Letters of a Woman Homesteader

Summary

After losing her husband, Elinore Pruitt washed clothes in Denver to support herself and her daughter. In 1909 she took a job working for a rancher near Burnt Fork, Wyoming. Subsequently she filed her own claim and married the rancher. The letters she wrote to her former employer over several years are packed with delightful stories and fascinating observations about her new life.

In this audiobook, Kate Fleming, a gifted, award-winning, narrator, gives a marvelous performance, taking us back to Burnt Fork and a very rich slice of America's past.

Elinore Pruitt Stewart was born at Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1876. She spent most of her childhood in Oklahoma (Indian Territory). Her schooling came to an end when her teacher was lynched by a group of local men. At the age of fourteen both her parents died. She now had the task of raising her eight younger brothers and sisters. The three youngest were taken to live with their grandmother whereas Elinore and the five older children went to work for the local railroad company.

Elinore eventually married a man much older than her. He was killed in an accident and despite having a young child, she trained to become a nurse. Elinore worked at a hospital in Burnt Fork but in her spare time wrote articles for the Kansas City Star. Later she moved with her daughter, Jerrine, to Denver, where she found work as a cook.

In 1909 Elinore went to work for Clyde Stewart, at his isolated ranch in Denver. Six weeks later she married the 41 year old widower. Over the next few years the couple had four children. The first one died but the three boys survived childhood.

Elinore wrote regular letters to Mrs. Coney, a former employer. Coney was impressed with the standard of Elinore's writing and arranged for them to be published in the Atlantic Monthly. They also appeared in two books, Letters of a Woman Homesteader (1914), and Letters on an Elk Hunt (1915).
Elinore Pruitt Stewart died in 1933.