homes. Sigrid and her husband moved into one of these homes. Their first house was at 732 N 4th St, directly north of the Edwards Mansion; then in 1927 they moved to 801 N 5th St, two lots south of the Ferguson Mansion.
On August 17, 1926 Sigrid became the caretaker to the Springfield Art Association (SAA), located in the Edwards mansion. In 1913, after her parent's death, Alice Ferguson had donated their home to the organization in the hope it would allow the arts to leave a lasting impact on the citizens of Springfield. According to the SAA records that could be located, Sigrid worked for the organization until 1937 for $50 a month, with the occasional sum of $2 for groceries or a $10 Christmas bonus. City directories show Sigrid working as a live-in custodian for the SAA in 1948 although it is not clear how long she held that position. Sigrid passed away on October 16, 1973 leaving behind a son and multiple grandchildren.