ONE REASON for the ebullience of life and rollicky carelessness on the
frontiers of the West was the lack--temporary--of women. The men, mostly
young, had given no hostages to fortune. They were generally as free
from family cares as the buccaneers. This was especially true of the
first ranches on the Great Plains, of cattle trails, of mining camps,
logging camps, and of trapping expeditions. It was not true of the
colonial days in Texas, of ranch life in the southern part of Texas,
of homesteading all over the West, of emigrant trails to California and
Oregon, of backwoods life.
Various items listed under "How the Early Settlers Lived" contain
material on pioneer women.
ALDERSON, NANNIE T., and SMITH, HELENA HUNTINGTON. A _Bride Goes West_,
New York, 1942. Montana in the eighties. OP.
BAKER, D. W. C. A _Texas Scrapbook_, 1875; reprinted, 1936, by Steck,
Austin.
BROTHERS, MARY HUDSON. A _Pecos Pioneer_, 1943. OP. The best part of
this book is not about the writer's brother, who cowboyed with Chisum's
Jinglebob outfit and ran into Billy the Kid, but is Mary Hudson's own
life. Only Ross Santee has equaled her in description of drought
and rain. The last chapters reveal a girl's inner life, amid outward
experiences, as no other woman's chronicle of ranch ways--sheep ranch
here.
CALL, HUGHIE. _Golden Fleece_, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1942. Hughie
Call became wife of a Montana sheepman early in this century. OP.
CLEAVELAND, AGNES MORLEY. _No Life for a Lady_, Houghton Mifflin,
Boston, 1941. Bright, witty, penetrating; anecdotal. Best account of
frontier life from woman's point of view yet published. New Mexico
is the setting, toward turn of the century. People who wished Mrs.
Cleaveland would write another book were disappointed when her _Satan's
Paradise_ appeared in 1952.
ELLIS, ANNE. _The Life of An Ordinary Woman_, 1929, and _Plain Anne
Ellis_, 1931, both OP. Colorado country and town. Books of disillusioned
observations, wit, and wisdom by a frank woman.
FAUNCE, HILDA. _Desert Wife_, 1934. OP. Desert loneliness at a Navajo
trading post.
HARRIS, MRS. DILUE. Reminiscences, in _Southwestern Historical
Quarterly_, Vols. IV and VII.
KLEBERG, ROSA. "Early Experiences in Texas," in _Quarterly of the
Texas State Historical Association_ (initial title for _Southwestern
Historical Quarterly_), Vols. I and II.
MAGOFFIN, SUSAN SHELBY. _Down the Santa Fe Trail_, 1926. OP. She was
juicy and a bride, and all life was bright to her.
MATTHEWS, SALLIE REYNOLDS. _Interwoven_, Houston, 1936. Ranch life in
the Texas frontier as a refined and intelligent woman saw it. OP.
MAVERICK, MARY A. _Memoirs_, San Antonio, 1921. OP. Essential.
PICKRELL, ANNIE DOOM. _Pioneer Women in Texas_, Austin, 1929. Too much
lady business but valuable. OP.
POE, SOPHIE A. _Buckboard Days_, edited by Eugene Cunningham, Caldwell,
Idaho, 1936. Mrs. Poe was there--New Mexico.
RAK, MARY KIDDER. _A Cowman's Wife_, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1934. The
external experiences of an ex-teacher on a small Arizona ranch.
RHODES, MAY D. _The Hired Man on Horseback_, 1938. Biography of Eugene
Manlove Rhodes, but also warm-natured autobiography of the woman who
ranched with "Gene" in New Mexico. OP.
RICHARDS, CLARICE E. _A Tenderfoot Bride_, Garden City, N. Y., 1920. OP.
Charming.
STEWART, ELINOR P. _Letters of a Woman Homesteader_, Boston, 1914. OP.
WHITE, OWEN P. _A Frontier Mother_, New York, 1929. OP. Overdone, as
White overdid every subject he touched.
WILBARGER, J. W. _Indian Depredations in Texas_, 1889; reprinted by
Steck, Austin, 1936. A glimpse into the lives led by families that gave
many women to savages--for death or for Cynthia Ann Parker captivity.
WYNN, AFTON. "Pioneer Folk Ways," in _Straight Texas_, Texas Folklore
Society Publication XIII, 1937. Excellent.