Usefulness

A Wide Field for Usefulness: Women's Civil Status and the Evolution of Women'sSuffrage on the Montana Frontier, 1864-1914

Judith K. Cole

The American Journal of Legal History

, Vol. 34, No. 3. (Jul., 1990), pp. 262-294.

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A Wide Field for Usefulness:Women's Civil Status and the Evolutionof Women's Suffrage on the MontanaFrontier, 1864-1914

My first impressions

. .

.

have been generally confirmed.

I

like the place much; it is not like home, but

there is

a

widejeldfor usefulness here

. .

.

There is room here for everyone to win aname and an influence that shall be widespread and shall ever befor good on those around.

'

Thus wrote Elizabeth Fisk from Helena in Montana Territory to herfamily in the East in 1867, three years after the creation of the newtenitory. Like many of the women who came to the frontier, Elizabethaccompanied her husband, ~obert.~nlike many of those who passedquickly through the raw young Montana Temtory, Elizabeth stayed.The history of the West generally reads as a history of men: trappers,traders, frontiersmen, miners, soldiers, outlaws, politicians, ranchers,cowboys, and farmers. Only recently have historians begun to emphasizethe experience of frontier women. The resulting historiography of frontierwomen is frequently analyzed according to one of three theses: theTurnerian, the Reactionist, and the Stasist."The Turner thesis views the frontier as having a positive effect on thestatus of women. The frontier provided women with opportunity: there theycould be fiercely independent, capable, and durable, able to emulate mas-

*

Attorney-Advisor, Office of the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State. B.A., Collegeof Great Falls, 1964; M.A., University of Montana, 1971; J.D., Georgetown University LawCenter, 1986. This article was adapted from a paper written for the lively and inspiringWomen's Legal History Seminar, led by Professors Richard Chused and Wendy Williams ofGeorgetown University Law Center in Spring 1986.

I.

Elizabeth Chester Fisk to Frances Chester, June 1, 1867 (Fisk Family Papers, Mont.Hist. Soc.). Petrik, "Mothers and Daughters of Eldorado," 32

Monr. Mag. Wes!.His!.

50.52-3 (Summer, 1982) (Emphasis added) [hereinafter cited as "Eldorado"].

2.

Robert Fisk was the editor and general manager of the

Helena Herald,

published by hishrothers. "Eldorado",

supra

note 1 at 52.3. P. Petrik, "The Bonanza Town: Women and Family on the Rocky Mountain MiningFrontier, Helena, Montana, 1865-1900

3

(1981) (doctoral thesis) [hereinafter cited asPetrikj.

1990

WOMEN'S

CIVIL

STATUS

AND

EVOLUTION

OF

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE

263

culine accomplishments and character free from the constraints whichbound their eastern sisters. Thus, Turner historians generally concentrateon depicting the lives of exceptional women or classes of women bearingno relationship to one an~ther.~he Reactionists, on the other hand, viewthe frontier as hell on women, who were often lonely and displaced by it.Women were simply pawns in the service of a greater destiny. Eventuallythe frontier wore them out or drove them insane and finally, killedthem.5For the Stasists, however, the frontier was a static influence, promotinglittle change in women's lives. According to Stasists, the frontier caused nodifferences in the status of women because nineteenth century ideology ofseparate spheres for men and women, along with the cult of dome~ticit~,~basically continued to shape women's lives in the West much as they had inthe East.7 The typical frontierswoman, while recognizing that the exigen-cies of frontier life might force her out of her "proper" sphere, did not enjoyher new role and hoped any departures from it would be temp~rary.~All three interpretations of frontier influence, good (Turnerian), bad(Reactionist), or static (Stasist) fall short in their attempts to deal withwomen's history in the West because no one of these theories accountssatisfactorily for the passage of women's suffrage in the West well inadvance of other states in other regions.' Something was at work in thelives of both western men and women which altered their perception ofgender roles."' Some have opined that the comprehensive changes in theformal legal status of frontier women could not have happened by acci-dent.

'

Frontier women had already gained a toehold towards legal recogni-

4.

See

Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History,"

The Turner Thesis,Concerning the Role cfthe Frontier in American History

28 (G. Taylor, ed. 1972) (discussionof Tumerian thesis);

D.

Brown,

The Gentle Tamers, Women ofthe Old Wild West

(1958)(example of work in Tumerian tradition).5.

N.

Alderson,

A Bride Goes West

(1942) (example of work in Reactionist tradition).

6.

See

M. Wortman,

Women in American

hw

140 (1985). The "cult of domesticity"imhued all aspects of domestic life with social significance. It identified the home-woman'ssphere-as the hastion of civilization. As a result, "woman" became identified with what wasdelicate, spiritual and maternal.

Id.

7. J. Jeffrey,

Frontier Women: The Trans-Mississippi West,

1840-1880

(1979) (example ofStasist treatment).8.

Id.

Jeffrey's study of some 200 journals, letters and other writings by women pioneersconcludes that the idea of the frontier as a liberating force for women does not reflect thereality of most frontier women's lives.9. Petrik,

supra

note

3,

at 4-510.

Id.

Petrik studied the urban frontier as represented hy Helena, Montana, examiningdifferent classes of women in one locality interacting over time. Her goal was to penetrate thelives of women and to expose the relationships between different groups of women against thebackdrop of a Helena's social structure.

Id.

at

6.

I I. Matsuda, "The West and the Legal Status of Women: Explanations of Frontier Femi-nism," 24

J.

West

47, 51 (1985) [hereinafter cited as Matsuda]. Generally such explanationsfall into geographical, economic, political and ideological categories.

Id.

Matsuda believesthat women's improved legal status resulted from a coalescing of all factors, but primarilyfrom nineteenth century feminism and Western receptiveness to change.

Id.

at 55.