The Story of Sarah Sim

This is the story of the frontier and how even in the best of circumstances it took a toll on women...

No frontier was harder on women than the Plains.  None found it more stressful than Sarah Sims.  In 1856 Sarah and her husband, Francis,  came from New England to buy 160 acres of land in Nebraska.  Their land had a creek, a grove of trees and neighbors nearby. Sarah was 32 years old when she came west with two children.  Their home was a 10x10 foot cabin.  The family had three cows, two oxen, a horse, a couple of pigs, and some chickens.  The family hunted prairie chickens and rabbits, and gathered wild strawberries and plums.  It seemed they had it better than most.

Sarah wrote her parents that "there is no church, no school.  There is some preaching in private houses. The weather is dry, the water is hard and it seems the wind would blow our little house away."

Before the first year had passed, Sarah's second children died of whooping cough and dysentery.  Her hand got badly infected and a finger had to be amputated.  Francis became ill.  The first winter was bitterly cold. 

Again, Sarah wrote her mother, "it almost breaks our spirits down.  Pray for me that I may overcome my present fear."  For eight months she suffered, becoming despondent and destroying household items, harming herself and sometimes her children, finally attempting suicide.  Francis had recovered and finally tied her to the bed.  Sarah gradually improved and wrote home that, "I sometimes quite despair I would do anything to feel better."

The second year the winter was mild and Francis built an addition onto the house.  They planted potatoes, beans, corn, and salted 1500 pounds of pork to sell.  Sarah planted flowers from seed she had brought from home.  Settlers arrived and a school was built.  Sarah was cheerful.

Sarah stayed strong through four of her nine children dying from diphtheria and mumps.  She survived to live out her life with her family on the Plains of Nebraska - just another of the courageous women who settled the West.  (the photo is Beatrice, not Sarah, but representative of these brave women pioneers)

Next time...A Bit of Learning
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 17, 1787, The Constitution of the United States of America is signed by 38 of 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Supporters of the document waged a hard-won battle to win ratification by the necessary nine out of 13 U.S. states.

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.

Arriving on the Homestead

The period of adjustment to new surroundings was always a trying time for women.  Physical exhaustion from the journey along with meager family resources made confronting the reality of the frontier kind of like being hit broadside!

By the time a family arrived at their homestead, there were little supplies left, the family was worn out, and the work had just begun.  Add to that the lack of friends and family to help and you have what one woman wrote, "As long as I live I'll never see such lonely country".

A family just arriving, even if lucky enough to have a homestead, faced the reality of no house, no capital, hunger and poverty that loomed as large as the sky overhead.  Many a pioneer woman told herself that if they could just get to the homestead it would be alright - only to find they hadn't even begun yet.

One woman noted the following story in her journal some years later.  At the time, she was a child...
"During the trip, father saw 2 stumps standing a few feet apart and he laughingly told mother that she might live there -  to which mother insisted that father clean them out, put on a roof and we moved in - a family of eight."

Home Sweet Home?  Not quite yet...

Next time - New Home Challenges

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Career Options in the West

Women went west for an entirely different reason other than duty and economic opportunities - they went west in order to save civilization.  If that sounds a bit over the top - remember that it was general opinion that perhaps woman's best contribution (and the only one), to the frontier would be to "soothe and civilize" the wild west frontier with domestic life.

I guess it would follow then that women would begin to see themselves as a kind of savior to American civilization - a way in ensure that life on the frontier came to model the American way of life in the East.

"Pioneer Mothers" referred to women who went west as volunteers acting as maids in "rearing" the wild frontier of our country. 

Women went as teachers - the schoolhouse was of paramount importance in the attempt to civilize the frontier.Catherine Beecher, author of "The Duty of the American Women to Their Country"  helped to organize 100s of women in the mid 1800s to go west to teach.  In 1854 teaching was the most respectable work for a woman and offered a means of independence over factory seamstress or domestic maid back East.

Female missionaries also saw themselves as part of a national effort to save the western frontier for religious civilization. Over 2500 women came west as missionaries, putting their life on hold in order to help civilize the western frontier.

Next time...the trip was difficult.