No Shrinking Violets!

The women on the frontier took up the causes of the Victorian age like temperance and feminism with actual success.  Females were in short supply on the frontier, so when a man sought a wife he had to agree to such things as abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, bad language and gambling.  There was a popular ditty among pioneer women:
    
The man who drinks the red, red wine,
Will never be a beau of mine.
The man who is a whiskey sop,
Will never hear my corset pop!

The temperance movement grew on the frontier in the 1870s and 1880s as the female population grew.  The temperance crusade had its roots on the western frontier as Kansas' Carry Nation became world renown for her hatchet wielding visits to the salons on the Plains.

Women's rights were recognized on the frontier - women could own and control their own property and engage in trade without their husband's consent.  Wyoming lead the way in women's right starting in 1869, and was the first state to grant women the right to vote fifty years before it was added to the US Constitution.  When it was finally adopted in 1920, all but four of the western states had already allowed women's suffrage, while only two of the eastern states had recognized the right of women to vote.

Next time.  The Story of Sarah Sim
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 13, 1814,  Francis Scott Key pens a poem which is later set to music and in 1931 becomes America’s national anthem.   The poem, originally titled “The Defence of Fort McHenry,” was written after Key witnessed the fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the sight of a lone U.S. flag still flying over Fort McHenry at daybreak, as reflected in the now-famous words of the “Star-Spangled Banner”: “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there."

Women on the Frontier

In the past, women had been seen as secondary - self sacrificing helpmates to the real settlers of the western frontier.  However, women of the frontier were much more than mothers, housekeepers and healers.  They arrived many times after the men had staked out the homestead, and then women created the real home - organizing and civilizing necessities such as churches, schools and libraries that made the frontier into communities.

The work required to make life possible on the frontier was hard, frustrating, and agonizing.  Most of these women came from eastern homes and many were from "well-bred" homes with clean, tidy houses that spoke of morality in their communities.  How could they keep a sod house clean when dirt fell from the ceiling? The floor was dirt as well and sweeping created more dust and dirt.  Water was not available from the tap and fuel had to gathered.  Cooking was many times done by cow dung and who gathered the cow dung?  Women!  A problem as simple as how to gather cow poop to use was a woman's problem.

Along with these cleaning and cooking eye-openers for these women from society was the problem of loneliness on the frontier.  Distances between neighbors was too far and too spread out to enable frequent visits.  There were no church socials, no quilting bees, no barn raising get-togethers to bring families together.  The men might get to town sometimes to buy and sell, but women stayed a home tending to chores.  There were no breaks from child care, no nights out to get away from it all.  Not surprisingly, mental illness on the Plains was much higher among women. 

Next time - No Shrinking Violets
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 10, 1881, tensions neared the breaking point between the Earp brothers and the Clanton-McLaury families, the two major power centers in Tombstone. Two days earlier, a stagecoach had been robbed and the Tombstone sheriff formed a posse that included Morgan and Wyatt Earp to find the culprits. The situation would not be resolved without violence. The Earp brothers and two families were headed for a showdown at the O.K. Corral in October.

Proof of Civilization

For all its frustrations, teaching seemed to offer proof to women that their civilizing mission to society was succeeding.   It was certainly a satisfying career for a single frontier woman, and helped women have options other than just marriage.  An increasing number of them chose to teach first, marry second.

Frontier women in general, whether nurses, seamstresses, clerks, domestics, even prostitutes were underpaid and undervalued, generally not making enough to even support themselves.  So the question of teacher pay and respect is most certainly not new - we can credit that as far back as the frontier...

Next time...an actual test from a one room schoolhouse.  How will you do? Hint: Makes Jeopardy look like lst grade :)

Early Womens' Groups

The early frontier town was not an ideal community for families.  Men lived in boarding houses and hotels.  Populations were unstable.  Distinctions were made between the "citizens and the transients"  The respectable citizens, active in the town's culture and administration, also had a wife who shared their social position.

Respectability came with length of residence and wealth.  The longer you lived in an area, the more successful you became, the more respected you were - and we might add, the more influence and power you had in community affairs.

Literature of the time insured that woman's mission was to be the "Mother's of Civilization".  A female support system grew to assist women in regulating society.  As one woman documented "150 volumes were purchased to start our new library".

Along with regulations, the female network also shared fashion and style, encouraging proper dress and correct behavior in this new society.  Here is where discouraged and frustrated frontier wives came to voice their opinions and share their feelings.  Female companionship helped relieve one tedium and burden of work on the frontier as well.

Women had little or no say yet in the politics and administration of a frontier town, but banded together for the good of the society.  Their mission found a voice and the power to make a difference.  In my younger days, these types of groups were called "ladies' circles" or "ladies club".

I would like to think that the suffragette movement began in one of these small frontier communities in someone's kitchen over fresh baked biscuits and coffee?


Next time...Education takes a front row seat...

Frontier Society Beginnings

Women are social creatures - it's just our nature.  Frontier women were no different.  They liked to visit with neighbors and talk of things women today talk about - parenting, fashion, recipes, crafts, marriages, education, religion and most certainly settlement politics.  Women attempted to dress in style even on the frontier, as a symbol of their intention to remain feminine on a frontier where femininity was not an easy thing.

When friends did visit, they stayed. Nearby neighbors stayed at least through a meal and if they had to travel far, for the night.  It was good manners.  Visits provided relief from work and offered the opportunity for mutual support and sharing of experiences.  Women on the frontier might go weeks between neighborly visits, and years between family visits.

Women attempted to attract friends and family to come out west for a visit to aid in the task of building a frontier society, but in reality it was just too costly, and too stressful  to make the trip very often, so societies were built on whoever settled down the road.

Pioneers were beginning to compare their new life on the frontier to their old life on the frontier.  The East was starting to  fade in their memory and a "lady" as the heart of the home was surviving, but along with that - the role as a helper and partner was emerging.  The Western Frontier was becoming civilized!

Next time...Women Contribute to the Community

Love and Marriage Frontier Style

Contrary to what you might think in 1850, the ratio of male-female on the frontier was about even at 106:100.  This small surplus of men gave single women a bit of freedom to pick and choose her husband to be.  Couple this with a falling birth rate and the process was becoming a "more mutual decision".

Many people think that women in the pioneer times married at age 14 or 15 and that they began to bear children regularly.  That may not have been the case at all with pioneers who believed in limiting the size of families for economic reasons...or maybe they were just to worn out at the end of the day!

In 1800 the average size of families was 7 children, by 1860 that number was 6 children, and in 1880 it had fallen again to 4 children.

On the frontier, women married in late teens and early 20s.  Widows with property were reluctant to remarry at all.  Marriage was considered a working partnership rather than a romantic ideal.  Phoebe Judson wrote in her journal "the inconveniences of our environment and the constant drudgery eventually took all the romance and poetry out of our life"  Both sexes looked for partners who were both industrious and competent in the everyday life of the frontier.  What a basis for marriage!

Next time ...The Weight of Childbearing on the Frontier