Table of Contents
Introduction: The Legacy of Single Women Homesteaders xi
1 Single Women Homesteaders: Their Place in History & Literature 17
Their Place in History 17
The Stereotype 19
The Cultural Setting 20
Women and Landownership 21
Transportation Improvements 23
Country Life and the Back-to-the-Land Movement 25
Second Generation Pioneer Women 27
Their Place in Literature 28
Point of View 28
Setting: Mountains and Plains Landscape 28
Characters 29
Plot 30
Style 30
Theme 31
Myth or Reality? 33
2 Getting Acquainted: Meet the Single Women Homesteaders 35
Numbers Don't Lie 35
Success Rates 36
Who Were They? 39
A Goal of Marriage? 41
New Friends From the Past 42
3 Heroines of the Popular Press: Homesteaders' Stories, 1911-1928 45
Telling Their Own Stories 46
Elizabeth Abbey Everette, "Uncle's Gift" 47
Metta M. Loomis, "From Schoolroom to Montana Ranch" 49
Cecelia Weiss, "Homesteading Without a Chaperon" 55
A. May Holaday, "The Lure of the West for Women" 62
Zay Philbrook, "My Wyoming Timber Claim" 63
Kate L. Heizer, "Via the Homesteading Route" 68
Reporting from the Frontier 73
Mary Isabel Brush, "Women on the Prairies" 74
Joanna Gleed Stange, "The Last Homesteads" 82
Mabel Lewis Stuart, "The Lady Honyocker" 86
4 Please Answer Soon: Letters of Single Women Homesteaders 91
Alice Newberry 93
Julia Erickson Stockton 107
Ida Gwynn Garvin 123
5 Looking Back: Single Women Homesteaders' Memoirs 163
Dr. Bessie Efner Rehwinkle 165
Katherine Garetson 179
Alice Hildreth Zehm 202
Florence Blake Smith 207
Madge McHugh Funk 224
6 Rediscovered: Single Women Homesteaders in Historical Records233
Oral Histories 234
Mary Culbertson 235
Helen Coburn Howell 243
Mary Sheehan Steinbrech 254
Profiles 257
Nellie Burgess 257
Esther Dollard 263
Geraldine Lucas 267
Emma Peterson 274
Afterword 283
Bibliography 285
Notes 293
Index 299
