Womens History

In 1854, Eliza Mott recognized the need for education in the Carson Valley and she decided to do something about it.  The dedicated wife and mother started the first school in Nevada in her own home and became the state’s first schoolteacher. Due to her achievements in the field of learning, education became important in...

“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...

Fifteen-year-old Bethenia Owens-Hill stared out the window of her aunt’s farmhouse, rocking her infant son to sleep.  A brisk wind pelted the glass with sand and dust.  Drought-twisted sagebrush tumbled past her bleak, hazy view and continued on.  Bethenia’s baby whimpered a bit and she kissed his tiny forehead.  Tears drifted down her face and...

Living in loneliness on the plains or in the mountains of the West without female friends on hand except for the occasional traveler, who may or may not be inclined to be social, the solitary male exile was completely cut off from the companionship of a woman.  These lonely souls, who represented a mass of...

In the spring of 1875, a locomotive pulling several freight cars left Fort Leavenworth, Kansas bound for Fort Marion, Florida.  Thirty-three Cheyenne Indian prisoners were on board, only one was a woman.  Her name was Mochi, which means Buffalo Calf Woman.  She made the trip shackled and chained to her husband, a warrior named Medicine...

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...