After the release of one book comes the exciting prospect of creating the next. So many questions to answer. Yes, it will be historical, but what year and where? Then there’s my characters. I need to know their backstories, even the details my readers will never know but I must because those shape who they are now. Then there’s their all-important names and goals, sorrows and joys.

I’m currently researching the story of women homesteaders in South Dakota in the early 20^th century. It’s a story I’ve wanted to tell for years but wasn’t ready until I recently heard about a friend’s grandmother who did just that. It wasn’t only men who claimed their 160 acres from the Homestead Act of 1862. (Land was distributed through the Act from 1868 to 1955.) Women weren’t always dragged away from friends and family in the east to live a life of maddening isolation on the prairie, as was so often taught us in the past. Many women chose to embrace the challenge, the adventure. It was one of the few ways a woman could declare her freedom from men and own land of her own.

For women to do so, there were a couple of rules: She had to be either single or head of household. Meaning, if married, she needed to show her husband was unable to provide due to illness or injury. She could be a widow, and many were, bringing her children to work alongside her. The government didn’t want to give any of the limited available land to a woman with an able-bodied husband, and they didn’t want a wife to be able to claim the land neighboring her husband’s claim, thus giving them twice the allowed acreage. She had to be at least 21 years of age, same as the men. And, like the men, she had to be a citizen or an immigrant who had formally declared her desire to become a citizen. No one who fought against the Union was allowed to claim land. Free slaves could, allowing them the chance to start a new life.

Claiming your 160 acres was not free, and the work was not easy. You paid a locator to help you find available land that suited your needs, then paid a registration fee to the local land office. You had to build a structure to live in if you weren’t lucky enough to get land with one already there from someone who gave up their claim. Typically a dugout, soddy, or claim shack. Then you had to “prove up” the land over a course of five years. This meant an upfront investment in animals, equipment, and seed. Furniture and food for yourself until that first crop came in . . . if something didn’t happen to destroy it. If you weren’t blessed with a lot of money to invest, you had to find employment to work along with your claim. Some women taught school in their home. Others found jobs in town as a teacher, seamstress, waitress, or cook.

The prairie was a beautiful, but harsh, place to live. Extreme weather and constant wind. Insects, snakes, and other dangerous wildlife. Not to mention, you couldn’t always trust the other people. Especially if you were a woman living alone. But it was also a place of community. Neighbor helped neighbor. A woman homesteader might trade her bread baking skills to the man on the next claim if he’d plow her land for her. Some shared livestock and farming equipment. There were many social functions among the claims and in the towns to ward off the isolation. Holiday celebrations, Sunday afternoon card games. If someone had a guitar or violin or harmonica and could play a decent tune, dances were common. Some women brought pianos with them. Over time women formed sewing/quilting circles, literary and church societies. It was the women who made sure there were schools/teachers available for their children, as well as churches. (To civilize the men?)

Not everyone thrived in their endeavors. Crops failed. Homesteads burned in prairie fires or blew away in a tornado. Both man and beast froze to death when lost in a blizzard, or drown trying to cross a raging river. Death from illness or injury was common. But those that did succeed said later they would do it all over again. These people embodied the spirit that built this great country and it made them, all of us, stronger.

When the five years were complete, homesteaders were granted a deed declaring the land belonged to them free and clear. For the women, that meant their land would always be theirs, in their name, until they decided otherwise. For that reason, many of the women did not marry until after they’d “proved up” and claimed their land. At a time when women had very few rights, owning land gave them power. It was something no man could take away from them.

My next book, tentatively titled “Under The Endless Sky”, will be available in 2.