b'WOMEN OF THE OLD WESTPART 1 By Edward H. Peplow Jr. Reprinted from Outdoor ArizonaA LL THINGS CONSIDERED, it is a wonder that so many women came west after the story of Olive Oatman was so widely publicized in newspaper accounts, in a best-selling book, and by word of mouth. Perhaps Thomas Dunn English, a popular poet of the day, answered when he wrote:Though little dangers they may fear, when greater dangers men environ, then women show a front of iron; and gentle in their manner theydo bold things in a quiet way.Most of the pioneer women of the American establishment of the mining industry in the Santa CruzSonora has always been famous for the beauty and West quietly did bold things and this included a Valley, Poston made Tubac the headquarters and angracefulness of its senoritas. The civil wars in Mexico broad spectrum of women. The prostitute with theidyllic life is what its inhabitants led. and the exodus of the male population from Northern heart of gold has become a trite character in fiction;Mexico to California had disturbed the equilibrium of but when one is encountered in the facts of history,We had no law but love, Poston wrote, And nothe population till in some pueblos the disproportion she still is fascinating. occupation but labor. No government, no taxes, nowas as great as a dozen females to one male; and, in the public debt, no politics. It was a community in agenial climate of Sonora, this anomalous condition of Consider, for instance, a report passed down byperfect state of nature. As syndic under New Mexico,society was unendurable. Consequently, the senoritas Raphael Pumpelly, mining engineer, world traveler,I opened a book of records, performed the marriageand grass widows sought the American camp on the chronicler, and professor at Harvard. He spent someceremonies, baptized children, and granted divorces.Santa Cruz River. When they could get transportation time in Yuma, staying at the house of the first whitein wagons hauling provisions they came, others came woman to settle permanently in that community, andin on the hurricane decks of burros, and many came he wrote of his experiences in Arizona shortly afteron foot. All were provided for. The Mexican senoritas the Gadsden Purchase. Our landlady, known as thehad a reining influence on the frontier population. Great Western, no longer young, was a character withMany of them had been educated at convents and all of a varied past. She had followed the War of 1848 withthem were good Catholics. They called the American Mexico and her relations with the soldiers were of twomen Los God-dammes and the American women kinds. One of these does not admit of analysis; theLas Camisas Coloradas. If there is anything that a other was angelic, for she was adored by the soldiersMexican woman despises it is a red petticoat. They are for her bravery in the field and for her unceasingexceedingly dainty in their underclothing and wear kindness in nursing the sick and wounded. Havingthe finest linen they can afford. They spend half their heard her history from Charles D. Poston, I lookedlives over the washing machine. The men of Northern with interest on this woman as, with quiet nativeMexico are far inferior to the women in every respect. dignity, she served our simple meal. She was a lessonThis accretion of the female population added very in the complexity of human nature. much to the charms of frontier society. The Mexican women were not by any means useless in camp. They Another footnote of history, a sad and trenchantcould keep house, cook some dainty dishes, wash one, also comes from Pumpelly. We saw a good dealclothes, sew, dance, and sing. Moreover, they were of the Yuma Indians, he wrote, A tribe which, tillexpert at cards and divested many a miner of his weeks within a few years, was celebrated for the beauty ofwages over a game of monte.its women but this quality was already causing the destruction of the tribe and while we were there wePoston describes how the table was set bountifully saw the funeral ceremonies of the last of the beautifulwith fresh vegetables and fruit from their own women. One after another, the young Yuma womengarden, tended by a German gardener with Mexican were disappearing, victims to a disease brought by theassistants; wild turkey and venison from the nearby troops, and which, it seems, the military physiciansmountains, and wine imported from Europe. No did little to prevent the spread of. Raphael Pumpelly spent some time invisitor ever was turned away without a full measure Yuma, staying at the house of the firstof hospitality, nor was any ever charged a cent.Pumpellys companion on that trip, of course, was the same Charles D. Poston who is known as the Father ofwhite woman to settle permanently inAll things considered after reading Poston, it seems Arizona. Poston was somewhat more ebullient in histhat community, and he wrote of hisa wonder that so many women were brought west. memories of the period between the Gadsden PurchaseBut brought they were and without them, the taming and the outbreak of the Civil War. Prime mover in theexperiences in Arizona. of the frontier would have been a much longer and 20 January 2021'