The Other Side of the West

 

Post (C) Doris McCraw aka

Angela Raines

Image (C) Doris McCraw

We think of the West, the wagons rolling westward, the cowboys on trail drives, and the outlaws and lawmen. But there was another side to this West we know and love.

The vast vistas called to people like Charles Russell, Frederic Remington, and Albert Bierstadt, who drew and painted what they saw. Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and later Enos Mills were proponents of conservation.

Valley of the Yosemite, 1863
Albert Bierstadt

Anyone who has studied a Russell or Remington work can almost feel and smell the dust, sweat, and tears of their subject. Bierstadt, with his almost mystical representation of the West, helped contribute to the myth. 

Devils Slide, 1871, Montana
William Henry Jackson

The photographers, such as William Henry Jackson, documented on film what the artists did with paint.

At the same time, Roosevelt, Muir, and Mills, as time passed, helped to preserve what those early settlers and adventurers to the West saw.

The trappers, pathfinders, gold seekers, and dreamers all helped to create what we know as the West, and the artists and photographers documented that era. The conservationists made sure we could, in some small way, experience what our predecessors did.

So, when we think of the West, let us also think of the others who documented the area and helped preserve it for future generations.

Of course, there were women who contributed, but that is for another post.

Until Next Time,

Doris

Angela Raines - Amazon

Doris A. McCraw - Amazon

REMEMBER THE LADIES

Post by Doris McCraw
writing as Angela Raines

View on the route up Pikes Peak which was submitted by
Julia Archibald Holmes in 1858
Photo property of the author

On March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams wrote a letter to her husband in which she said, "I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation."

Those were strong words and in 1920 the nineteenth amendment to the constitution was passed. This year we celebrate the centennial of that event. Although the suffrage movement started on the Eastern coast, it was the women of the Westward movement who exercised those rights prior to 1920.

In Colorado, even before becoming a state, the papers were discussing the suffrage movement. The Central City newspaper in the 1860s was publishing articles on the subject. The Colorado State Medical Society as early as 1876 introduced the idea of women being admitted to that organization. On a side note, the American Medical Society admitted a female doctor from Illinois in 1874.

Dr. Alida Avery
image from Wikipedia

Although women doctors were not admitted to the Colorado Medical Society in 1876, they started their own society. Alida Avery, MD, left Vassar College, where she was a professor and physician, moved to Colorado in 1874, and was heavily involved in the early suffrage movement.

Dr. Mary Helen Barker Bates, who had moved to Colorado from Utah in 1878 with her attorney husband, was instrumental as part of the group of women who reorganized the movement to work for the passage of suffrage in Colorado. The result, in 1893, Colorado added the right of women to vote to the state's constitution.

Colorado Suffrage Movement 1893
image from Wikipedia 

Women in Western states enjoyed more rights and freedoms than their sisters in the East. Wyoming and Utah allowed women to vote before Colorado. Additionally, California began licensing physicians as early as 1876 and women were licensed just the same as men.

Most of my research is on those early Colorado women doctors, but there were women ranch owners, business owners, outlaws and teachers whose lives made an impact on the state. So the next time you watch an early Western and see a strong female character, don't think it was an anomaly, it was probably truer than you realize. When you read between the lines of some of the news reports from the time, you will find, we need to remember the Ladies.

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

Books: Angela Raines Books

SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED -- Meg Mims

LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN THE OLD WEST

June is coming upon us in a few months, along with the season for weddings -- which got me to thinking. Just how common were mail order brides in the Old West?

Think about the issue this way. After the Civil War, widows and young women outnumbered eligible men in the East. And out west, eligible men vastly outnumbered the few women who'd already followed the call of the gold fields.

So yes. The newspapers had a field day with advertisements for brides willing to travel west, the mail thrummed back and forth between eager bachelors and respectable (or not so respectable, depending on the situation) ladies in small towns out east. Like the internet today, both sides often "doctored" descriptions and/or photographs in hopes of snagging a partner. Disappointment often reigned, of course, and at times men waited in vain for a promised bride - who turned in the ticket for money instead of undertaking a journey. Some newspapers printed notices such as these.

And who doesn't love the film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? Adam seeks a bride one day in town, snags Millie by pure luck - who envisions a wonderful life with the handsome, sweet talking backwoodsman, but ends up being cook, maid and teacher-of-manners to his six brothers. They soon want their own brides, of course. It's pure fun, and the barn dance is the best part.

In the 1860s, Asa Mercer promised to import women of marriageable age to Seattle - and that history inspired the popular television show, Here Come the Brides (along with the film Seven Brides/Seven Brothers). A set of three brothers bet their tract of timber against the sawmill owner's offer to fund the expenses; the businessman has eyes on that land and timber, of course, while the Bolt brothers have a difficult time convincing the women of Massachusetts to leave home. It's more pure fun, and inspired lots of young girls in their teens to worship at the feet of Bobby Sherman and David Soul. Oh yeah.

Okay, back to the mail order brides issue. Fred Harvey himself played matchmaker, hiring single women "of good character" who could work  in his cafes along the railroad. The businessman kept strict standards, however, that the women must work as waitresses for a year; they were chaperoned while men visited in special "courting" parlors, and had to live in special dormitories. Between 4,000 and 5,000 women ended up marrying by first working as Harvey Girls. This also spawned the Judy Garland hit, The Harvey Girls. While the plot seems silly, they did get the uniform right.

Some immigrants also utilized ways of procuring brides, either through letters or matchmakers. Russian men paid fees to obtain potential wives, steeped in tradition from their old homes; Chinese and Japanese did the same, asking their parents to act as brokers to get a bride, sight unseen or via a blurry photograph. Such pressure from parents sent Asian women across the ocean, or else chose to escape starving to death. The recent TV mini-series, Broken Trail, starred Robert Duvall and Thomas Hayden Church and wove a group of Chinese women brought over as brides - or so they believed.

The theme of mail order brides remains popular in novels. Do a search on Amazon or B&N using that keyword, and you can scroll through 100 pages of offerings. One anthology includes our own Western Fictioneers member Cheryl Pierson in Lassoing a Mail Order Bride - published by Prairie Rose Publications - which sounds really interesting. "A woman would have to be loco to become a mail-order bride... wouldn't she? Leaving everything behind and starting fresh in the untamed west is the answer to a prayer for these ladies!" Check it out.

I used the offer of a train ticket, the promise of a wedding, a nice house with husband and family, as a subplot for a minor female character in  Double Crossing. Check out my novel if you haven't read my western historical mystery with the "True Grit on a train" major theme.

Mail order brides are not a thing of the past. And the tradition continues, not surprisingly. Where there's a need, there's a way to fill it...

Sources: Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, Guidelines, and Pinterest.

Mystery author Meg Mims earned a Spur Award from WWA and also a Laramie award for her western historical mystery series, Double Crossing and Double or Nothing. Meg is also one-half of the writing team of D.E. Ireland for St. Martin's Minotaur mystery series featuring Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins -- lives in Southeastern Michigan with her husband and a sweet Malti-poo. She loves writing novels, novellas and short stories, both contemporary and historical. 
Follow her on Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest!

THE UNEXPECTED WEST

I admit. I'm an Eastern greenhorn.

I was born/raised in Michigan, a state known for its “leafies” – oaks, maples, elms, birches, and that’s just on my street. Michigan has bountiful trees and lakes. Green and blue are the primary colors here. But I loved the idea of visiting the west.

On my first ever trip past the Missouri River in 2002, my husband (who'd been born in Colorado and visited out west several times), my daughter and I decided to hit a few landmarks along the way. The Corn Palace was one, since I’d run across that oddity (to me) on some type of “Don’t Miss” travel tips. Amazing. We stared at the outer walls, the detailed panels, and toured the exhibits inside. Wow. And all for the birds... and squirrels, or whatever.

Wall Drugs was another, of course, due to all the signs we’d seen starting in Wisconsin. Mount Rushmore, too. I was stunned that we could glimpse part of the massive stone heads from the highway. We also drove through Custer State Park to see buffalo (from a distance, I'm not that stupid!) and hoped to see a moose or two. Nope. We saw prairie dogs, hundreds of them. I could have watched them pop in and out of their holes for hours. Cute little buggers. No moose in Yellowstone, which was to be the highlight of our trip when we planned it. 

But... But! Or should I say BUTTE? We all were far more fascinated by the Badlands. We loved it. 

And I mean big time “l-o-v-e” as in “we have GOT to stop here on the way home again” love. Totally unexpected.

Why? Well... Sure, the Badlands have a ‘rugged beauty’ and ‘striking geologic deposits’ according to the National Park website. It’s nice to know that ‘ancient mammals such as the rhino, horse and saber-toothed cat once roamed here.’ Yes, it’s astonishing that it covers almost a quarter of a million acres, that it includes mixed-grass prairie. And that ‘bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets live there today.’ All nice to know.

I think it was the unspoiled nature. There were few trails. Few guideposts explaining the area. No fences, from what I recall. We stood there, staring, as if we'd been transported back into a timeless past. I can't explain it any better than that. And photographs don't do it justice.

My husband found a side road off Interstate 90. We drove to the rim of the Badlands, near a ranch -- I was so jealous, thinking of someone living right on the edge of this stunning gift from God. We parked. Got out of the car. Stepped to the edge. Of course we didn't try to make our way down (not stupid, not us.) Just gazed out across the miles and miles of incredible wind and water shaped rock formations.

I tried to include this feeling in my own writing, when Lily (born/raised near Chicago) sees the West for the first time in Double Crossing. The endless prairie, the Rockies, Donner Lake, California. But... But sometimes words just don't do that feeling justice.

So I found this painting by Thomas Eakins, of two cowboys standing on the rim of the Badlands. Maybe these two considered it a barrier to where they wanted to go. Maybe they stood in awe like my family did. Maybe those unexpected wonders are the best feelings of all.

Here's a brief excerpt from Double Crossing, with Lily and Ace -- the sequel Double or Nothing will be out soon.

“I shouldn’t be out here with you. Alone.”

“Is that right.” Ace scratched his stubbly chin. “I won’t bite.”

“I don’t feel comfortable at this altitude.” I twisted to face the view. No doubt he would try to kiss me again despite his boyish mask of innocence. “These sheds make me nervous. Did you say it might snow? I ought to get my oilcloth cape, I’m so cold.”

“Here, this might help.”

He draped his fringed buckskin coat around my shoulders and then gripped the rail on either side of my hands, his warmth behind me. Ace didn’t brush his rough jaw against my neck or press against me. I leaned back and realized he’d left space between us. Perhaps he was learning manners after all. We stood there for several minutes in companionable silence until the weathered boards came to an end.

“Oh!”

Breathless at the gorgeous view, I drank in the deep blue lake nestled between sloping shoulders of green. Thick pines marched along the shoreline. Gleaming snow frosted the high, rocky peaks on all sides. How strange that such a beautiful place could be so far away where few people would see, unless they traveled along this rail line. Ace leaned toward my ear.

“Donner Lake. Wagon train got stranded over winter twenty some years ago.”

“I read about the trial of those who chose cannibalism in the newspaper, Mr. Diamond,” I said. “Don’t remind me now and spoil the view....”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meg Mims is an award-winning author and artist. Her first book, Double Crossing, won the 2012 Spur Award for Best First Novel from Western Writers of America and was named a Finalist in the Best Books of 2012 from USA Book News for Fiction: Western. 

Meg also wrote two contemporary romance novellas, The Key to Love, and Santa Paws – which reached #6 on the Amazon Kindle Bestseller list for Dogs.