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

Adeline Hornbeck - Early Pioneer

Post copyright by Doris McCraw



In 1878, Adeline Hornbeck purchased property west of Colorado Springs in what was known as the Florrisant Valley. Here the widow, with her four children, carved out a livelihood for themselves. Not only did the property have a well constructed home, but had many outbuildings including a milk and chicken house. The home itself was a marvel, the first two story home in the area when it was completed in 1878. It still stands today and was in use as a home up until the 1960's.

Adeline's journey began with her birth in July of 1833 in Massachusetts. It was there she met and married Simon A. Harker. They had three children, Franklin, Anna, and George. According to the 1860 the couple were in Creek Nation, Indian Land, Arkansas (Oklahoma) where Simon was an Indian agent, according to one record. By 1861 they moved to the Denver area and filed on 160 acres. Then in 1864 Simon died, he may have been sickly and moved to area for his health, leaving Adeline to fend for herself and the children. Showing her business sense she purchased 80 acres of the homestead, using a clause in the act, for $100.

In September of 1866 she married Elliot Hornbeck. They had a child together, Elliot Jr.. But things did not remain calm. Elliot disappeared in 1875. There is speculation he may have been married to another woman back east, he may have died, no one seems to know. But Adeline was not done yet. She accumulated enough cash to purchase the land in Florrisant Valley. It is from this base that she built her 'empire', although when starting out she worked in the mercantile in the new town of Florrisant.



Adeline chose well. Her homestead was on the route to the gold and silver fields in the South Park area. Sitting on one of the tributaries of the South Platte River it had good pasture land, pine trees and water. She was also an astute business woman and was active in the community, holding social gatherings at her home and serving on the school board. By the time she paid off her homestead claim, in 1885, the property value was at least five times more than the original.

Adeline was still not done. Around 1900, at the age of 66, she married 47 year old Frederick Sticksel, an immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1882. Five years later, Adeline passed away at age 71 of  'paralysis'.

The land where Adeline Warfield Harker Hornbeck Sticksel built her home for herself and children is now part of the Florissant National Fossil Beds and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Adeline is buried in the Four Mile Cemetery, Florissant, Colorado.

Thank you for joining me on this short journey of a most interesting woman. There is a lot more about Adeline, but for now, we can remember and honor this pioneering woman.

For a follow up post about the region: http://writingwranglersandwarriors.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/settleing-west-of-pikes-peak/

To follow my haiku: http://fivesevenfivepage.blogspot.com 

“Film and Photography on the Front Range” (Regional History Series): Colorado Springs, CO. Pikes Peak Library District 2012

available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords

The Cow Chip Lady by Linda Hubalek

I love looking at old photos collected on historical internet sites like KansasMemory.org, and Pinterest. One of the most famous photos, that of a woman gathering cow chips, depicts the typical life of a pioneer woman in many people’s minds.

Here’s this woman, stuck out on the Western Kansas plains, with nothing but the flat prairie behind her—and she’s gathering dried buffalo manure to use as fuel to cook her family’s meals.

That was life for the women homesteading on the plains with no trees for fuel. Unless you lived on a river that had trees on its banks, you were pretty much out of luck. Prairie fires kept trees from foresting the Plains before towns and farms changed the landscape. So you gathered whatever you could find to burn, and people soon found out that dried manure gave a nice slow burning heat.

However, one of the interesting internet links with this photo on the Kansas Memory.org site is the story behind the staging of this picture. Yes, a young woman that wanted to be a photographer set it up. In 1893 Ada McColl posed for her camera, and her mother Polly actually took the picture featuring Ada, and her little brother Burt, (mistaken for a girl because of his clothing). You can read the whole story of the Pioneer Photographer: The Story of the Cow Chip Lady in this link (then scroll down to page 10).

I always wonder about the people and sceneries in old photos, so it was neat to find the story behind this particular one. Even though Ada staged the shot, it was a common chore for many a woman on the Kansas prairie between the 1850's to 1870's. Ada would have used her family’s cow herd’s dried manure to fill her wheelbarrow because the buffalo herds were gone from the state twenty years before this picture was taken.

But Ada gave us more than a glimpse of how the first pioneers  scrounged for buffalo chips after a herd passed through the area. She showed the view of the endless prairie in the horizon, the taste and smell of the dirt blowing on her face from the constant wind, the dry gritty feel of the dried manure on her hands, and the weight of the wheel barrow.

That’s what I always aim to portray in my pioneer books… not only visual sights for the reader, but for all their senses as well. I have to admit, this picture says a lot without words…

The Perfect Homestead Bride by Linda Hubalek

Author Linda Hubalek

Hello everyone! I’m Linda Hubalek and although I written books about pioneer women for a couple of decades, this is my first time working with Prairie Rose Publications, and the first time posting on the PRP blog. 

My story The Perfect Homestead Bride will be in PRP’s new book, Lassoing a Groom, an anthology of six new stories from six award winning authors.

First here’s a little bit about me and my writing career.

While growing up, I always planned to be a farmer, like my parents and European ancestors who homesteaded the Kansas prairie over a century ago. But marrying an engineer changed my plans—and my state of residence for a few decades.

To ease the homesickness for soil and family, I wrote stories about the pioneer women that homestead my family farms in Kansas. What resulted is four book series, Butter in the Well, Trail of Thread, Planting Dreams, and the Kansas Quilter. These series combine facts, fiction, photos and maps to give readers an intimate glimpse of life in the 1800's.

Another move in the mid 1990’s brought us back to central Kansas. We bought farm land, planted it back to prairie and stocked it with bison. This finally fulfilled my goal of connecting to the land much the same way my ancestors would have seen it when they first arrived in Kansas.

My passion for the frontier past has drawn me into writing a new western romance series featuring Kansas’ rough and rugged cattle town days and the women that lived in those times.

I welcome reader’s comments and can be contacted through linda@lindahubalek.com. My book descriptions and how to order them are on my website or Amazon.

Here’s a summary of The Perfect Homestead Bride, plus the start of the story.

Gussie Hamner paid cash for the abandoned Kansas prairie homestead near Ellsworth, Kansas with winnings her horse Nutcracker won against cowboys coming off the cattle trails. She plans to raise horses on her ranch, but disturbing happenings around the place and with her animals cause Gussie to worry about the safety of all that is dear to her.

Noah Wilerson left his sod house in Kansas to travel to Illinois, planning to marry and bring his sweetheart back to his new homestead. After finding his intended already married, Noah travels home to find it’s been taken over by a horsewoman in trousers.

Pushed together by well-meaning family, Gussie and Noah must work together to finish the homestead he started, but she bought to make into a perfect home and ranch for the future family she’s been dreaming of.  But danger lurking from the past may sabotage their work and lives now—and in the future.

Here’s the start of The Perfect Homestead Bride to whet your appetite.

This was the second time Noah Wilerson had seen that thick blonde braid.

The first time he saw that hair was three months ago in early May when he was at the station, waiting for the train to take him to Illinois. A bunch of cowboys had finished the long trail drive up from Texas and were celebrating with a horse race. After getting the worked-up men and horses lined up halfway straight across Main Street, someone fired a gun into the air and the group stormed down the street, racing out of Ellsworth at a neck-breaking speed.

The group raced out in a cloud of dust to a certain point marked in the prairie and turned to gallop back to the finish line, which happened to be in front of the depot, right where Noah stood on the boardwalk. A striking palomino paint mount moved out of the oncoming dust to claim the lead and finish first.

The slender rider wore his wide-brimmed hat low and tight on his head and had a red bandana over his mouth to keep from eating dust on the run. Once the horse slowed down and the rider turned his mount around, they pranced back to the finish line and collected the $100 cash from the man in charge of holding prize money.

The rider pulled down the scarf, ripped the hat off to wave in the air and gave a very feminine whooping holler. That’s when Noah—and everyone else—saw the thick, blonde, two-foot braid flipping out of her hat and down her back.

That caused uproar when the other riders realized a woman had bested them out of the race money. A couple of riders jumped off their horses and tried to tear the female down from her mount, but the gelding wouldn’t let anyone touch it, or his rider. The officials decided the woman had won the race fair and square, so she loped out of town with the money.

Now, three months later, he was back from his unsuccessful trip, and that same tall female with the braid had a rifle trained on his head. She looked like she could shoot just about as well as she could ride that palomino paint horse. The only trouble was, she was standing on the porch of his house.

Noah stared at her, hoping she’d relax her stance and lower the rifle. She was a tall woman, probably only a few inches shorter than his six-foot height. Both times he’d seen the woman, who looked to be in her early twenties, she’d had on a wide-brimmed hat to shade her fair skin.

Neither the woman—dressed in men’s trousers—nor the gun wavered a quarter of an inch when she yelled, “State your business, mister, or turn around and leave!”

Noah stood there, dumbfounded, for a minute. He didn’t think he needed to yell, “Hello the house,” since it was his own place.

—Excerpt from The Perfect Homestead Bride © 2014 by Linda Hubalek.

What to find out what happens next? Be sure to read this story and five more in the new Lassoing a Groom coming out this Tuesday!

For more information on this and other books coming from Prairie Rose Publications, visit their website, www.PrairieRosePublications.com. 

For information on Linda Hubalek's books go to www.ButterfieldBooks.com.