Pistol Packin' Madams: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

by Chris Enss

Overview

Between 1840 and 1870, hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic dreamers embarked on a 2,000-mile journey into the wide-open frontier of the United States in search of free land, gold, adventure, and a better life. Although only a few women were numbered among the very first pioneers, those who did take the risk changed the face of the United States forever. The western woman left the restrictions and conventions of her way of life behind and carried the struggle of emancipation into areas sacred to the male. She competed in business and politics, bronco busting, smoking, drinking, gambling, and gun-toting. This book celebrates the stories of the nonconforming, gun-toting pioneers who settled the West.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762751754
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	07/01/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
File size:	716 KB

About the Author

Chris Enss is an award-winning screenwriter who has written for television, short subject films, live performances, and for the movies, and is the co-author (with JoAnn Chartier) of Love Untamed: True Romances Stories of the Old West, Gilded Girls: Women Entertainers of the Old West, and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon: Women Patriots and Soldiers of the Old West and The Cowboy and the Senorita and Happy Trails (with Howard Kazanjian) Her research and writing reveals the funny, touching, exciting, and tragic stories of historical and contemporary times.

Read an Excerpt

Still another pistol-packin' madam of the old frontier was Belle Starr, a Dodge City resident in the spacious days of the cattle drives from Texas to the loading pens at that wide-open town, where Wyatt Earp walked the streets as Marshall.
Belle, an accomplished horsewoman whose colorful vocabulary acheived fame even in a time and place of great freedom of expression, had a personal interest in other people's livestock that kept her constantly in hot water. Once, she was leading a band of horse thieves near Fort Smith, Oklahoma Territory, when her hat blew off. None of her male companions stopped to do anything about it, and Belle pulled her Colt revolver. "Get down there and pick it up, you ignorant bastard," she screamed at her husband. "Haven't you got any manners when you're with ladies?"

Table of Contents

(1) Jennie Rogers: Queen of the Denver Row (2) Eleanora Dumont: Gold Country Angel of Sin (3) Madam Harriet: A Curious Criminal Case (4) Jessie Hayman: The San Francisco Favorite (5) Jessie Reeves and Cad Thompson: Scarlet Ladies in Texas and Nevada (6) Josie Washburn: Nebraska's Reluctant Madam (7) Kate Horony: The Hungarian Madam (8) Mattie Silks: Denver's Red Light Queen (9) Florence Mabel Dedrick: Our Sister of the Street (10) Tessie Wall: Barbary Coast Madam (11) Libby Thompson: Dodge City's Squirrel Tooth Alice (12) Rose Ellis: Last of the Old West Madams

Editorial Reviews

Hard workin', hard livin', and hard lovin', these pistol-packin' madams were the brave and colorful business women of the old west. What an inspiration. .. .”
—Kim Dickens, Deadwood's Joanie Stubbs

From the Publisher