Saturday, January 23, 2016

Montana Women Homesteaders


In Montana Women Homesteaders: A Field of One's Own, author and historian Sarah Carter introduces the voices and images of women who filed on 160 or 320 acre homestead plots in Montana. Single, widowed, divorced, or deserted women varied in ages, educational levels, and ethnic backgrounds, but all proved up on their homesteads. In published accounts, scrapbooks, personal reminiscences, and photographs, the women recorded their remarkable journeys.

I finished this book last night after having it on my nightstand for about a year. Talk about some fascinating women. I'm not sure if I would have had the guts to do what these women did back in the early 1900s. I would think waking up to find my cabin 30-50 degrees below zero might be a bit much for me. Then again, who knows. Some of these ladies had homesteads that didn't even have a water source, so they either had to fetch water themselves or hire people to bring it into them. What's fascinating to me is that I see these actual homestead cabins all over Montana. We have quite a few locally, and I'd love to hear the stories each one could tell. 

5 comments:

  1. I like books like that. I just finished "NOthing Daunted" about two school teachers in COlorado during the settler time.

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    1. I bet that was a good one, too. I grew up reading Little House, so it's no wonder I like these sort of books.

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  2. This is something I'd like to read. Here's one I did read that you might like. The Female Frontier: A Comparative View of Women on the Prairie and the Plains by Glenda Riley.

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  3. That sounds like a book I would love to read, too. I love history and like writing stories that take place in the past. This would be a great reference book for someone writing about that time period and place.

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