The amount of servants present at Planting Fields varied greatly across the seasons and the years. In the spring and fall, when the Coes would have been in residence at Planting Fields and when the majority of work was needed on the grounds, there would naturally be more staff present. During the winter there were far fewer servants on the grounds and almost none in the house. During the summer months, the Coes' house servants would have traveled with them to Cody, Wyoming, while a large contingency of grounds men stayed at Planting Fields. In the spring and summer, between the stable, dairy, greenhouses, farm, chicken coops and gardens, Mr. Coe could expect to employ between 35 and 50 men in during the summer months. Between 1913 and 1955, there were fewer and fewer servants at Planting Fields for several reasons. The first reason has to do with the Coe family. In the early years at Planting Fields, the Coes had four young children who would have had their own assemblage of nurses and governess'. Typically, from the time an infant was born until they will about four or five years old, a nurse lived with them in the nursery or children's wing to look after them. Once a child reached the age of four or five, a governess was hired. The governess had absolute authority over the raising of the children, besides of course, the children's parents. The governess was generally French, English or German and taught the children to speak those languages with fluency as well as teaching them manners, grooming, lessons and possibly to play a musical instrument. The Coe boys were sent to St. Paul's boarding school in New Hampshire, while Natalie attended several private finishing schools in New York and Manhattan. The governess was responsible for seeing to their needs while away at school and for watching over them while they were on holiday and their parents were abroad. Understandably, a child's relationship with his or her governess was a close one. Servants typically found their jobs were good ones, especially before the reform of factory work. Those who work in the service of wealthy families typically had room and board as well as their wages. Most families, like the Coes, would have scullery maids and chauffeurs whose job it was to wait on the rest of the serving staff. Servants' children were chauffeured to school and church, and domestic help was chauffeured to the train station to take shopping trips in Manhattan. The downside is that in the life of a domestic servant, their time was not their own. If the Housekeeper had to be awake at 4 AM to ensure that the house was clean and breakfast prepared for the family, they would also still have to be awake at 4 AM the next morning to serve madam's guests coffee after a party that ran late. The early 20th century saw improvements in factory work that came with child labor laws, safer machinery, the eight-hour work day and Ford's 5-dollar work day, Still, it was not until after World War I that factory work became an attractive alternative to those who would have gone into domestic service, most especially women. By the late teens and early twenties, factory work was the single greatest employer below farm work and the number of people entering the domestic service fell off sharply. The number of immigrants also fell off sharply after World War I. New immigration laws sharply curtailed the waves of immigrants flooding New York's harbors. Recent immigrants made up the majority of domestic servants. As we have no housekeeping records for Coe Hall we can only speculate on the number of servants required by the Coes. The staff may have numbered as many as twenty in the height of Planting Fields' use in the late teens and early 1920's, with most of the help living in the half-timbered servants' wing. In the servants' wing, there are second floor bedrooms, bathrooms, sewing rooms and linen closets for the female serving staff, while the male serving staff occupied the third floor rooms. Included in the staff were several footmen, a parlor maid, a couple of chamber maids, Mrs. Coe's personal attendant, Mr. Coe's valet, two cooks, a housekeeper, scullery maids and three servants to assure each room of the house had fresh floral arrangements each day. The Coes or their guests beckoned the serving staff with small, sometimes fancifully disguised call buttons throughout the house. The call button would light up a panel located in the kitchen area and servants' wing indicating which room needed attendance. Before answering the call, they would press a button at the bottom of the panel that would clear the lighted room to show the other staff that the call had been answered. During the 1930's the undisputed King of the servants was Jocelyn, W. R. Coe's butler and valet. He laid out Mr. Coe's clothing, opened the door for callers, and looked after the silver. Known by his staff as the "Iron Duke," Mr. Coe was an exacting master who valued discipline and routine. He desired loyalty from his servants who, for the most part, seemed satisfied, serving with little turnover throughout the years. In addition to the house staff, the Coes employed men to care for the grounds. Their numbers changed depending on the season; however, we know that late spring was the peak period for grounds employment.