Women in West Texas

The lives of women on the plains and prairies of West and West Central Texas have never been simple or easy.

Plains Indian Women

The earliest known inhabitants of the region, the Indians, lived at a subsistence level, where survival depended upon the utmost effort of every member of the tribe.

As the Plains Indians followed the herds of bison and other game animals that were their lifelines, the men took the lead, carrying nothing but their weapons. To be effective protectors and providers, they had to remain free of burdens and light on their feet. That left the women to follow, carrying the household goods, tending the children and caring for the animals.

In some of the plains tribes, the heavy work of skinning and butchering the bison was done by the women. They followed the hunters with pack animals and hauled the skins and meat back to camp. There they smoked the meat to preserve it and made household articles of almost all other parts of the animal. Women also made tipis, cutting and dressing the tree trunks that were used as framework and preparing the bison skins for the outer covering.

Although Indian women had some property rights – women could own horses, for instance – women were considered the chattel of their fathers or their husbands. However, the supernatural medicine power of the Indian shaman could be acquired by a Comanche woman, with certain restrictions. It could be passed to a woman only with the aid and indulgence of her shaman husband; it could be used only after the husband's death; and it could not be practiced until after menopause. Even though Comanche women were usually left in camp when the men were out raiding, some were allowed to go on the less dangerous raids and snipe at the enemy warriors with bows and arrows from the fringes of the fight.

Hispanic Women's Property Rights

During the time that Texas was a part of Mexico, some women in Texas received land grants in their own names. Hispanic tradition allowed women to maintain separate property, a tradition that became an important part of Texas' community property law. Although under the Hispanic tradition, women could utilize or dispose of their separate property at will, Texas state law gave this control, with rare exceptions, to their husbands until 1968.

Early European Women Settlers

Whether they owned property or not, women on the Texas frontier took responsibility for maintaining their households and also shared farming and ranching chores with their spouses. Those without spouses often ran their own farms or ranches, sometimes doing much of the physical labor themselves, as well as directing that of hired hands.

Little has been written about the lives of pioneering women in Texas, except what can be gleaned from the few diaries that still exist from that period. As one historian pointed out, women did not ''lead expeditions, command troops, build railroads, drive cattle, ride Pony Express, find gold, amass great wealth, get elected to high public office, rob stages or lead lynch mobs,'' and those were the activities that were written about. But from the pioneers' diaries, we can perceive several recurring themes. The women that settled the plains and prairies of Texas in the 1850s and 1860s were mostly from the middle class: The very rich and the very poor did not migrate, as a rule.

Life of Women on the 19th-century Texas Frontier

Because of the circumstances of life on the frontier, the line between the traditional roles of men and women became blurred. In order to survive on the edges of civilization, families had to be self-sufficient. Since the men were often absent rounding up cattle, hunting game or trekking a hundred or more miles to obtain flour or salt, women had to learn to do traditionally male tasks. When necessary, they cleared land, felled trees for cabins, dug wells, fought prairie fires and planted and harvested crops. And the men were called upon to do some of the household jobs usually relegated to the women, especially when their wives were ill. Some of the women settlers had already moved several times as the frontier had moved west, and they had developed the necessary survival skills. Others came from homes with servants and had to learn the basics of cooking and keeping house, as well as mastering skills new to all the settlers, such as gathering and using dried buffalo chips for fuel.

Many women on the Texas frontier lived for months without seeing another white woman. For company they had only husband, children, ranch hands and Indians. Their loneliness and isolation are the twin themes that permeate most of their accounts of life on the early Texas frontier. Susan Newcomb, a young wife and mother in Stephens County, began keeping a diary in 1865 that poignantly details the daily life of the period. In October 1864, Susan and her husband, Sam, moved into Fort Davis, a civilian picket fort built on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River to shelter more than 125 people from Indians while the Civil War was keeping many soldiers busy elsewhere. From this small community, the Newcombs moved to a ranch 18 miles away in Throckmorton County in the spring of 1866. For Sam it was not a great change: The men still went hunting, scouted for Indians, rounded up cattle and drove wagons for flour and salt in companionable groups. But Susan was isolated "18 miles from a living being ... I hope that I will not have to live out here always where I can never go to church or go to see a friend."

Entertainment on the frontier was provided by almost anything that broke the routine. The Newcombs and eight friends turned a pecan-gathering trip to nearby Paint Creek into a light-hearted five-day camp-out in October 1866. The group took with them only camping blankets, flour and butter. They killed their meat as they needed it: turkeys, rabbits and a catfish, and they gathered prickly pear fruit as well as pecans. Best of all, the women were able to renew old acquaintances and enjoy each other's company.

But these jolly expeditions were few. In May 1867, Susan summed up her feelings of isolation: "I am lonesome Oh! very lonesome . . . I actually think it is almost a sin for a person to live where they scarcely ever see anyone and are always lonesome. We have been living here over a year and there has been one woman to see us, only one."

Susan commented occasionally in her diary on the wind and the sand storms of West Texas. While it annoyed Susan to have her wash ruined by the wind-blown dirt, the constant wind sent some pioneer Texas women into deep depressions. A few were disturbed to the point of insanity, while it drove others to leave West Texas for regions that had trees. . .and gentle breezes.

Women's Softening Influences on the Frontier

The women who came to West Texas brought with them the civilizing influences of churches and schools. Small communities often had Sunday school meetings and singings, interspersed by occasional visits from ordained ministers. In Abilene, the first church service was held two weeks before the official sale of the first town lots in 1881. A school was in operation in tents later that same year. Schools were held wherever there was room until enough taxes could be raised to provide a permanent home, not only in tents, but also living rooms and warehouses. For frontier families, churches served not only as places of worship, but also as social centers, with church women organizing ice cream socials, picnics and other such activities.

The experience of women on the frontier of West Texas in the 19th century tends to prove the truth of the old Texas proverb, that it is "a great country for men and dogs, but hell on women and horses." But West Texas women for the most part stuck out the hard times and helped to tame the hostile plains.

Just after the turn of the century, women's clubs sought to further soften the harshness of the West Texas environment by sponsoring the establishment of literary clubs and libraries. West Texas women's clubs were successful in winning grants from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie for libraries in Abilene, Ballinger, Brownwood, Gainesville, Stamford and Vernon.

The tradition has been carried into the 20th century by such outstanding West Texas women as Jewel Davis Scarborough of Abilene. Only one of many such leaders throughout the region, Mrs. Scarborough was an active, vital civic leader in her adopted town of Abilene. Her activities included helping to organize the Taylor County Equal Suffrage Association in 1918, which evolved into the local chapter of the League of Women Voters; introducing the YWCA to Abilene during World War I; organizing the Abilene Women's Forum; serving as founding president of the Abilene branch of the American Association of University Women; and helping establish and build the Abilene chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. Scarborough's lifetime interest in history led to her being one of six people who founded the West Texas Historical Association in 1924.

Several generations of women have left their marks on this unique region, helping to soften and civilize the land that is West Texas.

— Written by Mary G. Ramos and first published in the 1990-91 Texas Almanac.