How did people go to the bathroom in the past?
Today we would horrified at the bathroom practices of the past. Back 200 years ago, people were not private about their bathroom habits. During early years on the frontier, people would go behind a tree or in the woods. Most houses had a chamber pot which was just a round bowl. They would use this pot during the night or when the weather was too bad to go outside. There were both indoor and outdoor privies, also called outhouses. These small rooms ranged from a hole in the ground with a log across it for sitting, to a raised platform with a hole in the seat. Some privies at inns or even at private houses had multiple holes, or seats, so obviously people used them at the same time. Some even included a child-size seat. There was no toilet tissue back then. People used leaves, grass, or even dry corn cobs for wiping. Chamber pots had to be emptied each day. This was usually done by emptying them down the privy hole. With liquid waste, some just threw the contents out in the yard. There a
