fm.qxd 12/27/01 7:07 AM Page i ■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V OUTRAGEOUS WOMEN OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER Mary Rodd Furbee John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V fcopyebk.qxd 1/10/02 11:29 AM Page ii Special thanks to three wise and talented people: Jane Yolen, Betts Rodd, Tom Rodd. Copyright © 2002 by Mary Rodd Furbee. All rights reserved Maps on pages viii, 32, and 68 copyright © 2002 by Jessica Wolk-Stanley Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York Design and production by Navta Associates, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authori- zation through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4744. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012, (212) 850-6011, fax (212) 850- 6008, email: [email protected]. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assis- tance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-38300-7. Some content that appears in the print version of this book may not be available in this electronic edition. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.Wiley.com. fm.qxd 12/27/01 7:07 AM Page iii CONTENTS ■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V INTRODUCTION v PART ONE. THE AGE OF CONQUEST (1800–1840S) 1. Sacagawea (1787–18??) 4 2. Gertrudis Barcelo (18??–1852) 13 3. Narcissa Whitman (1808–1847) 19 4. Juana Briones (1802–1889) 26 PART two. THE AGE OF settlement (1840s–1870s) 5. Luzena Stanley Wilson (1821–18??) 35 6. Eliza Snow (1804–1887) 48 7. Bridget “Biddy” Mason (1818–1891) 57 8. Charlie Parkhurst (1812–1879) 62 ■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V iii fm.qxd 12/27/01 7:07 AM Page iv PART THREE. THE AGE OF EXPANSION (1870s–1900) 9. Martha “Calamity Jane” Cannary (18??–1903) 71 10. “Stagecoach” Mary Fields (1832–1914) 78 11. Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins (1844–1891) 83 12. Libbie Custer (1842–1933) 91 13. Nellie Cashman (18??–1925) 102 14. Evelyn Cameron (1868–1928) 109 suggested reading 116 credits 117 OTHER outrageous women of the american frontier 118 ■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V iv fm.qxd 12/27/01 7:07 AM Page v introduction ■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V hen you hear the words American frontier, what images W pop into your mind? Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone forging trails through the wilderness? Sitting Bull riding on horseback by a cluster of tepees on the plain? When I was a girl, that’s the frontier I learned about from history books. Women were rarely featured in those books, except for a handful of nameless moth- erly women peering out of covered wagons, or haggard pioneers stand- ing in sod hovels surrounded by several grim-looking children. From novels, movies, and television, I gained different images of frontier women. They were strong, enduring pioneers in cozy log cabins and headstrong, free-spirited girls racing across the prairie. They were feisty women doctors on horseback and sassy dance-hall girls with hearts of gold. These more modern stereotypes of frontier women made me positively nostalgic for the good old days! Later in life, though, I discovered much about the real history of frontier women, which led me to write this book. My discoveries about the gritty realities of frontier life—bedbugs and mosquitoes, starvation ■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V v fm.qxd 12/27/01 7:07 AM Page vi and shoot-outs, ruthless treatment of Native Americans—also nipped my nostalgia in the bud. I no longer wish I had lived on the frontier, but I admire frontier women more than ever. In nineteenth-century America there wasn’t much tolerance for adventurous women with big dreams. Victorian notions that dominated “civilized” society held that women were dependent, weak, and not ter- ribly bright. In fact, the only strength women were supposed to have was an innate goodness, which made them fit to be mothers (and, if unmar- ried, teachers and nurses). Did that goodness translate into equal status in soci- ety, though? No way. Husbands, fathers, and brothers were basically the lords and masters, property owners and purse-keepers who dished out spending allowances for their womenfolk. Still, the vast, ever-changing nineteenth-century frontier provided opportunities for women with dreams. Although not all frontier women thrived in a rugged environment, the outrageous women in this book cer- tainly did. Each had a dream and each had true grit. Sacagawea’s dream was to find her lost family, and she enjoyed some fine adventures along the way. Mis- sionary Narcissa Whitman’s dream was to be the first white woman to travel the entire Oregon Trail. Biddy (Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY) Mason’s dream was to free herself from slavery and The painting prosper as a businesswoman. Calamity Jane’s dream was to break every madonna of Victorian rule about a woman’s place. the prairie The frontier era encompassed the years from 1800 to 1900. During depicts an angelic fronier this period, empires and immigrants vied for control of the sparsely pop- heroine ulated landscape west of the Mississippi River. Parts of the rugged land- ■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V vi fm.qxd 12/27/01 7:07 AM Page vii scape of mountain ranges, deserts, and prairies were claimed by Amer- ica, Britain, Spain, France, Russia, and many Native American nations. In 1803, France sold a large section of land west of the Mississippi to America in the Louisiana Purchase. Between 1803 and the 1880s, by hook or by crook, America wrested land claims from Spain, Russia, Canada, and Native American tribes. By the late 1890s, the last Native American nations had signed treaties, had given up their land, and had agreed to settle on reservations. By century’s end, America firmly held the reins of power, from the Pacific Ocean to the Mississippi. Thousands of restless settlers and fortune seekers (the vast majority were Anglo-Saxon—Caucasian people of Eng- lish, Irish, Scottish, German, and Scandinavian origin) poured into the frontier. Because whites were in the majority, American frontier history has long focused on their lives. Most white frontier immigrants were male, but the women among them left something unique: scads of diaries and letters that depicted their lives in detail. Minority frontier women nurtured big dreams, too. African Ameri- can, Native American, Hispanic, French, Russian, and Asian women sought land, fortune, freedom, and justice. For them, however, discrim- ination created even greater obstacles. Unfortunately, chronicling the lives of minority women is far more difficult because records are sketchy or nonexistent. Have you ever seen a crazy quilt made from scraps of leftover fabric, each piece a unique shape, color, and texture, yet bound together into a whole? That’s how I see the frontier women in this book. Some were splashy and sassy. Others were righteous and determined. Some shook their fists in anger. Others danced and sang their way through life. Stand them side by side, though, and you get a fascinating portrait of the bold- est, brightest, bravest women of the American frontier. ■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V vii c01.qxd 12/27/01 7:08 AM Page viii c01.qxd 12/27/01 7:08 AM Page 1 Part One V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V the age of conquest (1800–1840S) ■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V■V c01.qxd 12/27/01 7:08 AM Page 2 t the dawn of the nineteenth century, the Mis- A sissippi River Valley marked the western boundary of the United States of America. Only a handful of explorers, traders, and missionaries had ventured deep into that myste- rious wilderness. Thousands of Native American tribes domi- nated its vast frontier. The French also claimed a large midsection called Louisiana, the British claimed much of the Great Lakes region, the Spanish controlled most of the South- west, and the Russians claimed parts of the Pacific Northwest. For the first few decades, this multicultural mix got along fairly well. In some areas, intermarriage was commonplace. In 1803, America bought the huge Louisiana territory from France for $15 million, which doubled the size of the United States.