Letters of a Woman Homesteader is a historical memoir by Elinore Pruitt Stewart. First published in 1914, the book is a collection of letters written by Stewart to her old employer, Mrs. Coney. The letters chronicle Stewart’s life as a rancher, and the trials and tribulations of ranch life. Mrs. Coney published the letters in a local paper and captured the nation’s attention. Stewart was a memoirist and homesteader, and she used the money from her writing to buy ranch supplies and support the homestead. The Elinore Pruitt Stewart Homestead is now on the US National Register of Historic Places. Stewart meets Mrs. Coney after her first husband dies in a railroad accident. Stewart desperately needs money, especially since she has a daughter to look after. She takes odd jobs, including working as a housekeeper and a laundress for Mrs. Coney. Although Mrs. Coney is her employer, the two become good friends. Eventually, Stewart wants to remarry because she plans on bettering herself. She meets a Scottish man who owns a ranch in Wyoming. They marry, and Stewart works on the ranch. She conspires to fence off her own plot of land and use it as her own. Stewart doesn’t tell anyone that she’s married, because she wants to own the land herself. Her husband agrees to all this. She pretends that she’s a single woman in her letters, and that she’s running her own homestead. Stewart believes that all women should have independence, and that women don’t need men to look after them. The letters cover daily life on the homestead. Stewart describes how hard she must work to run the ranch. She must look after the animals, be a good wife, cook, and clean. Her duties never end, but she thrives on the pressure. She’s determined to prove that women make great homesteaders. Most men don’t believe women can run their own affairs, and Stewart proves them wrong. Letters of a Woman Homesteader includes 26 individual letters. Although there’s no overarching narrative binding them together, the letters are in chronological order. They begin at the point when Stewart arrives on the homestead and sees it for the first time. The final letter explains how Stewart achieved everything she wanted from life, and she hopes that her story inspires other women to do the same. At first, Stewart’s work seems insurmountable. She must clear trees and build a proper home for herself and her daughter. Through her ingenuity, Stewart clears a plot of land and builds a stable, solid home for them. In her final letters, Stewart describes how it feels to accomplish something so meaningful, and what the future holds for her. Unsurprisingly, her letters delight Mrs. Coney. Stewart doesn’t confine her insights to farm life. She describes the friends she makes and the network she builds. For example, she talks about meeting other like-minded women who crave independence. These women want their own money and the freedom to buy what they want. She hires these women to work on the homestead, and her husband doesn’t mind. He’s happy that she has friends and people to talk to. Although she likes her husband well enough, they’re not in love, and she’d be lonely without other people. Stewart’s letters focus heavily on domestic topics. She describes everything from parties to cooking, and her letters reflect early 20th-century life in the country. She thrives on helping other people, whether it’s organizing weddings or consoling widows after a funeral. Stewart’s popular with everyone, and contemporary evidence suggests she was indeed a likeable character. It’s difficult, however, to know how accurate her letters are. Stewart shares humorous accounts from others living nearby. For example, Stewart talks about hosting the ex-sheriff for Christmas dinner, and the calamities that followed. She also describes mediating spats between cattle-men and sheep-men and comforting lovesick women. These accounts add depth and vibrancy to her letters, which is undoubtedly her intention. Letters of a Woman Homesteader reveal a woman who refused to complain. In her letters, she doesn’t make excuses or moan about how hard her life is. Instead, Stewart focuses on how wonderful it is that she’s built a new life from nothing, and that she’s setting a good example for her own daughter. Stewart’s letters reflect the American Dream, and they prove that everyone can turn their life around. Stewart admits that she doesn’t have everything in life that she wants. However, she’s eternally grateful to God for what she does have. She finishes her letters on an optimistic note. She’s hopeful for what the future holds, and she feels like she’s made a positive impact on homesteading in Wyoming. Mrs. Coney felt the same, which is why she put the letters forward for publication. Through the letters in Letters of a Woman Homesteader, readers can learn more about 20th-century homesteading from a primary source. The letters are accessible to both teenage and adult readers looking for more information on ranching and women’s issues. They can be read alongside history books for fact-checking purposes, or they can be enjoyed on their own.

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Elinore Pruitt Stewart

Adult

Collection of Letters

Nonfiction

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