Women of the Frontier: 16 Tales of Trailblazing Homesteaders, Entrepreneurs, and Rabble-Rousers
and Scandinavia also joined the hopefuls heading west Most pioneers especially those heading to the goldfields of California were single men But families and a handful of single women undertook the west ern journey too Of the 50 000 people journeying west in 1852 about 7 000 were women John Sutter's mill Sacramento California The discovery of gold here led to a gold rush of emigrants From Story of the Great Republic by Helene Guerber To meet the emigrants needs publishers churned out manuals like The National Wagon Road Guide and The Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California Unfortu nately too many guidebooks proved dangerously unreliable One manual even assured readers that notions of toil hardship and danger on the trail grew from their own fruitful imagination 4 And though women too studied the manuals the books offered Back to page 322 Page 13
hardly a word of advice for female pioneers Women were left to discover on their own how to cook clean dress camp and care for children on the long adven ture Usually the man of the household decided to pull up stakes and move his family west While women shared the hope for a better life many found it painful to leave their homes and sever ties perhaps forever with family friends and communities Push ing beyond the established boundaries of the United States early pioneers were emigrants to a foreign mostly uncharted land California and the Southwest belonged to Mexico The United States and Great Britain both claimed the Oregon Country an area so large it included six future states These faraway lands were already the home of Native Americans and people of Spanish decent White Americans often viewed both groups with a mixture of fear and scorn A woman's journey west carried an added burden coming at a time of life when she might be pregnant or caring for young children The prospect of aban doning society to face months of heat dust storms and savage Indians filled many women with dread and misgivings I have been reading the various guides of the route to California wrote Lodisa Frizzell They have not improved my ideas of the pleasure of the trip 5 Luzena Wilson recalled her feel ings My husband grew enthusiastic and wanted to start immediately but I would not be left behind I thought where he could go I could and where I went Page 14 13 pages left in this chapter
I could take my two little toddling babies I little realized then the task I had undertaken 6 One bride days away from departing for a jump ing off spot in Missouri sang these hymn lyrics at her ceremony Can I bid you farewell Can I leave you Far in heathen lands to dwell Another young woman filled with youthful enthusiasm viewed the trip as an adventure with castles of shining gold waiting at the end Helen Carpenter a bride of four months recorded Ho for California at last we are on the way and with good luck may someday reach the promised land Faced with the decision to head west people tackled the journey in several ways Some booked passage on a ship and sailed around South America to California Others traveled to Panama cut across the isthmus and then sailed up the Pacific coast By the late 1860s railroad lines stretched across the continent and provided the quickest if most expen sive way to travel Without much baggage but themselves many sin gle women opted for dusty bumpy stagecoaches Stops along the way featured crowded rooms and meals of questionable quality Between 1856 and 1860 nearly 3 000 Mormon emigrants walked the brutal journey pulling two wheeled handcarts laden with goods all the way from Iowa to Utah By far the most popular means of family trans portation was the oxen drawn covered wagon built of seasoned hardwood and waterproofed with caulk Back to page 322 Page 15
and tar An application of oil rain proofed the wag on's thick canvas covering Spare parts axles wheels spokes and wagon tongues hung beneath the wagon bed Other necessities like water barrels grease buckets and rope were lashed to the wagon sides Finished the covered wagon measured about 4 feet wide and 10 to 12 feet long large enough to haul roughly 2 500 pounds of supplies and requiring 8 to 10 oxen to pull A Mormon handcart company traveling to Utah US His tory Images The journey required months of preparations before the wagon sat stuffed with tools cookware clothes bedding sewing supplies guns and ammuni tion medicines a few luxuries and food Guide books recommended each emigrant carry 200 pounds of flour 150 pounds of bacon 10 pounds of coffee 10 pounds of sugar and 10 pounds of salt as well as staples like dried beans and fruit rice tea pickles Page 16 pages left in this chapter
