Many of the laundresses were married. If they were not married when they arrived at a fort, the chances were excellent that they would be married shortly thereafter. Laundresses made excellent money. It was not until a soldier reached the rank of First Sergeant that his pay was likely to be equal to the pay of a laundress. By marrying a laundress, a soldier could more than double his pay. Elizabeth Custer stated that for an enlisted man, marrying a laundress was a good investment. In addition, the ratio of laundresses to men was 1 to 19.5, or even higher when bachelor officers were included in the count. Certainly with those odds came a high possibility of courtship and marriage.
The idea of marriage on the frontier is somewhat different than simply standing up before a preacher and saying vows. Sometimes a preacher was not available. The circuit rider might come around once a year, or even less often. A soldier who wanted to marry had to get permission to do so. (To be cntd.)
Along with marriage came all the responsibilities of caring for a family. It was not unusual for children to be playing nearby while a laundress went about her daily duties. In fact, Soapsuds Row was often a noisy, busy, sometimes filthy place, with variable housing, families, dogs, farm animals, and washwater.
Housing
Housing for the laundresses varied from fort to fort.
Fort Union, New Mexico housed their laundresses in the adobe buildings that matched the rest of the red clay buildings.
Fort Robinson, Nebraska had brick apartment houses.
Fort Scott, Kansas provided rooms for the laundresses in the barracks. If the laundresses were married, they, like others at different forts may have stayed in tents close to the river.
Other forts provided hovels made of scraps of board, partitioned off rooms in a cow barn, or tents.