My grandmothers were pioneer women so I have a lot of their
memories. I wonder if I could have been strong enough to
bear all those children, shoot rattlesnakes and wolves and
Bears and panthers and live in a dug out until I could get
a house built. Plus milking cows and feeding chickens and
taking care of calves and hogs.

I have been reading this book, Women Who Pioneered in Oklahoma. I got it at the library and it is a treasure based
on the WPA interviews. I have learned several things that
are new to me. I didn't realize that bears and antelopes
were here at the time of the run or that it was such a
dangerous and lawless time. One woman married three outlaws
in rapid succession and as was each one was killed, she married yet another. Her third husband was Emmett Dalton of
the Dalton gang.

Another woman mentioned how much she liked the Dalton brothers
and said that they had eaten at her house many times.

Some horrendious stories from Cherokee women who had walked
here from Tennessee on the Trail of Tears. The brutality
the Cherokees were exposed to was shocking.

There were pictures of the sod houses and houses improvised
from whatever was available including pieces of tents. There was not enough wood or trees in Western Oklahoma to
build with. A structure called a half dugout was common.

This book was fascinating to me because it is so real.