Women of Strength

I’ve searched through the women in my ancestry and have found no “sweet little ladies” that were docile and complacent. I only find women of strength, starch, sauce and sass. 

The Knapp women were pioneers of the prairies. They set their jaw, fixed their eyes ahead and did what was necessary. They were steadfast. My great great grandmother loaded her wagons, kids in tow, no husband, and raced across the prairies in the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush. She staked her claim, built a sod house initially and cooked over cow chip fires, continuing to make improvements in order to “prove” her homestead. My great great great grandmother lost her husband in the Civil War and raised all eight children on a meager widow’s pension to be doctors and teachers. Others pulled up stakes and tromped all over the prairie lands and mountains, traveling by covered wagons from the Midwest to untamed lands of Montana. These were women of starch, survivors! They were also women of laughter. I can still hear the hearty laughter of Aunt Leone as her lap was amply filled with kids and her table teemed with sumptuous food, complete with real cream and butter. Aunt Evelyn’s home was like her sister’s, always welcoming with delicious food on the table. She always had a story to tell. Memories of her unique voice and laughter still brings a smile to my face. 

The Brannin women were a bit different. They were up for any task and had plenty of starch. But they also had a lot of sauce and sass. If you riled one of those Spanish beauties, you’d experience dancing eyes that could shoot fiery darts! They had a sense of adventure, well, it might be more of a “dare me” characteristic. Some may even call it a streak of “meanness.” They could outride, outthink and out work most folks. They were the great Matriarchs. That starch and sass was necessary to their survival in a world of gun slinging, cattle rustling, traveling in covered wagons over desert lands and mountains. The head Matriarch kept her infant grandchild alive, along with her own little one, by nursing them both after the baby’s mother came down with typhoid fever.

Yep, these were women of strength!  
I find many of these characteristics in my sisters, aunts and cousins even today. Even the kitchens of some of these ladies bring back fond memories! We are still survivors. But I’ll give you a word of warning – Spanish blood still runs strong. You might not want to push that too far!