The Gentle Tamers: Women of the Old Wild West

by Dee Brown

All aspects of western feminine life, which include a good deal about the western male, are covered in this lively, informal but soundly factual account of the women who built the West. Among those whose stories are included are Elizabeth Custer; Lola Montez, Ann Eliza Young, Josephine Meeker, Carry Nation, Esther Morris, and Virginia Reed.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Westerns, Womens, American History, Biography, Historical

335 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

AKA: Dee Alexander Brown

Dorris Alexander “Dee” Brown (1908–2002) was a celebrated author of both fiction and nonfiction, whose classic study Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is widely credited with exposing the systematic destruction of American Indian tribes to a world audience.

Brown was born in Louisiana and grew up in Arkansas. He worked as a reporter and a printer before enrolling at Arkansas State Teachers College, where he met his future wife, Sally Stroud. He later earned two degrees in library science, and worked as a librarian while beginning his career as a writer. He went on to research and write more than thirty books, often centered on frontier history or overlooked moments of the Civil War. Brown continued writing until his death in 2002.

Reviews

[Kristi Thielen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here's an example of how you perceive things so differently, years later when you've read more deeply in a book's subject area.

I first read Brown's book in the late 1980s, unaware of its copyright date of 1958. I thought at the time that the book was illuminating.

In 2004-2005, I began reading much more about women of the west, for a play that I would produce soon thereafter. I've since read even more, in order to write museum exhibits and a presentation that I give in public events. These books I later read were either written by women - or were collections of women's diaries of the 1850-1910 time period.

Brown' book now looks not only shallow, but sexist. His title reveals his prejudices; he uses the words "gentle" or "fragile" or "feminine" over and over again in the book. He rarely references the writings of women, but more commonly newspapers - or the recollections of men.

Few of the remarkable women I've read of elsewhere are in the book; he is much more impressed with western women because of their association with men. (Wives of military officers in the west, none of them notable, get a good deal of Dee's attention.)

Condescending remarks about women's clothing also attract his attention. A lot. And prostitutes, whom he can't write enough about.

In his cursory coverage of remarkable political orator Mary Lease, he can't resist the stereotypical slur that women are fickle: "But as women will, she later changed her mind and let her fanatical followers down." (She shifted from support of one political party to another.) Men, too, have shifted from one party to the next throughout history - but it's unlikely Brown would say that such a move is done because it is "as men will."

There are many books about women in the west which are well worth reading. This book is one that should be retired from service.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read and very informative. However, there was something about the tone of the writing at times that was a little too "woman as delicate flowers" for my taste. The title seems slightly condescending to me -- women as gentle creatures, angels of the household, rather than being capable of nursing a baby, chopping wood and hogtying a calf. It seems like the title picks up too well on 19th-century/Victorian expectations of gender, when women in the West basically turned those on their head. I mean, why call them gentle tamers, which conjures to mind luring a mouse in with cheese, rather than fending off lions with a whip, when gentle isn't the word for them at all? Those women in the west? Were fighting lions off left and right.

Maybe it just wasn't the book I was looking for. I think I might have been expecting more about women on the fringe of society, and this was definitely about mainstream people.

[Barb Terpstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give this book four starts for Chapter 13, Wyoming Tea Party.

While the entire book was interesting, particularly as how the Westward movement of pioneer men and women liberated women in unexpected ways, the Wyoming chapter really brings it home.

Esther Morris, described as a self-reliant "55 year old lady of great charm, who enjoyed fierce battles and was accustomed to winning them", had a tea party on September 2, 1869. Esther invited 20 influential citizens to her party. Among her guests, two candidates for the legislature, Col. William H. Bright (Democrat) and Captain Herman G. Nickerson (Republican). She asked each of them to introduce a bill to give the women of Wyoming the right to vote. Both candidates agreed, even though at that time, no woman in the world had that right.

Bright won the election and kept his promise on November 9, 1869. Many saw the bill as a practical joke,or an opportunity to embarrass the governer. However the bill also passed the house, with the only change being to increase the age from 18 to 21. On December 10, 1869, Governor Campbell signed the bill. And for the first time anywhere on earth,women had won the legal right to vote. Additionally,Wyoming women could now be elected to office.

When Wyoming applied for statehood 18 years later (1889) the law was in danger of being repealed due to the woman's suffrage bill. Kudos to the Wyoming legislature who sent a telegram stating

We may stay out of the union a hundred years, but we will come in with our women.

There are many more stories of our western women and how their lives changed, but this bit of history, of which I was unaware, made the book for me.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd read Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and loved it, but I found this a bit disappointing. Whilst very interesting, it's overly-simplistic, poorly referenced, and somewhat patronising and sexist. It's also very fragmented, it jumps around in time and place constantly, with no real thematic pattern. I'd probably recommend it to teenagers but not adults.

[Hayley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope. I'm out.
This disjointed "history" of women in the Wild West is ridiculous and insulting. I've struggled through the first 75 pages to "learn" that many of these women wore pretty bonnets, didn't know how to cook, and were loved by the men who kidnapped and raped them.

[Bryan Ney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Research

Read this as research for my next book. Very broad in scope. Most interesting part was about how women's suffrage came to be in Wyoming.

[Enni Gregas · Rating 3 out of 5]

#21 on my 52 in 52 Quest: Decades ago, I read Dee Brown's masterpiece, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" which opened my world view to include the history and experience of Native Americans--one of those life-changing reads.

This book focuses on pioneer white women. Why I love reading---I get to live so many lives! The frontier westward movement lasted only a few decades---our perception is skewed by all the western movies, television shows (especially in my youth), and books that developed all those powerful cultural images and icons: cowboys, wagon trains, Indian wars, buffalo hunts, mountain men, and prospectors. It all makes the western period seem like it lasted for a much longer time.

In all those previous images, the representation of women was minimal---Miss Kitty, Ma Ingalls, Dale Evans, Calamity Jane, and Annie Oakley---oh, and the ever present prim nameless schoolmarm.

This book presents a fuller, more accurate rendering of the role and experience of women in the westward movement.

An enjoyable and enlightening read. I appreciate the extensive notes, documentation, and useful index.

Read "Bury My Heart" for sure and add this one to further clarify your perceptions of the Wild West.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book twice. The first time was years ago and it did not impress me a lot. (That says more about me than it says about the book.) Subsequently I read "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains" by Isabella Bird. Isabella's opinion and experience of western men's "respect for a lady" almost seemed like she was wearing rose colored glasses. Then I read "The Gentle Tamers" again. The two books complement each other. Now I can see that Dee Brown was developing a theme in his book. The theme is that in the wild west women were highly regarded and treated with respect. Then he concludes the book by pointing out that women's suffrage was first passed in Wyoming. And that 7 states west of the Mississippi passed women's suffrage before it was ever enacted east of the Mississippi. That's something to think about.

[Sjervey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly readable account of the role f women in shaping the West. From the different ways in which they reached the West, to the different strengths and adaptations they brought, to the cultivating influence on the men who often just wanted a chance to be in the room with a woman, to the adoption of women's suffrage and their rights to hold office and be impaneled on juries in Wyoming, this exhaustive review provides wonderful insight into the gentile, if not always gentle, impact of women. Brown's title makes you think it is about the tamng of the West, but the text allows you to see how that taming, through the political advances of women in the West, were gradually extended to greater political rights for women in the rest of the US and well beyond.

[susan moore Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! It took a look at all types of women and their roles as they settle the west. It in just focus on Prairie women, or schoolmarms, it focused on women. The good, the bad,The clever, the con women, all of them. I really enjoyed this book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about the old west. This is well written and easy to read. If you like western history this should probably on your reading list.

[Carol Callahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

True

Interesting history that was new to me.I would have enjoyed more of a story in depth and fewer abbreviated stories . However it may be all that is available on the characters

[Stephanie Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In reading this interesting book, The Gentle Tamers: Women of the Old Wild West, I thought I was ticking off another book on my TBR, but what I’ve done instead is ADDED another eleven titles that were referenced in the book! I guess that’s a good recommendation for this book!

Dee Brown, the author, is most famous for writing Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, which published in 1970. Its an excellent book about the decimation of the North American Indians by white men and I highly recommend that you read it. The Gentle Tamers was pubbed in 1958.

Women were not heading west across what is now the United States as fast as men were in the 1800s. The ones who did had to be strong, resilient, and inventive.

She also made her own vinegar, starting it by mixing a quart of molasses and a pint of yeast. After the vinegar matured, she would likely flavor it with tincture of roses, prepared by pouring whisky over rose petals and keeping the mixture corked for two or three months.

Even families living at the early forts had little comfort.

The furniture included a few campstools and unpainted chairs and a dining table composed of three wooden planks stretched across two carpenter’s horses (this also served as an ironing board, or as an overnight bed for unexpected visitors).

Of course there were the infamous women who took bigger matters into their own hands, such as Carry Nation, who waged the war of temperance. Her story is very entertaining!

I didn’t find much of anything in Brown’s writing not to like, except for this 1950s-era beginning of a sentence: “But as women will, she later changed her mind…” That raised a growl out of me!

This book is full of real life women who made the dangerous journey and lived (mostly) to tell their tale! Highly recommended!

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gentle Tamers is focused on women and what it was like for them to live during the 1800s in the old wild west. The book ranges from the dangers that women faced like being taken by certain Indian tribes, Enduring traveling in covered wagons, or on foot across the nation. Some traveled with their husbands who were in the military. The types of homes they had to live in that could be nothing more than a tent or a sod house. the clothes they wore, how they bathed and took care of their bathroom needs. jobs they had and so many other topics of women and they lived during this time period. I would give this a 3.5. pretty informational and could be interesting.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is for those who enjoy western history. The author, Dee Brown, a celebrated writer of fiction and nonfiction, wrote more than 25 books on the American west. He died at 94 and has been described as writing until the end of his life. I intend to read many more of his books.

As a side thought, and enticement to read this book, let me mention his most celebrated book that quite likely YOU may have read. It is widely-acclaimed book titled "Bury Your Heart at Wounded Knee," which details western expansionism into Native American lands from the view of Native Americans. This book was more heartbreaking than entertaining or shall I say than "a joy to read." I read it in college. It was not burdensome to read, it did not bury readers with facts; but, it was sad, vivid, and a relentlessly modern story as far as its impact upon people of Pine Ridge, Native American culture, and on how Manifest Destiny into other cultures brings devastation in spite up progress that can uplift groups of people. I read this book almost 50 years ago; and yet, I still can recall its impact upon me, which was a deeper awareness of how historical accounts told from different perspectives affect societies. That was the purpose and outcome of this book. Brown wanted to tell a story from the point of view, which, also changes the story of how women shaped the Old West. As this book demonstrates, the story of pioneer women differs depending on who is telling the story. I have read historical nonfiction books describing frontiersmen, frontier towns, Gold Rush era, outlaws, Indian wars, and covered wagon travels on the Oregon Trail, and though these were factually presented they left parts---those parts being the female perspective. These stories provided factual accounts of westward expansion and development, but, all too often, left out details of events and daily life from the viewpoint of women in the development of the west. This story gives us a more complete understanding of how the west was settled by telling pioneer women stories about women in the Old West and highlighting their contributions.

Some of the women in book I was familiar, but most were unfamiliar names and stories. Some pioneer women stories included were as follows: Frances Grummond, whose husband was killed in the Fetterman Massacre; Margaret Carrington who comforted Frances after the death of her husband and whose husband marries Frances Grummond some years after Margaret's death; 13 year-old Virginia Reed who was in the Donner Party; Julia Bulette the prototype of a fancy woman in the wild west; Flora Pearson Engle who joined an expedition of prospective brides headed for Washington Territory; Dame Shirley who read Shakespeare and Shelley along the Oregon Trail; Josephine Meeker who wanted to school the Ute children but sadly was captured after being rescued and suffered again while telling her story; Jane Barnes the barmaid from England who traveled to Oregon with a gentleman and now holds the title of first white woman to set foot on the Northwest coast; Ann Eliza Young one of Brigham's wives who divorced him; Loreta Velasquez who fought in Civil War disguised as male then went west to find a rich husband; Janette Riker who lived through a Montana winter alone in a covered wagon. There are many other interesting accounts of pioneer women besides these, particularly those who are remembered as suffregettes and members of Wyoming Tea Party. Reading this book will describe specific female roles or events during this time framek (1850-1900), such as the female shortage in the west, schoolmarms, lodging along the journey (most seem quite unbearable by today's standards and even by western travelers at this time), Wyoming Tea Party, ladies of easy virtue, Army wives, women's diversions and cultural organizations, ranch parties. Oh, and the infamous Carry Nation who smashed up saloons, knocked cigars and cigarettes out of the mouths of males, she justified by her divine message to abolish masculine frivolity and use of alcohol.

History, in my opinion is boring, if not presented in the "right" way. What's the right way? The right way is presenting facts as a story, organizing them in a way that helps reader visualize an event, and presenting historical stories in a way that builds upon previous stories. Dee Brown presents the oral histories of "women of the old west" in this way and did an exceptional job of writing down oral histories in a way that kept me intrigued rather than burdened by cumbersome details. There were enough details to make the stories real, but not so many that a casual reader of history becomes bored.

This book upends common assumptions of pioneer women made by those of us who grew up watching westerns. I was one of those who grew up on Hollywood westerns; and though I loved them, I concede these westerns missed the mark as far as portraying an accurate picture of western women in 1850-1900. I find it amusing now as I reflect upon the naivety of movie-goers in the 50s and 60s. They were so easily persuaded that Hollywood portrayals of pioneer women were accurate. Haha, jokes on me, I was one of these naive movie-goers. My excuse is that I was hoodwinked by Hollywood. It took decades to repair the damage in my case and to acknowledge that western movies were way off the mark as far as what pioneer women looked like and what their contributions were.

Brown's re-examination of pioneer women sets the record straight (or at least debunks most of what I knew about pioneer women) with a compilation of stories describing varied roles and experiences of women in western territories in 1850-1900. He introduces book with the question "who was the western woman?" He, then, describes a common stereotypical image of sunbonnet-clad woman holding babe in arms and hand of small child. I have seen this depiction in history books, buildings, museums, paintings, and bronze statues such as the one in the Pioneer Woman Museum in Oklahoma, and in each of the 12 states, along the National Old Trails Road. These beautiful statues intended to honor the character and tenacity of pioneer women, which, of course, they do because all pioneer would have had tenacity and character, regardless of their role or contribution; but Madonna statues suggest pioneer women's only contributions were that of mother and homemaker, when in fact they had many other roles, such as schoolmarms, shop owners, boarding house owners, stagecoach drivers, army wives, missionaries, laundresses, cooks, activists, entrepreneurs, ranchers, farmers, theatre performers, brothel workers, and outlaws.

The sunbonnets they wore were as varied as their reasons for traveling west. The pioneer woman may have worn a bright or dull bonnet, or one designed in Paris. Her clothing may have come from French millinery or East Coast fashion shops. She may have worn a cotton dress with pantaloons or a voluminous hoop skirt, a rainbow-colored petticoat, or the latest East Coast fashion. Pioneer women were sometimes rich, sometimes poor; but most, at least, had enough money to pay for their journey. Indeed, some were looking for a husband, and thus this became the depiction and subsequent Madonna on the Trail statues; but others were looking for adventure or get-rich quick opportunities.

During early periods of western migration, women were scarce so there were enticements to convince women to travel to the territories such as to finding a husband or job teaching. So scarce were women that in 1841 the largest wagon company journeying to the Pacific Coast had one woman. Also, in 1841 a similar party traveling from Missouri River to CA had two women. One historical estimate describes the scarcity of women in this way: the number of women who traveled westward in 1849 was 10 per cent of 50,000 emigrants---roughly 5,000 women, 2,500 children, 42,500 men.

Business owners and real estate gamblers knew women were needed if their gambles were to pay off. So, savvy businessmen began enticing young women with free travel, promises to find a husband, and descriptions of rich country filled with opportunities. The enticements worked and more and more women traveled to western territories in a variety of ways. Some suffered through covered wagon journeys, others traveled by stagecoach, and some rode horseback across wilderness trails. Some went all the way to Panama rather than take the more dangerous journey through Indian country. I had never read stories of women who had traveled by boat to Panama on their way to California, and then by horseback to their destination, so I was enlightened by these stories. Of course, our grade school history books described the Mormon women, who pushed hand carts through the wilderness. There is a personal story describing this as well. This event still seems ridiculous to me!

The common thread experienced by all pioneer women was, likely, their dread of Indians, wild animals; and if they were lucky, that they had escaped danger or death numerous times before arriving at their destination.

After reading this book, I have a more nuanced vision of what pioneer women looked like and better understanding of their varied roles and contributions. The stereotypical image I grew up is not factually accurate. The bronze statues created to honor pioneer women certainly honors the contributions of pioneer homemakers, but it does not represent the many other contributions of pioneer women. It represents those who moved into the wilderness and maintained homes for their families that became the foundation of early western communities, and who, rather heroically, in my mind, birthed and nursed their children without benefit of doctors or even medicines and schooled their children despite having only a few books. There were other heroic and notable pioneer women who shaped the west whose contributions are not well-represented by a sunbonnet-clad pioneer woman with children. Some became missionaries with hopes of converting the Indians to Christianity and setting up schools for Indian children. Some had lived a pampered lifestyle in the eastern cities and thus had to learn how to be independent by learning how to cook, sew, harvest and preserve food, shoot a gun, drive a buggy, haul water, and chop wood. Some became ranchers, stagecoach drivers, social activists, and a few became outlaws.

Whether she wore a sunbonnet or high fashion hat, a fancy dress or plain dress, these women who traveled out west were courageous, strong, industrious, and creative women who left their mark on the west. They influenced and shaped the west. They were not of the same ilk, but they were all courageous. Personally, I like the Madonna statues of a sunbonnet-clad woman with her children because the contributions made by these pioneer wives and mothers are highly undervalued; but an updated history, or pictorial collage, that shows the many contributions and roles of pioneer women sure will enhance understanding of pioneer women history.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars....

1.). I love to read about women in the west. There is some really interesting stuff in here about how women fashioned shampoo, about women's roles in the economy (from school teachers to laundresses, from prostitutes to boarding house runners), about how women won the right to vote first in Wyoming mostly because of political infighting between Democrats and Republicans.

2.). But oh for sweet lord the patronizing misogyny:

"None of them, of course, could read the future, or could have known that women truly are the most conservative of creatures, hating with a passion those three concomitants of the western frontier--poverty, physical hardship, and danger. And to destroy these traditional testers of human endurance was to destroy something male in the race" (297)

There women women go again, ruining everything.

Dee. Oh, Dee.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was close to rating this book 2 stars. I think 2.5 stars appropriate (get those half stars Goodreads!). While interesting, it lacks substance. It really is a bunch of individual stories that do not amount to a cohesive whole. If I wrote a short biography on 10 different members of my community, it would not necessarily be a good representation of my community as a whole, and I think that is what we have here. Dee Brown knocked it out of the park with "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". "The Gentle Tamers" I bet barely scratches the surface around women of the old west. But if you are ok with some pretty interesting characters and like the historical context, even while lacking in details, it's worth a quick read.

[Sarada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging and readable survey of the topic, covering a wide geographic era and lengthy period of time, though the organization of the chapters and topics was a little haphazard. The tone of the author (writing in the 1950s) is at times rather old-fashioned itself, and a little condescending at times. The standout chapter for me was about women winning the right to vote in 1869 in Wyoming. A fascinating, in-depth treatment of a subject about which I knew little going in. I found myself looking up information about many of the women discussed in this book, hungry for more detail and depth on the topics. I have about 20 more books in queue from the library or on my amazon wish list as a result of this reading, so it is an excellent starting point for further research.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not remember who gave this book to me, but I did like it. It is non-fiction and divided into a good number of chapters about the various women and the hardships they had to go through and how many times they were better able to adapt to the West then the men. My favorite selections were those about Elizabeth and George Custer! They had an interesting life and did love each other, tho' he had many women wanting to be with him! Nothing like the General I have read about.

Makes me happy I was not living in the time of the settlement of the West. I did think about the sod house that my grandparents lived in when they were first married in 1909.

This would have been a fun book to discuss in some of my Am. History classes in college.

[Jean Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it took a while but it was worth it. I enjoy history and this book is full of it. It tells the many stories of the women of the Old West, their trials, their errors and their suffering. In reading the story, I learned how the covered wagons were packed and how the women dealt with the close quarters of living and traveling in one. There were stories of Army wives along with dancehall girls and prostitutes. Soddies, log cabins , blankets under the wagons. Insects, snakes, mice and every imaginable unwanted critter. Just imagine doing your laundry and cooking in those circumstances. The most interesting part to me was the fight for women's voting rights in Wyoming. They didn't all survive but those that did helped tame the entire western half of the continent.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up after having read most of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. This was no where near as good.

While it's written in a easy to read way, a good amount of Brown's writing is insensitive at best. Women are treated stereotypically, despite the book being about women and their accomplishments. Similarly, Native Americans are portrayed in a terribly racist and insensitive way, depicted as heartless savages for the majority of the book (and I really don't understand how the same person wrote Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee). Somewhat informative, but also very insensitive and biased.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting subject, but a little disjointed. Lots of short stories of women who conquered the west under unimaginable hardships. The chapter on Wyoming and women's right to vote was the most interesting.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book regarding women and how they helped tame the west. Enjoyable and interesting read.

[Laura]

American women's history

[Cws]

K-978-Brown

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did not realize what women did in settling the old west. I always thought of the women you saw in TV of western movies. We women did a lot of important things.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting bit of previously unwritten history of frontier women and their civilizing effects on frontier men. Written by the author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, but not nearly as great.

[Caryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informal account of early women of the American west. Actually more like short vignettes. A good resource of specific
individuals and events, however brief.

[Lori Nemitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read between January & June 1984.

Original notes on book from 1984: Good book. Lots of history.

[Suzan Pinciotti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative.

As a follow up to The Emigrants series by Vilhelm Moberg, this was enlightening on how westerners lived at that time.