In the winter of 1975, Joanna Stratton made a remarkable discovery. In the attic of her grandmother's home, was a set of priceless autobiographical manuscripts written by hundred of pioneer women. Ms. Stratton has rescued these to finish a project started by her great-grandmother.
Never has there been such a detailed record of women's courage or such a living portrait of the women who civilized the frontier. Their personal recollections of prairie fires, locusts plagues, cowboy shoot-outs, Indian raids, and blizzards on the plains portray vividly the dangers of pioneering.
Their work was the work of survival and it demanded as much from them as from their men-whether it found them fashioning clothes out of raw wool or homes out of sod, coaxing vegetables out of the earth or defending their cabins against raids by wolves.
Illustrated with photographs from the period, this is a beautiful, important and fascinating book as well as a priceless contribution to American history.
Never has there been such a detailed record of women's courage or such a living portrait of the women who civilized the frontier. Their personal recollections of prairie fires, locusts plagues, cowboy shoot-outs, Indian raids, and blizzards on the plains portray vividly the dangers of pioneering.
Their work was the work of survival and it demanded as much from them as from their men-whether it found them fashioning clothes out of raw wool or homes out of sod, coaxing vegetables out of the earth or defending their cabins against raids by wolves.
Illustrated with photographs from the period, this is a beautiful, important and fascinating book as well as a priceless contribution to American history.
Kris L. (miss-info) reviewed Pioneer Women - Voices From the Kansas Frontier on + 386 more book reviews
The author had 600 first-hand accounts of pioneering to draw from as she wrote up this early history of the state of Kansas. As she tells of homesteading on the prairie, the temperance crusade, sufferage (women voted on a state level well before 1900), schools, Indians, and slavery, she weaves in pieces from the women who actually lived it. Very well done.
I read a lot of this type and chose to keep this one as a reference book.
Kris L. (miss-info) reviewed Pioneer Women - Voices From the Kansas Frontier on + 386 more book reviews
The author had 600 first-hand accounts of pioneering to draw from as she wrote up this early history of the state of Kansas. As she tells of homesteading on the prairie, the temperance crusade, sufferage (women voted on a state level well before 1900), schools, Indians, and slavery, she weaves in pieces from the women who actually lived it. Very well done.
Kris L. (miss-info) reviewed Pioneer Women - Voices From the Kansas Frontier on + 386 more book reviews
The author had 600 first-hand accounts of pioneering to draw from as she wrote up this early history of the state of Kansas. As she tells of homesteading on the prairie, the temperance crusade, sufferage (women voted on a state level well before 1900), schools, Indians, and slavery, she weaves in pieces from the women who actually lived it. Very well done.
Laurel W. (StrawberryOES) - reviewed Pioneer Women - Voices From the Kansas Frontier on + 86 more book reviews
This was a very interesting book on the Pioneers. I lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, for 35 years, so heard a lot about the Pioneers who came from Illinois to populate this city. I didn't have any Pioneer stories from my relatives, but I'm still interested in the Pioneer stories. This book has many quotes from Pioneer relatives that make you think "How did these women continue to live in such a hostile place?". A good read on history