Settlers of the American West

Depictions of the American west in literature, art and film perpetuate romantic stereotypes of the pioneers—the gold-crazed ’49er, the intrepid sodbuster. While ennobling the woodsman, the farmwife and the lawman, this tunnel vision of American history has shortchanged the whaler, the assayer, the innkeeper and the inventor. The westward advance of the trailblazers created demand for a gamut of unsung adventurers—surveyors, financiers, politicians, surgeons, entertainers, grocers and midwives—who built communities and businesses in the wilderness amid clashes with Indians, epidemics, floods, droughts and outlawry.
Chronicling the worthy deeds, ethnicities, languages and lifestyles of ordinary people who survived a stirring period in American history, this book provides biographical information for hundreds of individual pioneers on the North American frontier, from the Mississippi River Valley as far west as Alaska. Appendices list pioneers by state or country of departure, destination, ethnicity, religion and occupation. A chronology of pioneer achievements places them in perspective.

Mary Ellen Snodgrass is an award-winning author of English and Latin textbooks and reference works for 35 years. She taught at Hickory High School and Lenoir Rhyne University in North Carolina for 23 years. Her writing focuses on women’s and world literature and history and general research topics, including epidemics, the history of money, clothing, food, and dance. She lives in Hickory, North Carolina.

Mary Ellen Snodgrass
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 256
Bibliographic Info: 28 photos, appendices, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2015
pISBN: 978-0-7864-9735-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1904-0
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments vi

Preface 1

Introduction 5

The Westerners 7

Chronology of Pioneer Achievements 169

Appendices

A. Ethnicity 172

B. Departure 181

C. Destination 191

D. Religion 201

E. Occupation 207

Bibliography 225

Index 229