The Covered Wagon, Packing, & Hitting the Trail

by Anna Kathryn Lanier

Conestoga wagons were the well-known wagons of the east, used by traders of the west for their large size and ability to carry up to five tons of cargo.  The immigrant family soon learned, however, that the Conestoga wagon was too large and heavy for their needs.  Animals would die from exhaustion before they reached the end of the long trail.  Instead, pioneers turned to the Prairie Schooner, a wagon half the size of the Conestoga.  At 10-12 feet long, 4 feet wide and about 3 feet deep, it would hold 2,000 pounds of goods, half of that food.  It could also be pulled by fewer animals than the Conestoga required.  A bonnet treated with linseed oil for waterproofing topped the wagon base and made the wagon 10 feet tall. At about $100, it is one of the more expensive items needed for the trip.

 Hardwood was used for the wagon bed because it resisted shrinking in the dry desert air and painting it with tar would render it watertight for floating across rivers. The side boards of the wagon were bowed outward to keep the rain from dripping into the wagon from the bonnet.  The front wheels were smaller (44-inch diameter) than the back wheels (50-inch diameter) to help with handling the wagon and to allow the wagon to take sharper turns.

Although the wagon wheels were also made of hardwood and rimmed with iron (heated until they expanded and then slipped into place), it was not uncommon for them to break. When this happened, the family furniture often became a wagon wheel.

The space inside the wagon, about 40 square feet, didn’t give much room for family heirlooms or large pieces of furniture.  Families had to decide what to bring, and of course, food was at the top of the list. An 1845 emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California suggests that the pioneers take along: 200 pounds of flour, 150 pounds of bacon, 30 pounds of hardtack, 10 pounds of coffee, 20 pounds of sugar, and 10 pounds of salt.  Additionally, families would pack rice, beans, tea, vinegar, chipped beef, smoked meat, dried fruit, and canned vegetables. Other common items taken by the pioneers, aside from clothing were: a medicine chest, seeds and seedlings, beds, tents and tent poles, tools, horseshoes, guns, plows, shovels, axes, animal feed and a water barrel.  Butter churns were strapped to the side or back of the wagon. Fresh milk would be put into the churns in the morning and the natural movement of the wagon as it crossed the uneven and rutted trail would churn the milk into butter by evening.

Also on the outside of the wagon was a “jockey box.”  This would hold the tools and parts needed to repair the wagon: iron bolts, lynch pins, skeins, nails, iron hoops and a jack. In addition, a feed box for the animals could be found fastened to the side of the schooner.

The family packed carefully, heavier items and those that would not be used on the trip were packed first. Bolts of cloth, linen and good clothing not used on the journey, along with family treasures were packed into the trunks and stowed away. The box with the pots, pans and cooking utensils would be placed near the back of the wagon for easy access.  The family bible was given a special place, most likely with easy access for daily and nightly reading. Daily clothing would be hung on hooks inside the wagon.

The choice of animals to pull the prairie schooner was oxen or mules.  The farmers who went usually preferred oxen, mainly because they had worked with them on the farms. Oxen were stronger, more tolerable of the prairie grass and easier to work with than mules.  Oxen were also cheaper to buy, $60 dollars or so per team compared to over $100 per mule.  And one needed fewer oxen to pull the wagons, than mules. However, mules were faster than oxen and those in a hurry to get west would buy mules. Horses could also be used, but they did not fare as well on the long haul.

St. Louis is called “The Gateway to the West” because it was the last trace of civilization before entering the vast unknown of the west. St. Louis started as a trading post for fur trappers, traders and mountain men. It was the jumping off point for the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  Along with Independence, St. Louis was a major ‘met up point’ for the wagon trains of pioneers going west. They were the places to trade horses, buy fresh oxen, purchase last minute supplies and gather up-to-date information about the journey and route that lay ahead of them.

Mrs. Francis Sawyer gives an account of her journey, along with her husband, from Louisville, KY to St. Louis, Missouri in her journal. On April 25^th, 1852, they left on the Pike No. 9 steamer bound for St. Louis.  They took with them their wagon, two mules and supplies bought in Louisville.  The riverboat stopped at Mr. Sawyer’s father’s farm in Hancock County so they could collect mules purchased from the father. In St. Louis, they changed to “a small Missouri-river steamboat” bound for St. Joseph.

Once there, they finished purchasing their supplies, as well as a horse for Frances’s use and an additional mule.  With themselves and their supplies ready, they travelled six miles outside of town to ‘officially’ start the journey.

By the late 1850’s, 55,000 people per year were making the journey west.

Now it's time to share your thoughts. If you were leaving home for a 2,000 mile journey, what one item in your home would be a ‘must take’ and why?  Think about it, these men and women were leaving everything and everyone behind   and wagons could only hold so much.  What would you take?

Works Cited

Bartley, Paula, and Loxton, Cathry. Plains Women: Women of the American West. New

York, NY: Cambridge  University Press, 1991.

Erickson, Paul. Daily Life in a Covered Wagon. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1994.

“Great Gateway to The American Western Expansion: Wagon Trains, Fur Traders,

Mountain Man.”  Linecamp Online. http://www.linecamp.com/museums/americanwest/hubs/great_gateway_west/great_gateway_west.html 

Holmes, Kenneth L.  Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western

Trails, 1852. Lincoln, NE: The University of Nebraska Press, 1997.

Kalman, Bobbie. Life of the Old West: Wagon Train . New York, NY: Crabtree

Publishing Company, 1999

Spartacus Education. 2011. July 9, 2011.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWwagontrain.htm

“Wagons.” Historical City Oregon Online. 2011.  July 7, 2011.

http://www.historicoregoncity.org/end-of- the-oregon-trail-history/70-oregon-trail-history/156-wagons

“The Wyker Prairie Schooner at Space Farms Museum: Went West and Back ‘Agin’.’

Space Farms Zoo and Museum Online. 2011, July 7, 2011. http://www.spacefarms.com/2003.htm

Pictures are from royalty-sites (most likely Dreamstime.com) and should not be used without purchasing them.

‘The Bandit Who Wouldn’t Give Up’

Elmer McCurdy in his army days.

By Kathleen Rice Adams

Some men are born to infamy; others have infamy thrust upon them. And then there are those like Elmer McCurdy who slip into infamy sideways … sixty-five years after they should have faded into obscurity.

Except for his out-of-wedlock birth in Washington, Maine, in January 1880, McCurdy seems to have enjoyed an uneventful childhood as the adopted son of his 17-year-old biological mother’s older, married sister. When McCurdy was ten, the man he had always believed to be his father died, and the truth of his parentage came out. At fifteen, he ran away from home and drifted through the Midwest, developing a fondness for alcohol and working odd jobs until he joined the army. Trained in demolition, he left the service in early 1911 with an honorable discharge and a professional acquaintance with nitroglycerin.

That’s when things took a turn for the worse. Unable to find a civilian job, McCurdy resolved to gain fame and fortune the old-fashioned way: by stealing it — specifically, by robbing trains. The career choice didn’t work out well for him. On his first job, he overdid the nitro and not only nearly blew the train’s safe through the wall, but also melted $4,000 in silver coins to the floor. McCurdy and three accomplices pried up about $450 in silver lumps before scramming barely ahead of the law.

After that, McCurdy backed off on the explosives, producing less than stellar results when trains’ safes failed to open. Apparently deciding a stationary target might prove less vexing, McCurdy aimed his demolition skills at a bank vault in the middle of the night. The resulting blast woke up the entire town, and the gang made off with about $150.

They went back to robbing trains.

On Oct. 4, 1911, despite careful planning, the outlaws held up the wrong train, netting a haul of about $90 and some whiskey. Evidently disgruntled, McCurdy’s cohorts abandoned him.

Undaunted, he quickly put together a new gang and three days later — on Oct. 7, 1911 — held up a Missouri, Kansas, and Texas passenger train near Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The take was an unimpressive $46, two jugs of whiskey … and a posse.

Mere hours later, during an armed standoff on an Oklahoma farm, a drunken McCurdy announced from a hayloft that the posse would never take him alive. Foregoing the $2,000 bounty for bringing the bandit to trial, the lawmen obliged by killing him.

Elmer McCurdy on display at the
Pawhuska, Oklahoma, mortuary.

That would have been the end of a less-than-illustrious career for most outlaws, but Elmer McCurdy’s career was only beginning.

When no one claimed the hapless train-robber’s remains, the mortician put McCurdy’s body on display as a somewhat gruesome promotional gimmick. For the next four years, the embalmed corpse, in a pine box bearing a sign that read “The Bandit Who Wouldn’t Give Up,” adorned the front window of the mortuary.

In 1915, two men claiming to be McCurdy’s brothers took possession of the body, ostensibly to provide a proper burial. Instead, they exhibited “A Famous Oklahoma Outlaw” as part of the Great Patterson Shows traveling carnival.

McCurdy’s corpse changed hands several times over the next two decades, popping up in all sorts of places: at an amusement park near Mount Rushmore, in several freak shows, and even in the lobby of a theater during a screening of the 1933 film Narcotic. For much of the 1930s and ’40s, McCurdy’s mummified remains, thought to be a mannequin, held a place of honor in the Sonney Amusement Museum of Crime in Los Angeles.

In 1971, an L.A. wax museum bought the by-then-unidentified “mannequin.” Until 1976, McCurdy was part of the museum’s display about Bill Doolin, an Oklahoma outlaw who actually achieved a good deal of notoriety while he was alive.

Sixty-five years after his death, McCurdy would achieve notoriety, too, though not in quite the way he may have hoped. The failed outlaw, painted fluorescent orange, made one final public appearance in December 1976, as a prop inside the Laff in the Dark funhouse at the Nu-Pike amusement park in Long Beach, California. While filming an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man inside the building, a crew member accidentally broke an arm off what he thought was a wax dummy hanging from a gallows. A protruding bone revealed the truth. Forensic anthropologists and the Los Angeles County Coroner identified the body.

Left: Elmer McCurdy in coffin. Right: The "wax mannequin" recovered from the funhouse.

On April 22, 1977, Elmer McCurdy’s well-traveled remains were interred in the Boot Hill section of the Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma — ironically, alongside the final resting place of Bill Doolin. As a precautionary measure, the state medical examiner ordered two cubic yards of concrete poured over the casket before the grave was closed.

So far, at least, it appears “The Bandit Who Wouldn’t Give Up” finally did.

HOLE IN THE WALL GANG BY KIRSTEN LYNNE

By Special Guest Kirsten Arnold

Thank you to the amazing authors at Sweethearts of the West for inviting me back!

Last year my faithful camp cook, aka Cookie, and I introduced you to an obscure outlaw who ended up as footwear. Today we’d like to take you in the opposite direction to one of the most famous outlaw hideouts and introduce y’all around to a few of the more colorful part-time residents of Wyoming.

Oh, Cookie just brought up a good point. Y’all better leave your valuables on your wagons…we’re just sayin’ can’t be too careful at the Hole-in-the-Wall!

In Southwest Johnson County, Wyoming lying between the Red Wall and Big Horn Mountains is the most famous hideout on the Outlaw Trail, the Hole-in-the-Wall. Between roughly the 1860s and 1910, 30 to 40 outlaws stayed in the secluded spot including Jesse James and Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch.

The area was (and still is) isolated taking about a day’s journey by horseback from any semblance of civilization. It is a steep climb to the top of the Wall, but overlooking the country below it is no wonder this location was chosen. With sweeping 360 views the pass was well situated to spot approaching lawmen and the narrowness of the approach made it easy to defend. The grassy plateau at the top and creek bed of the canyon below made it a good spot to graze all the rustled cattle.

In this area in the 1880s and 1890s, rustlers grazed stolen cattle and provided refuge to outlaws. Inhabitants of the six cabins that stood in the valley were known as the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Members of the gang included Bob Smith, Al Smith, Bob Taylor, George Currie, Tom O’Day, and the Roberts Brothers. Later Robert Leroy Parker (Butch Cassidy), Harry Longbaugh (the Sundance Kid), and Harvey Alexander Logan (Kid Curry).

So let me introduce y’all to our hosts. Robert Leroy Parker, born in 1866, was the son of devout Mormons. He was led into a life a crime by Mike Cassidy and adopted the name George Cassidy, some believe as a way of not bringing shame on his family. In 1885, Mike Cassidy disappeared after killing a Wyoming rancher. Parker took a job with Charlie Crouse. Crouse operated a ranch in Brown’s Hole and a butcher shop in Rock Springs, Wyoming. It was alleged Crouse sold meat from cattle he rustled. It was while employed by Crouse, Parker adopted the name Butch.

By 1886, Parker was living near Meeteetse, Wyoming under his real name. It is believed he participated in the robbery of the San Miquel Valley Bank in Telluride in June of 1889. The Telluride robbery saw the introduction of a new tactic used by members of the Wild Bunch. Along the escape route, the robbers stationed fresh horses. The pursuing posse would have to continue the chase on tired horses, therefore the robbers could elude capture.

Butch Cassidy's prison photo

During this time, Parker continued to engage in rustling in Wyoming. He was arrested for horse stealing near Meeteetse and sentenced in 1894 to the State Penitentiary (in Laramie). He was released early in 1896 and returned to a life of crime using a series of hideouts including Robbers’ Roost in southern Utah, Brown’s Hole in northwest Colorado, and of course the Hole-in-the-Wall.

Harry Longabough, aka Sundance Kid

Our second host is Harry Longabough. Born in Pennsylvania in 1867, he moved to Colorado with his family. By age twenty, Longabough was working as a cowboy for the N Bar N owned by the Neidringhaus Brothers in Culbertson, Montana. In 1887, out of work and drifting he stole a horse, gun and saddle from Western Ranches, Ltd, owner of the Three V’s near Sundance, Wyoming. He was arrested and pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 18 months in the Sundance jail. He was pardoned by Governor Thomas Moonlight. Longabough drifted to Bell Fourche, South Dakota, and there as a result of his bravado about the time spent in the Sundance jail he earned the appellation of Sundance or Sundance Kid.

Sundance moved north and worked for a period of time at the Bar U in Alberta and for a short period of time in the saloon business at Grand Central Hotel in Calgary. He then returned to Montana and the N Bar N at its Rock Creek unit.

In 1892, Sundance was implicated with Tom McCarty (an acquaintance from Colorado), Matt Warner, and Butch Cassidy, in the robbery of the Great Northern westbound #23 near Malta, Montana. By 1896, Sundance was reported to be in the Baggs and Dixon, Wyoming area.

George Currie aka Kid Curry

On June 28, 1897, Sundance along with George Currie (Kid Curry), Walt Punteney and Tom O’Day participated in the robbery of the Butte County Bank in Belle Fourche, South Dakota.  The bank was a huge target. After the railroad arrived, the town became prosperous as being a loading point for cattle and later sheep. The bank was so prosperous it was acquired in 1903 by Clay, Robinson, and Co., the largest commission agents in the country. John Clay managed the Three Vs, the ranch Sundance had stolen a horse and saddle beginning his criminal career.

The robbery and subsequent pursuit by the law was a comedy of errors with one man, O’Day, being found in a privy behind on of the numerous saloons after O’Day’s horse decided to leave town without him. It took until September for Sheriff John Dunn, Carbon County, Montana, and a small posse to catch up to the other three near Musselshell River. In the ensuing shootout, Kid Curry’s horse was shot through the neck and Curry was shot through the wrist. Curry leaped onto the horse and galloped away, only to have the horse drop dead. All three were arrested and transported to Deadwood Jail. There they escaped, stole horses and gear. They eluded capture on foot, losing horses and swag they had stolen. Ultimately, they made it back to the Hole-in-the-Wall, where as a result of their adventures, they were accepted as full members of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang.

Harvey Logan, Kid Curry, might be takin’ up residence at the Hole unless he’s out…on business. Harvey Alexander Logan was born in Iowa in 1867. After their mother died the four Logan boys, Hank, Johnnie, Lonny, and Harvey moved to Missouri and lived with an aunt. With Johnnie and Lonny, and a cousin, Harvey Logan left home to trail cattle from Texas to Colorado. The four ultimately wandered to the Hole-in-the-Wall where they met George Currie and adopted the last name “Curry.”

In 1894, the “Curry” Brothers established a ranch near Landusky, Montana, in what is now Phillips County.  The town was named after Powell “Pike” Landusky who discovered gold in the area. Not long after their arrival the brothers had a falling out with Landusky due to the fact Lonny impregnated Landusky’s daughter, Elfie. For some reason, Landusky blamed Harvey for the deed.

Now just to warn y’all, Harvey’s a might quick tempered, especially when he’s had a bit of alcohol to raise his blood temperature. And after enjoying too much Christmas Spirit at “Jew Jake’s” Saloon, Landusky and Harvey decided to settle their differences in a way not keeping with the Season. Harvey, being younger, had the advantage and after bringing Landusky down he proceeded to beat the town founder’s head to a pulp against the floor. Lonnie and another friend kept spectators at bay using their side arms. Landusky reached for a revolver from his pocket. Harvey was handed a gun and shot Landusky dead. Eleven witnesses swore it was self defense, but the brothers fearing Harvey wouldn’t receive a fair trial departed town on a stolen buckboard.

On the outlaw trail, Harvey fell in with Butch and Sundance and participated in the Wilcox and Tipton, Wyoming train robberies…

A trestle across the Union Pacific near Wilcox, Wyoming at 1:00 a.m., June 2, 1899, forces the Overland Flyer to halt. Men wearing masks made from white napkins, possible stolen from the Harvey House Restaurant, boarded the train. One of the men after unsuccessfully forcing the engineer to pull the train forward, pulls the train forward himself. The trestle is dynamited to prevent the second section of train from catching up. The train is pulled forward two miles and stopped.

There the express car was surrounded, and the attendant, E.C. Woodcock, was ordered to open the door. He refused. The car was blown up. Woodcock suffers a concussion from the blast and can’t remember the combination to the safe. The gang blows up the safe and stole $30,000, some of the bank notes being scorched by the explosion or stained with raspberries also in the car.

Train after robbers blew it up

Even though the men were masked immediate suspicion falls on the Wild Bunch.  Other newspapers identified the culprits as the Roberts brothers and reported the robbers to be George Currie and the Roberts brothers. It is now believed the name “Roberts” was used by Sundance and Harvey Logan. Authorities believed some of the robbers were headed for the Hole-in-the-Wall. Posses gave chase. Near Teapot Creek some of culprits were cornered by a posse led by Converse County Sheriff Joe Hazen. In the ensuing fire fight, Sheriff Hazen was killed and the train robbers made their escape by swimming across the river.

On August 29, 1900, train robbers, using the same modus operandi robbed the Union Pacific No. 3 Train near Tipton, Wyoming of $50,000 in gold. Woodcock, if you can believe it, was again the express car attendant. This time he opened the door. The robbers were pursued by a posse led by Sheriff McDaniel of Carbon County, Sheriff Peter Swanson of Sweetwater County and United States Marshal Frank Hadsell until the tracks of the robbers were obliterated by a rain. Five years later an employee on a construction crew for the Farris-Haggarty tramway discovered near the head waters of Cow Creek thee bags in which the money from the Tipton Robbery had originally been held.

Although successful the Wilcox and Tipton Robberies marked the beginning of the end for the Wild Bunch and many of its members fled to Bolivia or Argentina including Butch Cassidy, Sundance and Etta Place.

Butch Cassidy and Etta Place

Of all the Wild Bunch members Etta Place is the most mysterious. She is one of the Wild West’s most legendary women. Beautiful and wild she is reported to have been mistress to both Butch Cassidy and Sundance. Eyewitnesses maintain she was the second woman to ride into Robber’s Roost in the winter of 1897. She was allegedly 20 years old at the time, strikingly beautiful, an excellent horsewoman, and outstanding rifle shot, Etta became Sundance’s primary love interest.

Etta was reportedly a refined, highly educated woman of Eastern birth and rearing. She’s also alleged to have been a prostitute from Texas. Others claim she was a schoolteacher from Denver, Colorado with music as her primary discipline. Even her relationship(s) with Butch and Sundance is a mystery. It’s been said she was Butch’s mistress then Sundance took an interest and she went with him. There are even rumors the three lived as a ménage a’trois. Even her name has been debated as five different women who road with the Wild Bunch used the alias Etta Place.

We do know, Etta traveled to Argentina and Bolivia with Sundance and Butch returning to the United States three times during their time in South America. After returning to the United States in 1908 with Sundance, where he left her in Denver, Etta Place was never heard from again. Many claimed to be her, or claimed to be her son or daughter with Butch, but nothing was ever verified. But once Butch and Sundance were run to ground in South America Etta disappeared, as well.

The six cabins no longer stand at the Hole-in-the-Wall, and time has covered their foundations. But if you’d like a Wild West experience you can stay at the Willow Creek Ranch. The Willow Creek Ranch dates to 1882 when it was founded by Kenneth MacDonald, an immigrant sheep rancher. The area’s small ranchers, such as MacDonald, aided the outlaws because they didn’t want any trouble, and outlaws rustle from large cattle barons and robbed trains with well-filled strong boxes.

Today, a rugged dirt road leads from ranch headquarters to the former hideout. Guests can walk threw the chunks of foundation remaining and picnic beneath the old cottonwoods by Buffalo Creek while dreaming of the days when Butch, Sundance and the gang would seek refuge at the Hole-in-the-Wall.

Okay folks, we’re gettin’ close so get yer hand off the heel of your gun before ya get us all blown to bits. Smile big and look like ya belong! It’s sure to be a high kickin’ time with this bunch!

 

Kirsten Lynne

A Wyomingite through and through after six years in the DC area, Kirsten Lynn had enough of the big city and returned home to Wyoming. Centered in the communities in the shadow of the Big Horn Mountains, she writes stories based on the people and history of this area that holds her heart.  When she’s not roping, riding and rabblerousing with the cowboys and cowgirls who have taken up residence in her endless imagination, she has the honor of helping to preserve the history of Wyoming managing the artifact collection of a local museum and writing the histories of local ranches.

She is truly blessed to be living in and writing about the Wild West! Come visit Kirsten round the campfire at www.kirstenlynnwildwest.com.

   

All Aboard!

Today I decided to pull from the archives of another blog I'm on. I had great intentions of posting an entirely different entry but I'm buried right now with school stuff so my good intentions kinda took a u-turn.

 

The cowboy did much to settle the old west. For most Americans, he's the ultimate hero because he paved the way for generations to come, but he had help.

Travelling across the country in a covered wagon was slow and dangerous. As soon as towns became connected by steel tracks, the migration of settlers exploded. Not only did the train help people populate the west, but it helped commerce by providing an easier way to haul goods from point A to point B, including cows. Just recently toured the coast and spent time in a small town called Fulton where our hotel overlooked the ruins of the Marion Packing Plant.

The railroad came to the coast around 1872. At first only processed meat would be sent to the East but later, small herds were put in cars or in the holds of ships as a means of getting fresher meat to buyers. Several years later, shipping cows via train would become more cost efficient than the arduous cattle drives. By the 1890s, only a few cowboys used drives as a method of moving the cows.

For me, the train has a romantic aura. I've ridden on one twice now. I traveled with my parent from Bryan, Texas to Midland, Texas when I was in Middle School. The length of the journey required that we spend the night on board. Oh my, now that was an experience. The cabins are very small. I slept on a top bunk, but the constant sway and clackety clack of the train lulled me to sleep. The second trip was made in November of 2005 when the George Bush Library offered an excursion to Dallas on a restored Union Pacific Train. Getting to experience the motion, speed, and smells associated with the train enhanced a scene I wrote.

They have a wonderful train museum in Galveston where I roamed several of the antique cars. Just imagine sleeping on these benches with no air conditioning.

I think the real trick though when writing historical westerns, if discovering if your characters had access to a train for their travels. Thankfully the Internet is a wonderful source for finding maps and such. I'm working on a story now that took a lot of digging in this regard but I finally located a tiny blurb and while the train ran east to west at the time, my hero and heroine have to travel from Oklahoma to Texas. Unfortunately they will have to do so by covered wagon as the train they would have taken won't be ready for boarding until a year later.

Yeah, you have to agree, there's something fascinating about trains and the old west.

Grandma Riley's Sunbonnet

By Linda LaRoque

As a girl I visited my grandmother often. She was well-loved by everyone who knew her, but especially by her granddaughters. Though Grandma was not an outwardly attractive woman, beauty radiated from her by her inner goodness, her faith in God and the love and kindness she bestowed on everyone. I never heard her say an unkind word about anyone, even Grandpa who could be a bear at times. And, she didn't gossip.

My Aunt Jewell made most of Grandma's dresses out of feed sacks, at least the ones she wore for everyday. To this day, I still love feed sacks and can remember how Grandma saved them until one of us girls could have enough for a dress. Many of those feed sacks also went into sunbonnets.

Here is my sunbonnet being modeled by friend and fellow author Lorelei Buckley.

Most of my life I had little respect or admiration for sunbonnets. In my opinion they were flat out ugly. But, they did keep the sun off Grandma's face which was never sunburned. She also wore a long-sleeved shirt outside and more often than not, a pair of gloves. Grandma's yard had no grass, only flowers and shrubs. If a blade of grass appeared, it was eradicated with a hoe. I'm sure many of you have seen similar yards that were common in the country in the Victorian era.

My grandmother 1950s.

Back to Grandma's sunbonnet, she never went outside without it—except once that we know of. She'd told us kids not to get in the road. Of course, boy like, my brother didn't think she'd see him. Out the door she came with a flyswatter. My brother laughs in memory. "I knew when I heard the screen door slam and saw Grandma's tennis shoe coming off the porch I was in trouble." Oh, the joys of childhood.

Old woman in sunbonnet (c. 1930).
Photograph by Doris Ulmann.

                   

Man, Woman, and Map,James Tissot 

From the articles I read, making a sunbonnet isn't an easy process. It's made from a large piece of fabric. patterns were one piece and others had six or eight. Some had buttons up the back so they could lay out flat to be ironed. The slatted bonnet is a popular pattern. During the depression, women cut up cereal boxes to put in the slats of their bonnet. It is the slats that keep the bonnets from being floppy. I suppose today you could use a heavy interfacing though I'm not exactly sure that would do the trick. They were also starched.

To Mary Lou Highfill, sewing, genealogy and history are fun, but she concentrates mainly on making sunbonnets. She says the bigger the bonnet, the older they usually are. Above is an example of a larger one, somewhere around 1930. The woman in the picture on the right appears to be early 1800, possibly late 1700s. Pioneer women, especially those crossing the plains, made their sunbonnets of dark colors as they often had to wash their clothes in muddy streams.

Here are pictures of my sunbonnet closed and laid flat for ironing. Note that there is a buttonhole in the very center bottom. The next button up was put through this hole, I suppose to give more shape. After close inspection, I noticed the interfacing was very heavy and it did give the bonnet plenty of body. It was machine stitched to appear similar to the slatted style. Please excuse the large stain on the fabric. I need to wash it but don't want to ruin it.

                        
 

In her book The Sunbonnet: An American Icon in Texas, Paula Marks traces the history of the sunbonnet from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when bonnets were more fashionable and she included a chapter in her book on dress bonnets. The bonnets in the picture in the millenary shop below indicate just how different bonnets of fashion and those of utility were. Throughout it's history, the sunbonnet has been seen as mostly utilitarian. They were a part of Texas farm women's lives well into their adulthood and past. It blocked the sun's rays, the wind, dust and swishing cow's tails. But it also limited vision. In her research for her book, Ms Marks interviewed East Texas Farm women born between 1912 and 1921. This would be an interesting book to browse at the library.

A millinery shop in Paris, 1822

A bonnet decorated with lace and tulle
from the 1880s.

A 1903 article in The New York Times titled The Vogue of the Sunbonnet said, "Ugliness and the old-time sunbonnet were synonymous terms." Materials were usually checked ginghams in various colors—broad on the front and sides and a cape of varying lengths to cover the neck and shoulders. They could be purchased as low as $.10 and $1.00 and up.

Though colors varied, the old-time sunbonnet in the less popular unstarched brown and white gingham could be found for $.25. If a woman could afford only one sunbonnet and she wanted things to match, she would have a white one that went with everything. It's unfortunate that the evolution of the sunbonnet was never recorded for us to ponder today.


Let's not forget the children. Little girls wore clothes very similar to their mother's, including the sunbonnet. I'm sure they were as good about keeping them on their heads as babies are today.

The pictures used for this post, other than the ones I took, are from Wikipedia Commons and The Portal to Texas History.

References:

Paula Marks, The Sunbonnet: An American Icon in Texas (review), Southwestern Historical Quarterly,Vol.114, Number 2, Oct. 2010, pp. 203-204.

Mary Lou Highfill, http://newsok.com/sunbonnet-maker-blends-in-history/article/2446554.

The Vogue of the Sunbonnet, The New York Times, June 21, 1903.

Thank you for stopping by Sweethearts of the West today! Your comments mean a great deal to us so if you have time, please leave one.

Linda LaRoque
~Western Romance With a Twist in Time~
www.lindalaroque.com
http://www.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot.com

Special Guest-Western Author Dac Crossley

BY Celia Yeary

Dac Crossley--
Western author of the Border Trilogy: 

Guns Across the Rio 

 Return of the Texas Ranger

Revenge of the Texas Ranger. 

He also wrote Escape from the Alamo.

Today my good friend Dac Crossley from Georgia--by way of South Texas--visits in a return engagement to Sweethearts of the West. Although Dac claims he writes romance stories, I think he stretches this a bit because in my opinion he is a romantic at heart. He's a great author of Westerns set in Texas, and his stories do feature strong women.

DAC'S NEWEST RELEASE

Dac writes about the Old West in South Texas between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers called the Nueces Strip. In this setting, traditions clash and society interweaves modern and cultural values.

He says, "I write of forgotten trails and fast trains, good horses and old autos, sheriffs and bandits, Anglos and Tejanos, Buffalo Gals and Señoritas, Mexican hombres and Mexican bandits.
And Texas Rangers and the Law of the Six-gun.
Come along with me, to a time when life was lean and linear, and the modern world meets the resistance of traditions older than the brush country. Where trees and men have thorns, and the climate will get you if the varmints don’t."
~~*~~
 Q. Good morning, Dac. We're all pleased you're here, and you'll recognize some authors but probably will meet a few new ones. All of us love Westerns and Western Romance. Introduce yourself, please?

~~I’m D. A. Crossley, Jr., a retired professor at the University of Georgia. My nickname is “Dac.” I’m an emeritus professor of ecology and a curator emeritus of ticks and mites in the Georgia Museum of Natural History.
And I write fiction.

Q:  WELCOME! That's from everyone.
Tell us about a favorite Character from one of your books.

~~I introduced Nacho Ybarra in my first novel, Guns Across the Rio. He keeps showing up in other novels and tries to take over. Nacho is based on a childhood friend, a perpetually old, peripatetic Tejano philosopher. My south Texas stories involve culture clash. Nacho brings the best of his Hispanic heritage into play.

Q. I know your background and education revolves around ecology. So, how did you start your writing career? What was your inspiration?

~~I wrote stories in grade school and sometimes was editor of the high school newspaper. My mother was a marvelous story-teller. When I retired from the university I took a continuing-education course on writing murder mysteries. Tried that, but really hit my stride with westerns.

Q. What will you write now since your Border Trilogy is finished? Will you begin another trilogy?

~~Some of my readers are shouting, “Encore!” Should I  take the Border characters to another decade? I’ve got a woman’s story under construction. And a tale that follows the characters from Escape from the Alamo. South Texas, ever evolving and always dynamic, is an infinite source of stories.

Q. When reading for pleasure, what is your favorite genre or author?

~~I can’t stay away from Amazon. I order more books than I can find time to read. My favorite genre is historical fiction. And there is another generation of south Texas historians just beginning to be heard. It’s a fascinating time to be a Texan.

Q. What is your most distinct childhood memory?

~~When I was a little boy we lived on the outskirts of Kingsville in a little four-room shack. Sitting on the steps and watching clouds scurry across me is a memory that sustains me in tense times.

Q. What do you think makes a good story?

~~A good story? I’m a 50-pager. I’ll give a book fifty pages to catch my interest. If I don’t care what happens next, that’s it! I want to read about characters pushed way out of their comfort zone. I like to follow plot threads that come to a smashing conclusion. Know what I mean?

Q. Yes, I do know what you mean, Dac. I delete more books from my Kindle than I read. See? I can't stay away from Amazon either.

Thanks so much for visiting us. Hang around and comment if you can. Celia
 ~~*~~
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Growing up in South Texas, I roamed the brush country and enjoyed the seasonal changes in scrub and animals, horned toads and red ants. Learned to hunt and fish with friends from the King Ranch, where I enjoyed Hispanic culture. Steeped in Texas history and traditions by my old pioneer family. My genre is historic fiction set in South Texas, where the old west persisted into the 1920s with undeclared border wars and Mexican bandits. My grandfather fought bandits, his father fought Indians. I grew up with sons of Texas Rangers and spent hours listening to their fathers. I am well versed in South Texas history and culture. I enjoy bringing that history and background to life in my fiction. My settings are real and my characters drawn from experience.

LINKS:
Dac's Western Website    Daccrossley.com 
Dac's Western Blog    Daccrossley.typepad.com 
Dac's Amazon Pages   http://tinyurl.com/lubafba 


NOTE From Celia:
Sweethearts of the West author, Kathleen Rice Adams, recently wrote a blog post about the Nueces Strip. To learn even more about this area of South Texas that Dac writes about, open this link to the blog for the publisher Prairie Rose Publications:
http://prairierosepublications.blogspot.com/2014/01/taming-nueces-strip.html