Authors: H. Elaine Lindgren, Elizabeth Jameson
ISBN-13: 9780806128863, ISBN-10: 0806128860
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Date Published: September 1996
Edition: Reprint
Land is often known by the names of past owners. "Emma's Land," "Gina's quarter," and "the Ingeborg Land" are reminders of the many women who homesteaded across North Dakota in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Land in Her Own Name records these homesteaders' experiences as revealed in interviews with surviving homesteaders and their families and friends, land records, letters, and diaries. These women's fascinating accounts tell of locating a claim, erecting a shelter, and living on the prairie. Their ethnic backgrounds include Yankee, Scandinavian, German, and German-Russian, as well as African-American, Jewish, and Lebanese. Some were barely twenty-one, while others had reached their sixties. A few lived on their land for life and "never borrowed a cent against it"; others sold or rented the land to start a small business or to provide money for education.
Tables | ||
Foreword | ||
Preface | ||
Acknowledgments | ||
1 | They Staked Their Claims | 1 |
2 | The Land and the Law | 57 |
3 | The Shack: A Home on the Plains | 83 |
4 | Patterns of Life | 109 |
5 | Fear, Frustration, Fun | 157 |
6 | Returns on the Investment | 189 |
7 | The Gender Factor | 209 |
8 | The Legacy: Strong Minds and a Sense of Humor | 227 |
Appendix | 239 | |
Notes | 279 | |
Index | 291 |