GO WEST YOUNG WOMAN, GO WEST! by Marisa Masterson

Late Nineteenth Century Classroom

You don't need training. You don't need materials. Wyoming needs you.

That seems to be the idea after 1870 in Wyoming. The area had been a territory for a year and already people in every small town and even rural areas wanted  a school for their children. In fact, Wyoming passed a law requiring every child between the ages of seven and sixteen to attend school at least three months each year.

Rollins House, used in 1869 by the legislature.

To help attract both settlers and teachers, lawmakers met in 1869 and passed a resolution that granted women the right to vote. They also guaranteed female teachers the same salary as male educators. While those salaries were meager, at least opportunities for women to be independent existed in that state.

Women voting in Cheyenne, WY 1888

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/History_of_Wyoming/Territorial_Days:_Railways,_Suffrage_and_Cattle,_1868-1890

photo titled "Fairly Determined"

What most interested me about teaching in Wyoming at this time was the teacher convention. Each year, teachers banded together to put on teacher institutes. They'd share ideas which they'd learned would work in the classroom. It didn't end there, though, They explored new methods being used back East. Even if some of these teachers were poorly trained before coming to Wyoming, other educators helped them in this way to become better at their new craft.

By 1870, females experienced another first in Wyoming. The first women ever to sit on a jury did so in Wyoming. The judge praised women jurors as being more honest, I found in my research. Unfortunately, the practice didn't continue and women would wait decades to become jurors again. Remember that the next time you get a jury summons if you're female. It's a fairly new privilege for women.

One more thing. If you'd like to learn more about the Wyoming schoolhouse of yesteryear, there's a fantastic video available--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK_tILS_WGc

In my newest novel, the heroine is returning from the annual teacher institute. With a new name, she's fled west to teach in a small town. How could she anticipate her past following her that far?

Errol Marsden wandered for years, taking his cobbler's wagon from town to town fixing shoes. His heart broke with the sudden death of his young wife almost four years before. He's shocked to glimpse her on a street in Fort Bridger and follows her to Belle.

Will he get the answers he needs to understand why she faked her death? When the couple is drawn into a mystery surrounding the disappearance of Grace's aunt, will they work together or let old lies stand in their way?

This is a sweet, American western historical romance and mystery. Each story in this collection stands alone, though common events and characters appear in the novels.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TSG28HM