Stewart, Elinore Pruitt (1876–1933)

Escaping a life of poverty in the Oklahoma Territory, Elinore Rupert headed to Denver in 1907 after losing her husband in a railroad accident. She hoped to find work to support herself and her 2-year-old daughter, Jerrine. She found work there as a housekeeper for a retired schoolteacher named Mrs. Juliet Coney, to whom she wrote letters after leaving for Wyoming in answer to an ad for a housekeeper for a rancher named Clyde Stewart and to claim a homestead of her own. Those letters are collected into a book called Letters of a Woman Homesteader. In Wyoming, she filed for a homestead of 147 acres and married Clyde Stewart soon after. Her letters include detailed descriptions of ranch life.

Elinore explores the wilderness around her ...