So Much to be Done: Women Settlers on the Mining and Ranching FrontierRuth Barnes Moynihan, Susan Hodge Armitage, Christiane Fischer Dichamp U of Nebraska Press, 1998 M01 1 - 353 pages Praise for the first edition: "Another fine addition to the history of women in the Wild West. Strong and keen, these women responded to the frontier with imagination, pleasure, courage, humor and pride. They will inspire the same in readers of this volume."-Booklist. "This is history at its best-on and between the lines. Buy it and read it."-Listener. "To the editors' great credit, they have given us writings that retain each author's idiosyncrasies, prejudices, wit, petulance, anger, confusion, and resilience."-Gateway Heritage. "This is the best collection of its kind I know."-Lillian Schlissel, author of Women's Diaries of the Overland Trails. In this new and enlarged edition the editors have built on an already strong collection with four new accounts. Colorado pioneer Augusta Tabor gives a sense of the heady days as Leadville became a major mining center. Abigail Duniway describes the challenges of life for women in the Pacific Northwest. Effie Wiltbank's short selection is a reminiscence of her grandmother's "receet" for washing clothes, a chore that epitomizes the practical skill, determination, and common sense required of so many Western women. Apolinaria Lorenzana offers a rare glimpse of the operations of the mission system while illuminating the perils of living with the acquisitive Americans. Ruth B. Moynihan is an independent historian and writer. She is the editor of Second to None: A Documentary History of American Women. Susan Armitage is a professor of history at Washington State University and series editor for the University of Nebraska Press's "Women in the West" series. Christiane Fischer Dichamp, an independent scholar, is editor of Let Them Speak forThemselves: Women in the American West, 1849-1900. |
Contents
California Nevada and the Northwest 18001883 | 3 |
Womens work | 18 |
We surely thought a hoodoo was over us | 26 |
It was a great trial for me to know just how to approach them | 46 |
Female enterprise | 55 |
No persuits in common between us any more | 67 |
Miningtown girlhood | 92 |
Odors not of Araby 18 | 118 |
They go by the name of fancy women | 191 |
Homesteaders | 202 |
No door or window was ever locked | 212 |
My people will never believe me again | 227 |
Piute mother and children | 232 |
The Southwestern Desert 18631900 | 241 |
Teresita Suaso | 248 |
A stopping place for travelers | 255 |
The High Plains and Rocky Mountains 18701890 | 137 |
Hunting | 138 |
Early days in the Greeley Colony | 159 |
To complain was never one of my traits of nature | 171 |
Western family | 182 |
This is desolation itself | 294 |
Outdoor school | 305 |
Ladies with cactus | 332 |
Nothing seemed permanent on the desert 315 | 337 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adelia afternoon arrived asked baby beautiful brought building California called camp carried church close clothes cold coming cook door dress early eyes father fear feel feet felt finished four friends gave girl give gold half hand hard head horses husband Indians John keep kind knew lady land leave letter lived looked Mary miles mining months morning mother mountain moved never night passed ranch reached ready remained rest returned river road seemed sent sick side Sister soon spring started stay stopped street Sunday supper taken tell thing thought told took town trees trying turned Valley wagon Wallace washing week winter wish woman women write young