What do you imagine when you read or hear homesteading the
West? I think of families or lone men. However, in Marcia Meredith Hensley’s
book. STAKING HER CLAIM: WOMEN HOMESTEADING THE WEST, I learned that many lone women
became homesteaders.
I read the Women of Paragon Springs series, by Irene Bennett
Brown, and loved the stories of women making their way West to set up their
homes. What I didn’t realize, though, was how true-to-life Ms Brown’s stories
were.
Ms Hensley’s book relates many women settling in Wyoming
Territory. And why not? Wyoming was far ahead of the rest of America in
recognizing a woman’s right to vote and other basic rights. But other stories
take place in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, Colorado, and Utah.
As you can imagine, these women set out for the West for
various reasons. Some were ill-equipped for the hardships. Others flourished in
their new enterprise. Ms Hensley
includes letters written back East by some of the women homesteaders telling of
their experiences. Fact or fiction?
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| Prairies required sod houses or dugouts due to lack of wood. |
“On the whole, women who wrote about their experiences
homesteading alone told positive stories. Although homesteading was
difficult, they achieved success and had many enjoyable adventures as well.
Women could do most of the work themselves, but, if necessary, they could count
on help from neighbors, family, or one of the many men in the vicinity.”
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| Cutting sod for a house |
Only about one in three women who homesteaded actually
succeeded. In a 1921 article about her homesteading experience in Utah, Kate
Keizer includes a section titled “Not All Roses” in which she cautions that for
the typical homesteader without much money “the first two or three years are
usually accompanied by privation and hardships.” She lists difficulties such as
the high cost of freighting supplies in and having your claim contested if you
were absent very long. Her greatest torments were the hordes of rabbits and
prairie dogs that destroyed gardens in spite of scarecrows, guns, and poison.
 |
| Inside a sod house |
Looking back on her homestead experience, Dr. Bessie
Rehwinkle tempered her account of the exhilarating experience of becoming a
Wyoming landowner with the admission that “it is not as easy or glamorous as
the storybooks about the westward trek of the covered wagon often picture it.
It is a slow process and a hard day-to-day struggle, and only the strongest are
able to survive.”
 |
| Having wood made a more acceptable home. |
The Homestead Act was in force from 1862 through 1976 (with
a ten year extension for Alaska). Statistics provided by the National Homestead
Monument suggest two million people attempted to earn a patent on land through
the Homestead Act. Ms Hensley theorizes that 200,000 of these were women, of
which 67.500 may have proved up on their claim.
I suggest reading Marcia Meredith Hensley’s book for
fascinating non-fiction accounts of women homesteaders who were successful. For
fictional accounts, nothing beats Irene Bennett Brown’s Women of Paragon
Springs series: LONG ROAD TURNING, BLUE HORIZONS, NO OTHER PLACE, and REAP THE
SOUTH WIND. Another good series is Linda Hubalek’s fictional Trails of Thread
series.
What about you? Would you have attempted to claim your land
alone?
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Caroline Clemmons' latest release is GARNET in the Widows of Wildcat Ridge Series. You can find the book on Amazon at http://getbook.at/GarnetWOWR.
For a complete list of her books, check her webpage at http://carolineclemmons.com or her Author Page on Amazon.
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