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During
the 19th century, women had a very specific and
limited role in society. Their domain consisted
of the home and children, and they rarely strayed
from this role. Historians have created names
for this 19th century family construct, such as
the Cult of Domesticity and Separate Spheres Ideology.
The women's sphere was the home and the men's
sphere was the bread-winning job. These Victorian
ideals were the norm for upper and middle class
families, and were carried west along the trails
to the Great Plains, Oregon Territory, and California
in a modified way. Women continued to run the
household and care for the children on the homestead,
but they also took part in work that was traditionally
reserved for men. In examining women's roles in
everyday life before the journey west, along the
trails, and on the homestead, we can see the how
their lives changed and how they remained the
same. We can also see how difficult and frustrating
their duties were at times. The overland trail
and homestead life gave women more responsibility
and raised their status in the family dynamic,
but it also solidified women's role as housekeeper.
Pioneer life and its inherent difficulties both
challenged and reinforced the gender roles of
the time.
Beginning in the 1840s, thousands of people migrated
overland to Oregon to take up homesteads. Most
of the people who migrated to Oregon during this
time were from the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Ohio, Kentucky, and Missouri). These families
endured a long journey through extreme weather
and terrain to take up homesteads in a place they
had only read about in pamphlets or heard about
from friends. There were a number of reasons these
Midwesterners left for Oregon; the Panic of 1837
and the following depression was a major motivator.
The depression hurt many farmers and left them
wary of the economy. Working in conjunction with
the bad economy was the Midwestern climate. Freezing
cold winters and humid summers were difficult
to bear. This exhausting climate was also conducive
to diseases such as cholera and yellow fever.
Many wanted to live in a healthier place. Others
thought that the Midwest was getting too crowded.
Oregon provided cheap or free land and a mild
climate. There was no drought of Americans who
wanted to fulfill the country's destiny to exist
from coast to coast.
Midwestern women were no strangers to hard work.
In most ways they were the ideal women to take
along the Oregon Trail. They were used to doing
most things by hand, such as spinning thread and
making clothes. They did the cleaning, cooking,
and child rearing. They were always busy, sometime
spinning thread well into the evening. "I remember
a neighbor lady who picked up her knitting and
knitted a few rounds at her own husband's funeral,
she was so used to keeping busy."(1)
They were as skillfully prepared as anyone. Their
duties for the migration started months before
they left. The migration required extensive preparation.
One of the first things that needed to be obtained
was the wagon cover. Women sewed this, as well
as all of the clothes for the journey, by hand.
"The first thing is to lay plans and then work
up to the program so the first thing is to make
a piece of linen for a wagon cover and some sacks;
will spin most evenings while my husband reads
to me."(2) Women who
were planning to leave gathered with their friends
during the months before and sewed quilts together.
It was a very important social event for the women.
They formed close bonds with their neighbors during
the quilting parties and other social events.
When it came time for a family or a group of families
to leave, the farewells were often grandiose and
sad. "Some friends spent the night with us
and others arrived at daylight. All places of
business and the schools were closed during the
forenoon, and everybody came to say good-bye to
us. From early morning till ten o'clock they came.
The house and yard were all crowded with people.
Friends and schoolmates were crying all around
us." (3)
Families who were departing along the Oregon Trail
gathered at small towns on the Missouri River,
called "jumping off points." Independence, St.
Joseph, and Council Bluffs were among these towns.
At this point their wagon trains would have been
almost completely outfitted. The wagon, which
was made of seasoned wood to withstand extreme
temperatures, was hauled by four to six oxen.
Tools and spare parts were stored under the wagon.
Utensils including forks and knives, plates, cups,
a kettle, fry pan, and a coffee pot were packed
inside. Their food consisted of about 200 pounds
of flour, 150 pounds of bacon, 10 pounds of coffee,
20 pounds of sugar, and 10 pounds of salt.(4)
Chipped beef, rice, dry beans, dry fruits, pickles,
and other foods were also packed. In total, the
outfitting usually cost between $500 and $1000
($10,000-$20,000 today).(5)
Sometimes it was difficult to know what to bring,
and some items had to be abandoned along the way.
"Two wagons were filled with merchandise which
we hoped to sell at fabulous prices when we should
arrive in 'the land of gold' [California]. The
theory of this was good but the practice - well,
we never got the goods over the first mountain."
(6) Wagon trains arrived
at a jumping off point in March and left in April
when the snow melted enough. Hopefully they would
make it to Oregon before winter.
Those traveling to Oregon had a very tough time
ahead of them. Starting the 2,400 mile journey
in Missouri, the wagons would continue along the
Missouri River to the Platte River. They followed
this wide and muddy river through Nebraska and
halfway through Wyoming. They stopped in Fort
Laramie in Wyoming to rest and buy provisions.
It was summer by then. The days were very hot
and the nights cold. From there they began the
slow ascent up an 8,000 foot summit called the
South Pass. The first major leg of the journey
was over. Once over the South Pass, they traveled
to Fort Hall. At Fort Hall, the migrants split;
those going to California headed south, and those
going to Oregon headed north. The trail still
held many hardships for those heading to Oregon.
They traveled along the Snake River to Fort Boise.
Then they had to cross the Blue Mountains, which
required them to haul the wagons up ridges with
ropes and pulleys. A woman described the Blue
Mountains as "the highest hills that ever I
saw a person pass over. Very steep and rocky."
(7) They traveled on until
they reached the Columbia River, which they had
to either ferry the wagon across or leave it and
take canoes. Then they traveled the remaining
one hundred miles to the Willamette Valley.
During the journey, women did most of the things
they did back home; cooking every meal, taking
care of the children, gathering food and fuel
for the fire. Women had to do these things in
dust, rain, hail, in tents or in the open air.
They washed clothes when they could, kept an eye
on the children, and other tasks as they came
along. Cooking was the most frequent task women
had to do on the journey, and it was not easy.
During the spring they had to deal with frequent
rain. Their goods often got wet and sometimes
they didn't have time to pitch a tent to cook
under. "It was raining this morning when we
awoke. Had to get breakfast in the rain, having
no tent."(8) Most women
took their difficulties in stride, even if they
weren't prepared. "In the morning our first
domestic annoyance occurred. The woman cook refused
point blank to go any further…Here was a dilemma!...Having
been reared in a slave state my culinary education
had been neglected and I had yet to make my first
cup of coffee."(9)
Traveling across the Great Plains along the
Platte, the conditions were very dusty. The alkali
dust burned their eyes, covered everything, and
made the water undrinkable. "I have just washed
the dust out of my eyes so that I can see to get
supper." (10) This was
a typical journal entry made by women attempting
to combat the dust. In addition to the cooking,
women also wandered along the wagon during the
day gathering what they could to make the fire
to cook on. Sometimes they found wood, but they
relied mostly on buffalo chips. Often children
would accompany their mothers on this chore. In
some locations wild food was available. Women
collected berries and wild vegetables and men
hunted when they could. The women would jerk buffalo
meat to save it for when food was scarce. Fish
and freshwater clams were eaten when they neared
rivers. If things got too bad, travelers resorted
to eating their oxen, field mice, and dogs.(11)
Washing was another large and dreaded chore expected
of women along the journey. It was impossible
to keep everything clean in the dust, especially
when the women's dresses were long, but they took
whatever chance they could to clean up. The migrants
attempted to rest on the Sabbath, but this would
mostly be dictated by weather and location. When
they did rest, it gave the women a chance to do
the wash, which was very labor-intensive. "When
the camp ground was desirable enough to warrant
it we did not travel on the Sabbath. Although
men were generally busy mending wagons, harnesses,
yokes, shoeing the animals, etc., and the women
washed clothes, boiled a big mess of beans, to
be warmed over for several meals, or perhaps mended
clothes or did other household straightening up,
all felt somewhat rested on Monday morning."(12)
This description demonstrates the separation of
men's and women's work on the journey, but sometimes
the distinction wasn't so clear. It wasn not unusual
for women to do some of the men's work when necessary.
"Albert is not well today, so I drive. I was
very sleepy while driving, went to sleep a multitude
of times, to awaken with a start fancying we were
running into gullies."(13)
The overland journey made it clear that things
had to get done, no matter who did it.
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1. Susan G.
Butruille, Women's Voices from the Oregon Trail
,The Tines That Tried Women's Souls and A Guide
to Women's History Along the Oregon Trail, (Boise:
Tamarack Books, Inc., 1993), 29.
2. (From the
Diary of Kit Belknap) Susan G. Butruille, Women's
Voices from the Oregon Trail ,The Tines That Tried
Women's Souls and A Guide to Women's History Along
the Oregon Trail, (Boise: Tamarack Books, Inc.,
1993), 55.
3. (From the
Diary of Martha Gay Masterson) Susan G. Butruille,
Women's Voices from the Oregon Trail, The Tines
That Tried Women's Souls and A Guide to Women's
History Along the Oregon Trail, (Boise: Tamarack
Books, Inc., 1993), 63.
4. Lillian Schlissel,
Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey, (New
York: Schocken Books, Inc., 1982), 23.
5. Butruille,
56.
6. Martha Gay Masterson, 63.
7. (From the Diary of Lydia Allen
Rudd) Susan G. Butruille, Women's Diaries of the
Westward Journey, (New York: Schocken Books, Inc.,
1982), 194.
8. (From the Diary of Jane Gould Torillott)
Susan G. Butruille, Women's Diaries of the Westward
Journey, (New York: Schocken Books, Inc., 1982),
221.
9. (From the Diary of Catherine Haun)
Susan G. Butruille, Women's Diaries of the Westward
Journey, (New York: Schocken Books, Inc., 1982),
169.
10. (From the Diary of Amelia Stewart Knight)
Susan G. Butruille, Women's Diaries of the Westward
Journey, (New York: Schocken Books, Inc., 1982),
207.
11. Butruille, 74.
12. Haun, 173.
13. Tortillott, 222.
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By
Rickie Lazzerini
Historian
BA History
University of California, Santa Barbara
Index
of Historical Reviews
© 2006 Rickie Lazzerini,
All Rights Reserved
This page may be freely linked to but may not
be reproduced
in any form without prior written consent from
the author.
Comments or enquiries regarding this article
may be sent to:
KTHistorian@GMail.com
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