Page 79 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRONTIER PH ILOSOPHY: EU ROPEAN D I S C OURSE

hometown newspaper in Norway to publish the advice, "Go west,
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young woman. 65 Another explained that even women who "crossed
the line"-a Norwegian f o lk expression f o r those who strayed f r om
the straight and narrow-would be marriageable on the fr ontier.66This
opinion was widely held. Some men even listed locales where women
would have "mountains of gold dust" laid at their f e et "in exchange f o r
their hands."67
Conservative voices were in a minority. When an 1884 issue of the
American Settler warned that ardent swains might already have "a surplus
wife or two in the East," it confirmed the f e ars of such critics as Wright,
Martineau, and Bremer.68 W e ak, gendered education and a demand f o r
wives would prematurely lead American women into marriage. These
women had a point. As early as 1698, an English f a rmer had stated that
the American woman usually married before twenty, and soon she "hath
a child in her Belly , or one upon her Lap."The f o llowing year, another
Englishman claimed that American women were "very Fruitful, which
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shows that Men are Industrious in Bed, tho' Idle up. 69 This proclivity
toward early marriage and childbearing moved westward with the fron­
tier, where brides of age thirteen to fifteen f r equently received mention
in traveler's journals, immigrant's accounts, and western novels. Because
Wright, Martineau, and Bremer wanted more fo r western women they
urged western women to want more fo r themselves.
Even though early marriage and immediate remarriage were more
apparent than real in the W e st, a number of fr ontierswomen did marry
young and immediately remarry after the death of a spouse.7 0 For one
thing, it was an economic necessity in an era and a region where a mar­
ried couple constituted a business partnership. For another, marriage and
childbearing were considered the ultimate goal of every woman's life.
"I have seen," stated one observer, "young girls of thirteen and hideous
old girls of fifty snapped up eagerly as soon as they arrived in the coun­
try."7! At the same time, well-bred European travelers of the upper
classes, and thus accustomed to f o rmality in such matters, fo und it highly
unusual that young men and women chose their own mates, agreed to
marry without consulting their parents, and ignored the tradition of a
dowry.72 One traveler was particularly horrified when he saw a young
couple meet on a riverboat and, within fifteen days, commit themselves

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