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Jean A. Stuntz

Texas Women on the Cattle Trails (Volume 13) (Sam Rayburn Series on Rural Life, sponsored by Texas A&M University-Commerce) Hardcover – August 9, 2006

by Sara R. Massey (Editor)

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Texas Women on the Cattle Trails tells the stories of sixteen women who drove cattle up the trail from Texas during the last half of the nineteenth century. Some were young; some were old (over thirty). Some took to the trails by choice; others, out of necessity. Some went along to look at the stars; others, to work the cattle. Some made money and built ranching empires, but others went broke and lived hard, even desperate lives. The courage of Margaret Borland and the spunk of Willie Matthews, the pure delight of Cornelia Adair viewing the buffalo, and the joy of Mary Bunton gazing at night constellations on the open range offer new insights into women's experiences of the West. For the most part, these were ordinary women doing the best they could in difficult frontier conditions. They did not see themselves as living in unusual times or participating in "romantic" lifestyles, although the women who actually took to the trail were few in number. Like the cowboys on cattle drives, they faced dust and heat, thirst and exhaustion, rustlers and Indians, stampedes and prairie fires. Drawing heavily on the accounts of the women themselves, the authors of these chapters vividly illustrate the complexity and diversity of women's experiences on the cattle trails. Their stories of cattle drives and moving cattle to distant pastures add an important chapter to the story of life in the real Old West.

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Texas A&M University Press
Publication date

August 9, 2006
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

1585445436
ISBN-13

978-1585445431
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“In these pages, you won’t find a single damsel in distress. There are no dance hall queens or saloon floozies either. The 16 women profiled here validate the importance of ordinary lives and offer new insights into the reality of the frontier West.”--Victoria-Advocate ― Victoria-Advocate

“Over the past several decades, historians have acknowledged women’s contributions to the history of the west and to cattle drives across the United States. But what separates this book from other publications is that it offers specific names, faces, and stories of an assortment of women who took to the Texas cattle trails between 1868 and 1889.”--East Texas Historical Journal ― East Texas Historical Journal

“Some of the women (like Matthews) are scarcely known, while others made a name for themselves during their own lifetimes, such as Molly Goodnight, wife of the co-creator of the Goodnight-Loving Trail. Interestingly, many were known by their contemporaries as the first woman ever to ride with the herds. This clearly indicates how valuable such a work as Texas Women is; it brings together a previously scattered wealth of information into one book. As a result, the work benefits both pleasure reader and researcher. . . . Americans continue to scrutinize the American West into the twenty-first century. Its myths and its truths will always draw an eager audience. In the ever-growing mass of Western scholarship, Texas Women provides an enjoyable exploration of a field only recently expanded.”--Southwestern Historical Quarterly ― Southwestern Historical Quarterly

“Readers will find it hard to resist becoming fascinated by the risks that these women took, and the degree of market savvy they possessed.”--Western Historical Journal -- Aley, Ginette ― Western Historical Journal

“The decades’ long work of women historians directing attention to the role their gender played in developing the West is splendidly realized in Texas Women on the Cattle Trails, edited by Sara R. Massey. Sixteen lively, well-researched biographical essays concerning women who accompanied Texas cattle drives between 1868 and 1889 testify to the grit of these individuals.”--Mexico Historical Review -- Nancy Coggeshall ― Mexico Historical Review

From the Publisher

Featured in the Texas Book Club on Southern Living's website: southernliving.com/ilovetexas

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Texas A&M University Press; 1st edition (August 9, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1585445436
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1585445431
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.63 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,928,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #22,800 in Women's Biographies
- #24,803 in United States Biographies
- #46,356 in U.S. State & Local History

Customer Reviews:
16 ratings

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HasPlenty

Nice, but not what I expected.

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2014

Verified Purchase

My husband surprised me with this gift.

I was anticipating stories of women who actually drove the cattle, instead of the women who "stood by their man". Perhaps I have not read enough of the chapters yet and maybe there are some stories more like what I had expected. I will read on!

The stories are interesting, but just not what I was hoping them to be.

Yes, I would recommend it.

2 people found this helpful

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Who knew?

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2012

Verified Purchase

... that women were so active in the great days of the long-trail western cattle drives? I especially relished learning about Lizzie Johnson Williams, school-teacher turned accountant turned writer turned cattle ranch owner. The chapter about her - a late 20th century independent woman in the middle of the 19th is an eye-opener and is worth the price of the whole rest of the book.

2 people found this helpful

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Judith L. Michener

Texas Women on the Cattle Trails.

Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book is a great source for information on women who were involved in the cattle business, either personally or because of their families or husbands. An eye opening revelation of the experiences of women in a virtual man's world, this book should be included in any library of western histories.

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2016

Verified Purchase

great book about strong independent Texas Women!

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Amazon Customer

Had article on my Great grandmother. I enjoyed reading my Great Aunt Helen's ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

Had article on my Great grandmother. I enjoyed reading my Great Aunt Helen's Biography in section devoted to Mary Catherine.

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great book, fast shipping!

Helpful

WM Hovel

New Insights into the Reality of the Old West

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2007

Almost everyone has heard of Annie Oakley, Belle Starr, and Calamity Jane. But how about Kate Medlin, Hattie Cluck, Margaret Borland or Cornelia Adair? These are just four of the sixteen fearless women featured in "TEXAS WOMAN ON THE CATTLE TRAILS," a compendium of short biographies written by sixteen Texas writers, and edited by Austwell resident Sara R. Massey.

Some of the featured women were young newlyweds when they went up the trail. Others were middle-aged mothers, and one was pregnant. They were widows, business women, heiresses. Some were cultured and educated. Almost all encountered Indians, bandits or rustlers. They endured blizzards, floods, stampedes, disease, death. They made deals with cattle buyers and sellers. They witnessed a new country in its earliest growing pains, and most lived to tell their tales, even to embellish them over time.

Take Minta Corum Holmsley of Comanche, Texas, who rode her horse up the trail sidesaddle, she said, "because we didn't have better sense." On that drive she claimed to have met John Wesley Hardin masquerading as an Indian, and later to have encountered a hundred Sioux who had fought Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn. She managed to save her favorite cow pony by screaming in one Indian's face until he let go and fled in fright.

Another woman, the widowed Margaret Heffernon Borland of Victoria lost four of her seven children to one epidemic of Yellow Fever. And Margaret herself died at the end of her own cattle drive in 1873. The Wichita, Kansas newspaper announced her death on July 5, at the age of 49, as having been caused by "mania, super-induced by her long, tedious journey and over-taxation of the brain." Her nephew had her body shipped back to Victoria and she is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery.

I particularly enjoyed glimpses of familiar Texas places as they were in the 19th century: the loud bawling of the cattle as they forded the Shoal Creek in Austin; a house in Banquete, once a Confederate hospital and said to be inhabited by ghosts; a roving band of hide-skinners scouring Goliad after a brutal winter decimated the cattle population.

All of these sixteen were ranchwomen, skilled at riding, either sidesaddle or astride, or at handling a horse or mule-drawn wagon. They were proficient in the use of lariats, branding irons, whips, and castrating knives. They carried their share of the workload, and faced all the same hardships and hazards of driving cattle up the trail as the men. In these pages, you won't find a single damsel in distress. There are no dance hall queens or saloon floozies either. The sixteen women profiled here validate the importance of ordinary lives and offer new insights into the reality of the frontier West.

5 people found this helpful

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Terrie L. Todd

Texas Women on the Cattle Trails

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2007

I have really enjoyed this book it is historically correct and well referencedit has been a big help in my research.

One person found this helpful

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Texas Women on the Cattle Trails (Volume 13) (Sam Rayburn Series on Rural Life, sponsored by Texas A&M University-Commerce) Hardcover – August 9, 2006

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Jean A. Stuntz

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Follow the Author

Texas Women on the Cattle Trails (Volume 13) (Sam Rayburn Series on Rural Life, sponsored by Texas A&M University-Commerce) Hardcover – August 9, 2006

Editorial Reviews

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About the Author

Product details

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About the author

Jean A. Stuntz

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