Like a Good Neighbor...

Frontier women seldom viewed themselves as extraordinary - they expected to labor hard and long in the frontier life.  Kate Robins wrote in her journal "A woman who can not endure almost as much as a horse has no business here, as there is no such thing as help"  Help was too far away for it to be a daily "go-next-door" kind of help.  There were barn raisings, harvesting with neighbors, but those were task oriented and involved travel and planning.

With the growth of the settlements we can see women moving from family centered society to making contributions to their communities through church, schools and volunteer associations.  In the early frontier days, a neighbor was anyone within a 20 miles radius.  The local trading post, the schoolhouse (if one was built yet) were the buildings of the town.  They became the center of settlement life.  After hours, the schoolhouse became the business center for meetings, on Sunday it became the church.  The trading post was the post office, the general store - even the tavern sometimes.

Early on there was no class distinction on the frontier.  A neighbor was a neighbor and a welcome sight.  The evidence of a pioneer town was still 15-20 years away.

Next time...urban frontier arise