There’s a 1951 film, Westward the Women, that’s one of my all-time favorites. It’s the story of a wagon train of mail-order brides. Robert Taylor stars as the trail guide taking a group of women from Chicago to California. I’m not saying Sandra Dallas’ Westering Women is derivative because most of the women in the book are quite different. But, Westering Women is the story of a group of women who sign on with a couple ministers to travel from Chicago to California across the Overland Trail in 1852, as intended brides for gold miners. And, one of my favorite characters in the book, a large woman named Mary Madrid, reminds me of Hope Emerson’s Patience Hawley in the movie.

Maggie is a dressmaker in Chicago, the mother of a young daughter, and a woman with secrets. She knows she’ll be lying if she signs on with the two ministers asking for eligible women to travel 2,000 miles to Goosetown in California, gold-mining country, where “hundreds of God-fearing men are seeking wives”. But, she watches as a fancy woman signs on, and Caroline Swain, wife of one of the minister’s, doesn’t blink an eye although she knows who she is. And, when Mary Madrid, a large farm woman, encourages Maggie to go, she’s eager to escape Chicago and her past.

The women’s train gathers in St. Joseph, Missouri, where they’ll set out on a months-long difficult trip. At the beginning of the trip, they’re accompanied by a number of men who drive the oxen teams, and guard the travelers. But, as the trip gets more difficult, the women come into their own. Mary is capable of doing anything the men do, and she brings her own horse. But, she can drive the oxen teams, and teaches other women to do it. The women cook over fires, learn to shoot to defend themselves. From a group of individuals from every class, who are all running from something, as one of the ministers says, they become a band of sisters. They lose other women who turn back. Some die on the way, and there are tragedies that affect everyone. But, when several women are accosted after meeting up with their past along the way, their sisters stand up for them.

These women face cholera, Indian attacks, other violence. Death and birth, and more deaths occur on the trip. It’s a trip that brings tears at time, but it’s a triumph when a strong group of united women face a final welcome.

As I said, tears and triumph, and a group of sisters. Westering Women is a fascinating historical novel. It will be difficult to forget several of these strong, determined women.

If you haven’t read Sandra Dallas’ books before, I’ll recommend this one. Because I’ve read most of her books, I’ll also suggest two of my favorites. Check out an early one, The Persian Pickle Club. We all know I’m fond of coming-of-age stories so Tallgrass is one of my favorites. Westering Women will joins that small group.

Westering Women by Sandra Dallas. St. Martin’s Press, 2020. ISBN 9781250239662 (hardcover), 327p.

*****
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