Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart

Invincible Elinore.  

I loved these real letters of a woman determined to start a new life in Wyoming in the early 1900s.  Writing to her former employer in Colorado, Elinore beautifully describes the landscapes, challenges, and triumphs of becoming a female homesteader.  She tells us of nearly getting stuck in a May snowstorm and the joy of deliver food boxes to sheep herders at Christmas. 

Elinore claims that working the land is no more difficult than being a wash woman in town, and there’s job security in homesteading.  It’s better than any city job unless you’re afraid of coyotes, work, and loneliness. And what a hard worker she is!  She has seven cows to milk twice a day; she does the cooking and housekeeping, sews clothes, has nearly an acre garden to maintain, all while raising her kids. I’m not quite as optimistic as Elinore in thinking that almost any woman can do it. She just makes it look easy. Elinore not only seems to have a deep drive and an abundance of energy that keep her going, but she has a steadfast buoyant attitude.  She’s a walking billboard for joyful living, almost like she’s read and taken to heart The Book of Joy. Her down-to-earth, cheerful outlook radiates off the pages. She’s a breath of fresh air! My husband read it after I did and he liked it too!

In her own words she says:

“I am the luckiest woman in finding really lovely people and having really happy experiences.  Good things are constantly happening to me.”

Elinore Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader(New York: A Mariner Book, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988), 62.

“I want a great many things I haven’t got, but I don’t want them enough to be discontented and not enjoy the many blessings that are mine.”

Elinore Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader(New York: A Mariner Book, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988), 191.

You can’t help but feel good with a renewed energy after reading her letters and I was sorry when the book ended!  Read it and find out what cackleberries are. J

Suggestions for Other Pioneer Non-Fiction Books:

-Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier by Joanna L. Stratton

-Women Dairies of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel

-More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Montana Women by Gayle C. Shirley. She writes books about other states, too, such as NV, TX, WI, WA, etc.

-The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck—a hit with my book club. 

Suggested Pioneer Fiction Reading:

-The Diary of Mattie Spenser by Sandra Dallas. Big thumbs-up from my book club. 

-These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy Turner

Happy Reading!

Annette