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

TRUTH IN FICTION -Using real history to create fiction

Post copyright 2015 by Doris McCraw

Writing historical fiction is great fun, but it's even more fun when you can add details that create a richer reality. In many cases writers use actual people, places and events to weave their stories around. Such was the case in my current work "Never Had A Chance" in the "Cowboy Celebration" anthology. I used the town of Pueblo, Colorado, an actual lawman by the name of Patrick Desmond and Teresita Sandoval.

www.sciencebase.gov

Patrick Desmond was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1841 and died in Ogden, Utah in 1890. The years in between are the stuff of legends. At least according to some of what I found. According to the information from Pueblo, Patrick was quite the lawman. He was responsible for bringing in numerous outlaws, and was a member if the Rocky Mountain Detective Association. He arrested an Alamosa stage coach robber in Pueblo, and was involved in a stopping a counterfeit ring Pueblo. His luck was not always the best in his financial life. On Feb 1, 1884 the livery owned by Desmond was destroyed by fire for a loss of $14,000. Insurance only covered $4,500. Desmond met his demise in Ogden, Utah at the hands of Thomas Todd, a former bartender at the "Bucket of Blood" saloon in Pueblo. In an altercation Todd shot and killed Desmond, but was only given a four year sentence, which he served in the state of Utah. (Todd returned to Colorado after his sentence and continued his violent streak.)

Maria Teresa 'Teresita' Sandoval,http://bit.ly/1GXxlP9,  is an early pioneer woman everyone should know. Born in New Mexico in 1811, she married at a young age and moved to Colorado. She met Matthew Kinkead  and moved with him to Ft. Pueblo, where she helped run fort and trading business. When Kinkead left for California with their son, Teresita moved in with her daughter, Cruzita and her husband in the Arkansas River Valley. There she took control of her daughters property after the death of Cruzita's husband. Teresita died in 1894. http://bit.ly/1fby74ihttp://bit.ly/1fby74i

Pueblo, Colorado itself is a great story. Early on the area at the confluence of the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek, was drawing settlers. In 1806, Zebulon Pike built a stockade there when he famously tried to climb the peak that now bears his name. Ft. Pueblo was a business fort similar to Bent's fort. In 1854 they suffered the Christmas Eve Massacre, and to this day no one has learned what really happened. Wm. Jackson Palmer, founder of Colorado Springs, located his Colorado Coal and Iron company, latter known as Colorado Fuel and Iron there. Prior or WWII it was the first and only steel mill west of St. Louis, Missouri. Even in modern times, Pueblo is known as the "Home of Heroes". President Eisenhower was quoted as saying, while presenting Raymond G. 'Jerry' Murphy his medal of honor, "What is it...something in the water out here in Pueblo? All you guys turn out to be heroes!" In 1993 Scott McInnis read into the congressional record that Pueblo was the only city to have four living Medal of Honor recipients from the same hometown.

commons.wikimedia.org

Below is a excerpt from "Never Had A Chance" second in the Agate Gulch stories, found in the "Cowboy Celebration" anthology. Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of the anthology in a drawing on Wednesday July 8, 2015.


                                                                **********

The smell of unfamiliar food cooking pulled Tom back from oblivion. His mind tried to process what he was smelling; a pungent, smoky smell. Immediately, his stomach started growling as though it had been empty for some time. Moving to rise and follow the smells, Tom found his left arm tied to his chest. A pain shot through his upper left chest and shoulder, followed by a stinging in his right leg; but none of those irritants compared to the throbbing behind his eyes, up through the top of his head and down the back of his neck. He took a deep breath to calm the panic he was beginning to feel.

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Where was he, why was he restrained? That thought was swiftly followed with the question that pushed Tom into full panic.  Who was he?

Fighting the pain, Tom rolled to the right, moving to the edge of the bed. He was in a bed. The knowledge calmed him somewhat, but he still needed to find the answers to his questions. He'd almost made it to a sitting position when the door opened.

So, you are awake," the male voice stated. A voice with a Spanish accent. "I will send for the doctor; in the meantime, you lie back down," he continued, as he pushed Tom back toward the pillow. "Please, stay here until the doctor says otherwise. I do not want you doing anything that will require you to stay longer." So saying, the man quickly went out the door, closing it firmly.


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Until next month, happy reading and enjoy your summer, and be sure to check out "Home For His Heart" the first in the Agate Gulch series of stories.

Angela Raines is the pen name for Doris McCraw. Doris lives in Colorado and focuses on Colorado and Women's History. Currently, when not writing fiction, she is researching the women doctors who practiced medicine in Colorado prior to 1900. She also publishes a haiku and photo five days a week. You can view them at: http://bit.ly/1dVnNwO