Beyond Schoolmarms and Madams: Montana Women’s Stories

by Martha Kohl (Editor)

Sheriff Garfield had just been elected to a second term in 1920 when he was fatally shot. His wife Ruth, a ranching woman with a young son, set aside her grief to serve out her husband's term. She was Montana's first female sheriff and served two years. Stories like Ruth Garfield's fill the pages of Beyond Schoolmarms and Montana Women's Stories. The women featured in this book range from late eighteenth-century Indian women warriors to twenty-first century Blackfeet banker Elouise Cobell. They span geography―from the western Montana women who worked for the Forest Service, to Miles City doctor Sadie Lindeberg. And they span ideology―from the members of the Montana Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, who led the fight for laws banning segregation in public accommodations, to the Women of the Ku Klux Klan. With grit and foresight, these women shaped Montana.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

Published May 7, 2016

Reviews

[Sharon Huether · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most all people know of Jeanette Rankin, when in 1916 she was the first woman to be elected to Congress from Montana.
Many Native American women were prominent people in Montanan history.

Suzie Walking Bear graduated from a Boston Nursing school and came back to her Crow Nation tribe to heal the sick
Minnie Two Shoes was a Journalist in the Fort Peck area.
Warrior Pine Leaf Woman Chief fought along side her husband.
Elouise Pepier Cobell founded the first American Indian owned National Bank. She helped settle a lawsuit of 3.4 billion dollars for Indians.
Theresa Chandler Walker Lamebull helped to preserve her native Language (Gros Ventes).

There were many prominent Black women in Montana history.
Alma Smith Jacobs were head librarian in Great Falls.
Rose Gordon was a business woman and activist from White Sulphur Springs. She wrote newspaper columns
Sarah Gammon Bickford, a business woman who owned a Utility Company in Virginia City.

Many woman were ranches and had success in ranching.
When Sheriff Garfield was shot and killed his widow took his place. She was Montana's first woman Sheriff.
Novelist Mildred Walker was also form Montana .

Interesting book.

[Karen Hartley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the individual stories were interesting enough, I would have liked to see more organization to the book. Sections on politics or teachers or Women of color. Instead it is one dense page after another. I liked the stories and found the women interesting. Best read in small doses.

[Salty Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is packed with biographies of the amazing women of Montana's past. It was perfect for reading in spurts.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. As the foreword and afterword mention, if you think about famous/influential women from Montana, most people (myself included) will only think of Sacagawea and Jeanette Rankin. The Montana Historical Society started putting this book together in 2014, in honor of the centennial of women's suffrage in Montana. There are so many women from a wide range of periods of MT history covered and I really appreciated that an effort was made to tell stories beyond just whit women. The book also did a good job of not shying away from the less savory women's history in MT, including essays on the KKK in MT and the history of involuntary sterilization.

[Jan Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved learning about Montana history through the women living it

[Joyce]

Interesting bits of history in this book about various people/places in MT. Picked it up thinking it was a different type of book than it really is, but in spite of that I appreciated the history in it. Thank you MT Historical Society!