Woman on the American Frontier

Woman on the American Frontier William Worthington Fowler Woman on the American Frontier Table of Contents Woman on the American Frontier..........................................................................................................................1 William Worthington Fowler.........................................................................................................................1 PREFACE......................................................................................................................................................2 CHAPTER I. WOMAN AS A PIONEER...................................................................................................13 CHAPTER II. THE FRONTIER−LINEWOMAN'S WORK IN FLOODS AND STORMS...................19 CHAPTER III. EARLY PIONEERSWOMAN'S ADVENTURES AND HEROISM.............................28 CHAPTER IV. THE BLOCK HOUSE, AND ON THE INDIAN TRAIL.................................................36 CHAPTER V. THE CAPTIVE SCOUTSTHE GUARDIAN MOTHER OF THE MOHAWK..............43 CHAPTER VI. PATRIOT WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION.................................................................52 CHAPTER VII. MOVING WESTPERILS OF THE JOURNEY.............................................................62 CHAPTER VIII. HOMESTEAD−LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS AND ON THE PRAIRIE....................71 CHAPTER IX. SOME REMARKABLE WOMEN....................................................................................79 CHAPTER X. ROMANCE OF THE BORDER.........................................................................................87 CHAPTER XI. PATHETIC PASSAGES OF PIONEER LIFE..................................................................95 CHAPTER XII. THE HEROINES OF THE SOUTHWEST....................................................................103 CHAPTER XIII. WOMAN'S EXPERIENCE ON THE NORTHERN BORDER....................................112 CHAPTER XIV. ENCOUNTERS WITH WILD BEASTSCOURAGE AND DARING......................121 CHAPTER XV. ACROSS THE CONTINENTON THE PLAINS.........................................................132 CHAPTER XVI. WOMAN AS A MISSIONARY TO THE INDIANS...................................................139 CHAPTER XVII. WOMAN AS A MISSIONARY TO THE INDIANS(CONTINUED) .....................146 CHAPTER XVIII. WOMAN IN THE ARMY..........................................................................................154 CHAPTER XIX. ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.......................................................................167 CHAPTER XX. THE COMFORTER AND THE GUARDIAN...............................................................180 CHAPTER XXI. WOMAN AS AN EDUCATOR ON THE FRONTIER................................................193 i Woman on the American Frontier William Worthington Fowler This page copyright © 2002 Blackmask Online. http://www.blackmask.com • PREFACE. • CHAPTER I. WOMAN AS A PIONEER • CHAPTER II. THE FRONTIER−LINEWOMAN'S WORK IN FLOODS AND STORMS • CHAPTER III. EARLY PIONEERSWOMAN'S ADVENTURES AND HEROISM. • CHAPTER IV. THE BLOCK HOUSE, AND ON THE INDIAN TRAIL. • CHAPTER V. THE CAPTIVE SCOUTSTHE GUARDIAN MOTHER OF THE MOHAWK. • CHAPTER VI. PATRIOT WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION. • CHAPTER VII. MOVING WESTPERILS OF THE JOURNEY • CHAPTER VIII. HOMESTEAD−LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS AND ON THE PRAIRIE • CHAPTER IX. SOME REMARKABLE WOMEN • CHAPTER X. ROMANCE OF THE BORDER. • CHAPTER XI. PATHETIC PASSAGES OF PIONEER LIFE. • CHAPTER XII. THE HEROINES OF THE SOUTHWEST • CHAPTER XIII. WOMAN'S EXPERIENCE ON THE NORTHERN BORDER. • CHAPTER XIV. ENCOUNTERS WITH WILD BEASTSCOURAGE AND DARING • CHAPTER XV. ACROSS THE CONTINENTON THE PLAINS • CHAPTER XVI. WOMAN AS A MISSIONARY TO THE INDIANS. • CHAPTER XVII. WOMAN AS A MISSIONARY TO THE INDIANS(CONTINUED) • CHAPTER XVIII. WOMAN IN THE ARMY • CHAPTER XIX. ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS • CHAPTER XX. THE COMFORTER AND THE GUARDIAN. • CHAPTER XXI. WOMAN AS AN EDUCATOR ON THE FRONTIER Produced by Wendy Crockett, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. This file was produced from images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions. WOMAN ON THE AMERICAN FRONTIER. A Valuable and Authentic History OF THE HEROISM, ADVENTURES, PRIVATIONS, CAPTIVITIES, TRIALS, AND NOBLE LIVES AND DEATHS OF THE PIONEER MOTHERS OF THE REPUBLIC. By WILLIAM W. FOWLER, M.A. ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. Woman on the American Frontier 1 Woman on the American Frontier PREFACE. The history of our race is the record mainly of men's achievements, in war, in statecraft and diplomacy. If mention is made of woman it is of queens and intriguing beauties who ruled and schemed for power and riches, and often worked mischief and ruin by their wiles. The story of woman's work in great migrations has been told only in lines and passages where it ought instead to fill volumes. Here and there incidents and anecdotes scattered through a thousand tomes give us glimpses of the wife, the mother, or the daughter as a heroine or as an angel of kindness and goodness, but most of her story is a blank which never will be filled up. And yet it is precisely in her position as a pioneer and colonizer that her influence is the most potent and her life story most interesting. The glory of a nation consists in its migrations and the colonies it plants as well as in its wars of conquest. The warrior who wins a battle deserves a laurel no more rightfully than the pioneer who leads his race into the wilderness and builds there a new empire. The movement which has carried our people from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and in the short space of two centuries and a half has founded the greatest republic which the world ever saw, has already taken its place in history as one of the grandest achievements of humanity since the world began. It is a moral as well as a physical triumph, and forms an epoch in the advance of civilization. In this grand achievement, in this triumph of physical and moral endurance, woman must be allowed her share of the honor. It would be a truism, if we were to say that our Republic would not have been founded without her aid. We need not enlarge on the necessary position which she fills in human society every where. We are to speak of her now as a soldier and laborer, a heroine and comforter in a peculiar set of dangers and difficulties such as are met with in our American wilderness. The crossing of a stormy ocean, the reclamation of the soil from nature, the fighting with savage men are mere generalities wherein some vague idea may be gained of true pioneer life. But it is only by following woman in her wanderings and standing beside her in the forest or in the cabin and by marking in detail the thousand trials and perils which surround her in such a position that we can obtain the true picture of the heroine in so many unmentioned battles. The recorded sum total of an observation like this would be a noble history of human effort. It would show us the latent causes from which have come extraordinary effects. It would teach us how much this republic owes to its pioneer mothers, and would fill us with gratitude and self−congratulationgratitude for their inestimable services to our country and to mankind, self−congratulation in that we are the lawful inheritors of their work, and as Americans are partakers in their glory. In the preparation of this work particular pains have been taken to avoid what was trite and hackneyed, and at the same time preserve historic truth and accuracy. Use has been made to a limited extent of the ancient border books, selecting the most note−worthy incidents which never grow old because they illustrate a heroism, that like renown and grace cannot die. Thanks are due to Mrs. Ellet, from whose interesting book entitled Women of the Revolution, a few passages have been culled. The stories of Mrs. Van Alstine, of Mrs. Slocum, Mrs. McCalla, and Dicey Langston, and of Deborah Samson, are condensed from her accounts of those heroines. A large portion of the work is, however, composed of incidents which will be new to the reader. The eye−witnesses of scenes which have been lately enacted upon the border have furnished the writer with materials for many of the most thrilling stories of frontier life, and which it has been his aim to spread before the reader in this work. CONTENTS PREFACE. 2 Woman on the American Frontier CHAPTER I. WOMAN AS A PIONEER, America's Unnamed Heroines. Maids and Matrons of the Mayflower. Woman's Work in Early Days. Devotion and Self−sacrifice. Strange Story of Mrs. Hendee. Face to Face with the Indians. A Mother's Love Triumphant Woman among the Savages. The Massacre of Wyoming. Sufferings of a Forsaken Household. The Patriot Matron and her Children. The Acmé of Heroism. Adventures of an English Traveler. Woman in the Rocky Mountains. A Story of a Lonely Life. Nocturnal Visitors and their Reception. Life in the Far West. Mrs. Manning's Home in Montana, Female Emigrants on the Plains. A True Heroine. CHAPTER II. WOMAN'S WORK IN FLOODS AND STORMS, The Frontier two Centuries ago. The Pioneer Army. The Pilgrim Mothers. Story of Margaret Winthrop. Danger in the Wilderness. A Reckless Husband and a Watchful Wife. Lost in a Snow−storm. The Beacon−fire at Midnight. Saved by a Woman. Mrs. Noble's Terrible Story. Alone with Famine and Death. A Legend of the Connecticut. What befel the Nash Family. Three Heroic Women. In Flood and Storm. A Tale of the Prairies. A Western Settler and her Fate. Battling with an Unseen Enemy.

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