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Gutsy Women Who Won the West, by Velda
Winslow, AR US

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Gutsy Women Who Won the West

Journals kept by women who went West by wagon train reveal the true West, or what part they would write about. Many were a bit reluctant to talk about very personal things and bodily functions, but we can learn of their varied lives from reading these journals. The birth of babies or pregnancies or labor, for instance, are rarely mentioned outright
I know this is a world of the Internet, and most bloggers include informative links along with their post. I'm going to include some books you can read if you're interested in what women were like and what they had to put up with in the old west.
Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel is one of the best for journals. If you can't find it on Amazon, try ABE books or one of the other companies online that finds out-of-print books. Or your local library may have a copy. Another outstanding one is Pioneer Women The Lives of Women on the Frontier by Linda Peavy & Ursula Smith from the University of Oklahoma Press. Should still be readily available. It's filled with the daring deeds of women in the West and some unusual and little known facts.
One of the myths that the latter book discredits is that Indians regularly attacked wagon trains and stole the women and children. In actuality, the books says, these attacks were few and far between. Women did have plenty to worry about though. The worst tragedy was the death of children, and the deadliest killer was cholera. Having no idea how it was passed from one to the other, often a family's wagon would be ostracized if they came down with cholera. The harshest conditions were visited upon pregnant women. And the saddest tales are from those who lost their children, either at birth or later.
Then there are the stories of the women who took to the life as easily as men. Women who went into mining, who took up sharpshooting, and though we hate to think about it, the many women who became successful as madame's and/or prostitutes in a land where the men outnumbered the women 50-1, men who were hungry for the company of women. There's the amazing story of Charlie Parkhurst who lived as a man for the last half of her life driving a stage coach. For a terrific fiction novel based on this woman's incredible life, try The Whip by Karen Kondazian. It's available on Amazon.
According to one book, 14 percent of the female work force in the West were in professional service, compared to only 8 percent in the country as a whole. And this even though the West had only around 4 percent of the nation's females. Women taught school, became community leaders, doctors, musicians, photographers. And the list goes on. So while we know that it was much more difficult to attain such professions for women, many of them were strong enough and stubborn enough to do just that.
When I write Western historical romances, I try to include much of the gritty life within their pages. If I included everything, it wouldn't be very romantic. It was a dirty existence, a tough existence, but along with that were the good times. Younger women and unmarried women fared better physically.

Description: This is a nonfiction story about some of the brave women who won the west

Photo Posted: Nov 26,2012 Photo Viewed: 368

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