women of the west

More than two dozen women adorned in black poplin skirts with matching blouses, stiff white collars and aprons and sporting sleek, shiny hair fashioned into a tidy bun, busily hurried about a Santa Fe Railroad restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1879.  The gruff, rugged cowhands who were the patrons of the establishment looked out...

The Olympic Club Amphitheatre in New Orleans was filled to overflowing on January 14, 1891.  Among the enthusiastic crowd that had converged on the scene was Bat Masterson, the charming, always well-dressed, part-time lawman, pugilist and sportswriter.  He sat closely to a twenty-four-square-foot boxing ring in the center of a massive room, under a bank...

A thin, unshaven prospector took a long drag off the butt of a cigarette before flopping into an oversized chair in the plush lobby of the Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah, Nevada. The six-story building featured all the conveniences possessed by establishments like it in New York. The rooms and foyer were primarily occupied by stylishly...

“Wanted:  A nice, plump, healthy, good natured, good looking domestic and affectionate lady to correspond with.  Object – matrimony.  She must be between 22 and 35 years of age.  She must be a believer in God and immortality, but no sectarian.  She must not be a gad-about or given to scandal, but must be one...

Elinore Pruitt’s thick, gloved hands unfolded a newspaper advertisement and followed the words written across the page with her index finger.  “Housekeeper-cook wanted for respected land owner.  Offering a good permanent home for the right party.”  The announcement, placed in a Colorado newspaper in April 1909, was submitted by Wyoming sheep rancher H. Clyde Stewart....

Mollie Moses, a disheveled woman in her mid-forties, sat alone in her run-down Kentucky home, crying. She wiped her eyes with the hem of her tattered black dress and glanced up at a portrait of William Cody hanging over a cold fireplace. On the dusty coffee table in front of her lay a number of...

On February 17, 1894, the posh Chamberlain Restaurant in Washington, D.C., was filled to capacity with well-dressed guests enjoying the elegant ambiance and sumptuous food. Forty-eight-year-old William Cody was among the fashionably coiffed patrons. Wearing a tailored suit and tie, he was seated at one of the pristinely set tables. His long hair was combed...

Mollie Walsh raced out of her house on Pike Street in Seattle, crying.  A look of panic filled her face.  It was October 27, 1902.  It was raining.  Mollie was petrified and sick with the flu.  She glanced over her shoulder just in time to see her husband, Michael Bartlett, burst through the front door...