Barbara Bamberger-Scott

Home Alone: Women on the Great Plains

“I had gone to bed one night, but could not sleep. My father was constantly in my mind. I seemed…

3 months ago

Willa Cather: My Ántonia and the Settlement of the Great Plains

"There was nothing but land; not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made… I…

3 months ago

Living to Tell the Homesteading Tale

Life is full of surprises, and few people would have known that better than the Americans who participated in the…

3 months ago

A Woman in No Man’s Land: Caroline Henderson, Homesteader

No one knows, or will ever fully understand, why Caroline Henderson, nee Boa, daughter of a prosperous Iowa farmer, graduate…

3 months ago

Matilda Jackson: Making a Home on the Last Frontier

Sometimes the best plans go awry, and for intrepid female Matilda Glover Koontz Jackson, first aspirations of pioneering could easily…

3 months ago

Helen Nearing, Twentieth Century Pioneer

March is Women’s History Month, and it seemed fitting to me that a homesteading woman should be celebrated. The woman…

3 months ago

Signpost to Simplicity: Wanda Urbanska Points the Way

If you have a television, you’ve probably seen the PBS series, Simple Living, or at least heard of it.  If…

3 months ago

Black, Female, and Homesteader

It was tough to be Black in the U.S. in the era of “reconstruction” which some people frankly think of…

4 months ago

The View from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House: A True Pioneer Woman

“The days of wilderness adventure are not past!  The pioneer spirit is not dead!”  These stirring words were written by…

4 months ago

The Tygart Valley Homesteads: Pioneers of the Great Depression

"Two days after Thanksgiving, hospitable Anna Eleanor Roosevelt…motored in a White House car from Washington to visit the Tygart Valley…

4 months ago

Dearfield: A Dream Lost to Drought and Depression

It’s a story with a simple, but remarkable, beginning. In 1910 a Black American entrepreneur joined forces with a legendary…

4 months ago

The Peanut Man: George Washington Carver

"I believe the Great Creator has put oil and ores on this earth to give us a breathing spell. As…

4 months ago