Homesteading Women: An Oral History of Colorado

The popular image of the settling of the American West has primarily been of cowboys, soldiers, miners, and trappers--the white men. In Homesteading Women: An Oral History of Colorado, 1890-1950 Julie Jones-Eddy brings to light the reality of the frontier through the oral testimonies of some of the women whose strength and perseverance were essential to the establishment of families, farms, and communities in the West. Homesteading Women is a compilation of Jones-Eddy's interviews with 47 women between the ages of 55 and 95--some married, some mothers, some employed, but all survivors of the rigors of homesteading in a demanding and, at times, hostile environment. The interviewees vividly recall frontier attitudes toward childhood, marriage, pregnancy and birth, work, health care, daily life, and death. Some of the women worked in the home, while others had roles in the fields alongside the men in addition to their domestic duties. Maintaining the home--whether it be a tent, a dugout, or a log cabin--was strenuous work, as the women had to cope with cold, altitude, and isolation, haul fuel and water, tend livestock, make preserves, soap, lard, and clothes, and generate cash with their "butter and egg" money. Outside the home, traditional gender lines were often blurred as women performed arduous tasks in caring for farm animals and working the land. Jones-Eddy provides many of her questions along with the interviewees' answers, thereby preserving the dialogue that elicited their responses. The result is an especially warm and personal account of an era and a way of life now gone by. Homesteading Women includes a chapter by Professor Elizabeth Jameson, coeditor of The Women's West. Jameson places the oral testimonies within a greater historical context and highlights the significant contribution these women made not only to their communities but to women's history in general.