Pioneer Women of Idaho
By Irene Welch Grissom
(Author of "A Daughter of the Northwest")

     The people of Idaho have a rich heritage on which to build their cultural life.
     Across the silver screen of the past vivid and picturesque figures move in quick succession. The Indian, trader, United States soldier, trapper, prospector and cowboy swing into sight and disappear to make way for the covered wagon.
     Here is the beginning of family life in the new land. Beside the wagon strides a stalwart man, children laugh and call in its depths, on the seat is a woman, looking out on the frontier plain with grave, courageous eyes.
     Presently the wagon halts and the man, sweeping the country with a keen gaze, says simply:
     "This is the place. Here we will make our home."
     Silently the woman descends from the wagon and stands beside him.
     The children hush their voices, awed for the moment by the sense of a tremendous crisis.
     What does she see, this gallant pioneer woman?
     Burning under the heat of summer's sun, a vast, sage-clad desert sweeps away to the wide horizon. In the appalling stillness, it is as if the sound of a human voice had never broken the heated silence.
     Rank clumps of sagebrush, gray with dust, stir idly in the hot wind, that comes and goes in sudden, fitful gusts. Far overhead an eagle soars, the only visible life in all the arid, empty waste.
     "When this soil is irrigated," the man says slowly, "it produces in abundance almost past belief. We'll clear the sagebrush, put up a shack and get the ditches made this season. We'll water from the Snake River. Another spring we'll be ready to start farming."
"I     t's a big task," the woman's face is grim and resolute, "but we can do it."
     Into her dauntless eyes flashes the light of prophecy.
     "We'll make the desert blossom as a rose!"
     Her clear voice rings like a trumpet's call.
     How well the people of the covered wagon era accomplished theii task of starting the great work of reclamation is told to-day

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in the vast green areas, watered by an intricate network of silver streams, that replace the barren, sage-clad waste.
     Fair cities lift a skyline against the glorious sunset skies. Above the deep green of trees, church spires rise to greet morning light, and splendid schools give the children the finest educational advantages possible.

There on the conquered desert sands
A brave young empire proudly stands!

     We regret that our noble pioneer women could not live to see the full fruits of their self-sacrifice and toil. We of today bless their memory, and our children will render them gratitude. A hundred years hence, the people of Idaho will remember and reverence the heroism of this valiant band of women.
     Many statues have been erected to commemorate the work of the pioneer men, who conquered the wilderness by the help of their women. But as yet no heroic figure, carved in stone, honors the West as it gives homage to the memory of the pioneer woman.
     May such a statue rise some day under the blue Idaho skies!
     This is the theme of the poem that closes my brief article.

A PIONEER WOMAN
A statue stands in a city block---
It is called, "The Pioneer"---
Of a rugged man, ivith an old flintlock,
And a cap from the skin of a deer.
His eyes look out to the mighty sweep
Of solitudes vast and grand,
He sees great plains and the forests deep,
A wide ocean's shifting sand.
His gaze is bold, and erect his form,
Plain moulded, his features, and strong,
A man to breast the raging storm,
Well worthy of honor and song.
Then-musing long-I seem to see
The firm lips moving in speech,
And I hear these words come full and free:
"Go forth my message to teach!

"A statue should stand, here by my side,
That pioneer woman brave;
The wife who bore me children, and died,
And lies in an unmarked grave.

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"She toiled with willing and faithful hands In cabin, in forest, and field,
And helped to wrest, from the savage lands,
A home, to become our shield
From fierce things prowling when night shut down,
From storms that swept black and wild.
Her face was free from a sullen frown,
For she cherished each wee, new child,
As a soul from God, sent here on earth
To have a share in the toil
Of giving an empire an honored birth.
She dreamed that the fertile soil
Would teem with homes, and the millions dwell
Where only wild creatures ran.

The woman gives, as the ages tell,
In an equal share with man.
"Then place my mate close by my side.
That pioneer woman brave;
The wife who bore me children, and died,
And lies in an unmarked grave."

Women Educators of Idaho
By Alma E. Plumb
(Educator and Writer)

     The preponderance of women in the educational field is not confined to any one locality, but in no other state, perhaps, is the prominence of women educators so clearly defined as in the state of Idaho. Throughout the entire Western section of the Union there is a general recognition of the splendid abilities of women teachers and many high honors are accorded them; but in Idaho, even more than this is to be observed. From the interested mothers, eager to give their bits of service in their Parent-Teacher Association,---our lay teachers, as it were,---to the highest elective and appointive officers who carry on the work of organization and supervision, the woman worker is in the ascendant.
     In pioneer days, when the one-teacher school was featured, its presiding genius was a "school ma'am" in nearly all instances, and a wonderful person she was. Now that our educational system has become so complex that there are an al-most

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infinite number and variety of positions to be filled, it seems that there is also a wonderful woman ready and qualified to step into any one of these places. In Idaho she is given every opportunity to do so.
     Women trustees elect women teachers in most of the rural districts, while brave and self sacrificing superintendents, also women, travel and toil to keep the torch of learning alight in the most isolated corners of the big and lonely counties they patrol. The task is arduous and the reward light from a financial viewpoint, and the great work is accomplished with so much efficiency and so little ostentation that the average citizen never realizes the bigness and power of these earnest emissaries of education.
     In larger communities, women principals head faculties of women teachers. In all the elementary schools, men teachers are the exceptions to the rule, and in the higher schools, the women outnumber the men in astonishing proportion. Supervisors in the grade schools, specialists in art, music, physical education, home economics and, of course, all domestic science and sewing teachers, are women. Heads of departments are more often women than men, because the man teacher is very apt to leave the schools after a few years of service to prepare himself for a more lucrative profession, teaching to him being merely a means to an end.
     Business colleges employ a large percentage of women, and public libraries, which are true centers of education, are almost entirely managed by women. Americanization schools for the foreign born are conducted by women, although the classes are largely made up of men. This work is one of the finest accomplishments of our women educators. Supervised playgrounds, those mighty allies of the schools, are also directed by women, and often they are created and sponsored by some organization of women.
     In fact, we find the club women occupy a place very near the summit of our Parnassus. They raise funds especially for the purpose of putting needy girls through high school, or giving scholarships to the university, or making loans to struggling students at other institutions of learning, or helping to develop unusual talent that would otherwise never have a chance to expand. Rating high in intelligence and ideals themselves, these women never lose an opportunity to further the cause of higher education for the rising generation.
     The highest elective school office in the state, that of State Superintendent, has been held for years by women of exceptional ability, and they have been such capable officers,

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combining the most practical methods with the most progressive ideas and the loftiest ideals, that the office seems now to be considered a feminine prerogative. One, of these brilliant women, after a successful term of office, was appointed State Commissioner of Education, a position which demands both integrity and wisdom in the highest degree.
     The University Extension also offers opportunity to women to carry inspiration and comfort to the busy people who are building the state, for Idaho, although it has a wealth of other resources, is preeminently an agricultural state. These teachers and demonstrators are the most modern instructors we can boast, and it is quite fitting that this little divertissement should end with a tribute to their skill and enthusiasm.

Idaho Is Interested
in a Fort Hall Monument
and the Oregon Trail
By Dr. Minnie F. Howard***
(Director for Idaho of Oregon Trail Memorial Ass'n)

     In Idaho, the Daughters of the American Revolution, under the leadership of the writer, organized the "Fort Hall Monument Association," the object of which was to erect a monument on the site of the historic old 1834 Wyeth Fort Hall. This Idaho movement was developed by Ezra Meeker and others, into the Oregon Trail Memorial Association for which the Congress of the United States has authorized an issue of six million Memorial Coins. The plan asking Congress for this memorial coinage, originated with the Idaho Unit of this Association.
     Proceeds from the sale of this Oregon Trail Memorial Coin will be used to erect monuments and memorials to the Oregon Trail. This coin is said by art critics, to be the most beautiful in United States coinage and a model for the future, being historic in design, instead of classic. It is the work of James Earl Fraser and his wife, Laura Gardin Fraser, being the first time in history that a man and his wife have jointly designed a government coin. It is interesting to note that both Fraser and Mrs. Fraser are western born.

***(Dr. Minnie Frances Howard, who is the Idaho director of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association, was complimented by the gift of the second Oregon Trail Memorial Coin to be sent out from the office of the Association, the first one having been presented to Ezra Meeker, the president. Mrs. Howard accepted the coin in behalf or her state and deposited it in the state museum at Boise.)

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     Also, this is the only time in history when a government has so complimented the objects of a Memorial Association, as to authorize so large a number as six million coins, to commemorate the heroism of the fathers and mothers who traversed the Oregon Trail to the Far West with great hardship, daring and loss of life, which not only resulted in adding new states to the Union but earned a well-deserved and imperishable fame for the pioneers; to honor the twenty thousand dead that lie buried in unknown graves along the two thousand miles of that great highway of history; to rescue the various important points along the trail from oblivion; and to commemorate by suitable monuments, memorial and otherwise, the tragic events associated with that emigration-erecting them along the trail or elsewhere, in localities appropriate for the purpose, including the city of Washington.
     The bill authorizing the Oregon Trail Memorial Coin passed both House and Senate by unanimous vote, an incident also unique in our history. The places to be specially marked, in order of their importance, are Old Fort Hall, Whitman Mission, Fort Laramie and numerous other spots, with a monument to the Pioneers in the capital city of Washington.
     Idaho's special interest is the erection of the Old Fort Hall Monument which the Idaho Unit of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association has unanimously voted should be upon the site of the historic old Fort which was a place of Destiny, instead of several miles from it, as advocated by some of thei eastern members of the Association. The Idaho Unit of the Association feels that a monument a few miles from the spot, on the roadside with a "tablet pointing the way," would be really a monument to our present-day commercialism, instead of to "Fort Hall, the place where the Lord worked."
     Founded by force of circumstance by the American, Nathaniel Wyeth, in 1834, Fort Hall was the means of bringing the Great American Migration to the Oregon Country and to California, it being a half-way place that Americans would reach and then go beyond. From it, trails radiated in five directions. Lost by Wyeth to the British interests in 1836, it was the site of clash of wits and wills between Hudson's Bay Company and Americans, to prevent American entrance into the Oregon Country by forcing abandonment of wagons at this point. When Whitman's "two hundred wagon train succeeded in passing this place in 1843, thereby proving that Americans could reach the Columbia by wagon, it was the point where Hudson's Bay made every effort to divert Americans to California, then to Mexican territory, as depicted in

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Emerson Hough's "Covered. Wagon. Here, at this spot, enough, just enough, Americans diverted to California eventually, to take it over to the American government without bloodshed; and enough, just enough, continued to the Oregon Country to also hold that great area for the American government without bloodshed, and all of this, also, without bloodshed at the site of Old Fort Hall.
     A Higher Power seemed to be directing Destiny at the site of Old Fort Hall. By reason of the acquisition of California through the men who went to that land by influences operating at Old Fort Hall, it was California gold which helped save this nation. From the time of the founding of this country until then, only $70,000 in gold had been produced altogether. From 1848 to the beginning of the Civil War, $900,000,000 in gold was taken out of California, practically all of which went to enrich the North instead of the South. This was a determining factor in the holding of the Union together, because of which, we are a first class nation in the world today, with a leadership in the world that should count for righteousness of government under God's own plan and pattern.

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