Almost Pioneers: One Couple's Homesteading Adventure In The West
In the fall of 1913, Laura and Earle Smith, a young Iowa couple, made the gutsy—some might say foolhardy—decision to homestead in Wyoming. There, they built their first house, a claim shanty half dug out of the ground, hauled every drop of their water from a spring over a half-mile away, and fought off rattlesnakes and boredom on a daily basis. 
Soon, other families moved to nearby homesteads, and the Smiths built a house closer to those neighbors. The growing community built its first public schoolhouse and celebrated the Fourth of July together—although the festivities were cut short because of snow.
By 1917, however, the Smiths had moved back to Iowa, leasing their land to a local rancher and using the proceeds to fund Earle’s study of law.  The Smiths lived in Iowa for most of the rest of their lives, and sometime after the mid-1930s, Laura wrote this clear, vivid, witty, and self-deprecating memoir of their time in Wyoming, a book that captures the pioneer spirit of the era and of the building of community against daunting odds.
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Almost Pioneers: One Couple's Homesteading Adventure In The West
In the fall of 1913, Laura and Earle Smith, a young Iowa couple, made the gutsy—some might say foolhardy—decision to homestead in Wyoming. There, they built their first house, a claim shanty half dug out of the ground, hauled every drop of their water from a spring over a half-mile away, and fought off rattlesnakes and boredom on a daily basis. 
Soon, other families moved to nearby homesteads, and the Smiths built a house closer to those neighbors. The growing community built its first public schoolhouse and celebrated the Fourth of July together—although the festivities were cut short because of snow.
By 1917, however, the Smiths had moved back to Iowa, leasing their land to a local rancher and using the proceeds to fund Earle’s study of law.  The Smiths lived in Iowa for most of the rest of their lives, and sometime after the mid-1930s, Laura wrote this clear, vivid, witty, and self-deprecating memoir of their time in Wyoming, a book that captures the pioneer spirit of the era and of the building of community against daunting odds.
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Almost Pioneers: One Couple's Homesteading Adventure In The West

Almost Pioneers: One Couple's Homesteading Adventure In The West

Almost Pioneers: One Couple's Homesteading Adventure In The West

Almost Pioneers: One Couple's Homesteading Adventure In The West

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Overview

In the fall of 1913, Laura and Earle Smith, a young Iowa couple, made the gutsy—some might say foolhardy—decision to homestead in Wyoming. There, they built their first house, a claim shanty half dug out of the ground, hauled every drop of their water from a spring over a half-mile away, and fought off rattlesnakes and boredom on a daily basis. 
Soon, other families moved to nearby homesteads, and the Smiths built a house closer to those neighbors. The growing community built its first public schoolhouse and celebrated the Fourth of July together—although the festivities were cut short because of snow.
By 1917, however, the Smiths had moved back to Iowa, leasing their land to a local rancher and using the proceeds to fund Earle’s study of law.  The Smiths lived in Iowa for most of the rest of their lives, and sometime after the mid-1930s, Laura wrote this clear, vivid, witty, and self-deprecating memoir of their time in Wyoming, a book that captures the pioneer spirit of the era and of the building of community against daunting odds.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780762784394
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 08/06/2013
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 232
Sales rank: 368,611
Product dimensions: 6.22(w) x 8.72(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Laura Gibson Smith was an Iowa native who tried homesteading with her husband in Wyoming in the 1910s and later chronicled her experiences. John J. Fry is the Chair of the History Department at Trinity Christian College. He lives a block south of the city of Chicago in Blue Island, Illinois.

Table of Contents

Preface John J. Fry viii

Foreword Earle Smith xiii

Chapter 1 Wyoming 1

Chapter 2 Diamond Station 11

Chapter 3 The Big Pasture 19

Chapter 4 Making Plans 26

Chapter 5 On the Prairie 36

Chapter 6 Cheyenne 45

Chapter 7 The Caster Family 55

Chapter 8 The First Fall 61

Chapter 9 Mellie Baker 66

Chapter 10 Snow 75

Chapter 11 Spring 1914 83

Chapter 12 Homesteading 91

Chapter 13 The Funeral 103

Chapter 14 Home Life 108

Chapter 15 The Diamond Ranch 113

Chapter 16 Fall and Winter 1914 119

Chapter 17 Visitors 124

Chapter 18 Harvests 130

Chapter 19 Alone 137

Chapter 20 Ladies Aid Club 140

Chapter 21 The Preacher on the Prairie 145

Chapter 22 Protracted Meeting 149

Chapter 23 Dance and Election 156

Epilogue 161

Afterword John J. Fry 163

Appendix: Laura Gibson Smith in Conversation with Other Western Women Writers 198

Index 210

About the Editor 214

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