Women of the Frontier

In 1849 Luzena Wilson set out for California in a covered wagon with her husband and two little boys, hungry to join the tide of gold seekers. Like thousands of others, Luzena undertook the nearly 2,000 mile journey to an unknown land, where she'd rise from flood and fire, a survivor of the wild frontier. From months on the trail to life in a sod hut, western women adapted to their new lives and found beauty in the rugged, often dangerous landscape. They helped tame the Wild West as they farmed, ranched, kept shops, founded libraries and churches, staffed schools, and won the right to vote. Using journal entries and letters home, author Brandon Marie Miller lets the women speak for themselves in tales of courage, enduring spirit, and adventure. Meet women such as homesteader Miriam Colt, entrepreneur Clara Brown, army wife Frances Grummond, naturalist Martha Maxwell, missionary Narcissa Whitman, and political rabble-rouser Mary Lease. Women of the Frontier also recounts the impact pioneers had on those who were already living in the region. As white settlers gobbled up the lands of Native Americans and people of Spanish descent, the clash of cultures brought pain to many including Rachel Plummer and Cynthia Ann Parker, and spearheaded the work of Susette la Flesche and Sarah Winnemucca, who fought the government's treatment of American Indians.