Parental dependence and filial responsibility in the nineteenth century: Hial Hawley and Emily Hawley Gillespie, 1884-1885.

This paper examines diaries written by an Iowa farm woman and her daughter in the 1880s that focus on care of the former's father. It highlights the problems intergenerational living arrangements could produce in the 19th century. In addition, it examines three general themes: the impact on adult children of financial responsibility for elderly parents, the responses of elderly people to structures of subordination, and the significance of hierarchies of gender as well as generation.