WOMEN RANCHERS/HOMESTEADERS

Post by Doris McCraw
writing as Angela Raines

March is National Women's History Month, and March 1 is also National Horse Protection Day. What better to write about than women ranchers. Of course, once I decided to write on the subject the research began. There were women ranchers in the early days of Colorado history, but finding them does take a bit of work. I'll be writing about two of them.

Photo property of the author

I'll start with the one that caught my eye a few years back. In the 1879 Colorado Springs city directory a Mrs. R. Gamble was listed as a stock grower. While not technically a rancher, she piqued my interest. Mrs. Roxanna Gamble was a widow who had been born Roxanna Bentley in 1827 in Monongahela, Pennsylvania to Shesbazzar and Elizabeth Bentley. I've not found where or who she married, but she had a son names Shes and when her son was three, she was living with her parents again. She was only in the stock growing for a couple of years. She died in Colorado Springs in 1888 at the age of sixty-three.

Women like Teresita Sandoval in the early days of Colorado helped start towns, build ranches and leave their mark on the land they inhabited. Teresita married but left her husband for another man. These two moved to Colorado from what is now New Mexico and became part of Fort Pueblo life in the 1840s. In fact, the two of them were instrumental to the success of the fort in its early days. Teresita later ran the ranch her daughter inherited from her husband.   For more on this amazing woman here is a link to her life. Teresita Sandoval

Then there was this article in the Colorado Daily Chieftain in Pueblo, CO. from 1892:


Lastly, I found this information on 'women's work' in the August 18, 1893, Idaho Springs News, in Idaho Springs, Colorado.

How Women are Employed.

According to the last census, there are 110 women lawyers in the United States and 165 women ministers, 320 women authors, 588 women journalist, 2,061 artist, 2,136 architects, 2,106 stock raisers and ranchers, 5,135 government clerks, 2,438 physicians and surgeons, 13,182 professional musicians, 56,800 professional farmers and planters, 21,071 clerks and bookkeepers, 14,463 heads of commercial houses and 155,000 women schoolteachers.

To put it in perspective the population in the United States in 1890 was 62,979,766 of which probably 19,000,000 plus were children.

In the short story, I wrote for "Hot Western Nights", my heroine is managing the ranch her step-father left for his children. Here is a short excerpt:

Miranda Foster climbed the hill overlooking the ranch her stepfather left her to run for his heirs. Clouds flew across the sky. Standing on the hilltop, she watched a storm building, its track headed toward the ranch house. She didn't begrudge her duty, but by the time her step-brother Byron was old enough to take over, she'd be an old maid.

No one knew she wasn't the owner. It was her step-father's way of keeping the ranch safe. She remembered their conversation. "I know I'm asking a lot of you, but you'll be taken care of."

Miranda thought back on that conversation as she caught movement near the leading edge of the storm. Watching, she saw five specks detach and draw closer. The wind was pushing her back the way she'd come, trying to guide her to safety.

Miranda would not be moved. "You may threaten, cajole, or do me harm, but I will not be swayed from my duty," Miranda sent back to the wind as she waited for the oncoming riders, shotgun in hand. She never left the ranch house without it since the coming of Tate Browning. She stood, a calm determination not to give in.

"A woman can't hold such a place as this," the old man said as he rode up, almost on top of Miranda.

Miranda stood her ground, looking each of the men in the eye. "I've been charged with keeping this land safe, to never sell for any reason. Tell Tate Browning, it's a duty I shall discharge to the best of my ability."

Amazon

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

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

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

Books: Angela Raines Books