A letter home from an "old maid of Wyoming"

Back in February of 1909, Congress passed an amendment to the 1862 Homestead Act that doubled the entitlement from 160 to 320 acres in parts of Wyoming and seven other western states where millions of acres of land suitable (or marginally suitable or entirely unsuitable) for dryland farming remained unclaimed.

Known as the Enlarged Homestead Act, anticipation of the act and its actual passage sent off another of America's land rushes, drawing many thousands of farmers, few of whom had any notion of dryland farming techniques, plus speculators and adventurers from across the United States. In the long run, the abuse of marginal land that followed was among the causes of the great Dust Bowl a few years down the road.

Quite a few Lucas Countyans headed west, too, many favoring a relatively compact area in far southeast Wyoming, east of Cheyenne and centered on the new towns of Burns and Hillsdale.  Owen and Gay (Webb) Miller, an aunt and uncle of my grandfather, settled near Burns in 1907 and so were well positioned to take advantage of the new act. Another Lucas Countyan, who identified herself only as "an Old Maid from Wyoming," arrived during 1908 and shared a bit of her story in a letter to the editor of The Chariton Herald, published on April 8, 1909, under the headline, "Prairie and Shack Life."

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Hillsdale, Wyo., April 2, 1909

Editor Herald ---

Having so many inquiries from my friends in your vicinity concerning the ways and doings of the "wild and wooly west," I take this means of answering same. Through the kindness of a friend I have received a few copies of the Herald. It seems so good to hear from my friends in that way.

Some people have the idea that being on a claim on the broad spaceless prairie you are naturally lost to the world. Not so. You are just seeing what big old world you are really in after all.

"Shack Life" to my knowledge is a life that will teach many young people what life really is. If this kind of a life won't waken anyone up to the fact that he or she can hustle, nothing will. I for my part have always hustled, but somehow Prairie Life gives a new touch to things.

When you see the immense herds of cattle and sheep numbering up into the hundreds you begin to get your pencil and paper and figure. The range cattle have lived out all winter and are looking well.

The country is settling up with industrious, energetic people, who are starting good homes, schools and churches; and are fencing and putting out crops. This is a dry farming country, and to my knowledge within a few years with a little push and energy will become an agricultural county.

We have had a mild, pleasant winter. We have an ideal climate. There is very little sickness here. We have had quite a little snow, but that is what we need and are glad to see. Finer water could not be found, and can be obtained at from 100 to 150 feet.

Nothing impresses my mind more when I think of the golden opportunity so many young people are letting slip by, when with a few dollars and a little sacrifice, the way is open to all. 

Many young girls (no doubt you think of them as "old maids") are established here, holding down claims and progressing with the country. "Old Maids" you may call us, but  we can hustle just the same and put some of your young men on the back seat.

There are a few wild animals here, such as badgers, coyotes and a few wolves. They are being rapidly killed off (at least would be, if all would do as well as I have done). One night one hearing the bark of coyotes (it being the first I had ever heard), I jumped up, loaded my shotgun, laid a generous supply of shells handy, partly dressed, and then laid down to wait for them to come closer --- and that was the last I knew till the next morning when at 9:30 my neighbor rapped at the door.

I did succeed in getting two prairie dogs, which I skinned and tanned, to make Xmas presents. When ready for the needle, my good old faithful dog ate them.  They made beautiful Xmas presents?

I have 31 neighbors, including bachelors and maids, within four miles --- not so bad for a new country.

How different these people are from the eastern ones. So generous and kind-hearted, always striving to help one another, always remembering the Golden Rule. They are not the crabbed, greedy kind, who are always pushing the other fellow out of the way. Almost every state in the Union is represented here.

Life on the endless open prairie is good enough for me. wishing you all good luck, I remain as a friend to the many patrons of the Herald.

An Old Maid from Wyoming

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I have no idea how the "old maid's" story ended --- since I don't know who she was. Uncle Owen and Aunt Gay prospered, retiring to Cheyenne about 1920 where Uncle Owen died in 1922. Aunt Gay, more than 20 years younger, died during 1949.