In this much simpler time water and sewer was established on a per household basis. This means water was supplied from your own well or cistern. Likewise you were also responsible for handling your own waste disposal. This was accomplished with the use of a privy located within walking distance of the house. Not until electricity and water were supplied on a commercial basis did the homes of our United States abandon their private spot.

The household privy was in many ways an early facsimile of what would evolve into our traditional bathroom, in that it housed many of the medications that were taken daily.

Privies were used by all members of the family with a smaller seat hole for the little ones. Sometimes a person would not want to make the trek out to the privy for various reasons such as inclement weather or maybe just too tired, so a chamber pot would temporarily hold the waste until it could be dumped into the privy.

The word privy means private. This word was synonymously used with the word outhouse. An outhouse was simply a small "outbuilding" with a bench seat and a circular hole fashioned in it located over a pit. Before the turn of the century nearly all residences in the United States had at least one privy on their property. Although sometimes we privy hunters still regard that as a highly capricious statement.