Children of the West: Family Life on the Frontier

Summary (from the publisher): In search of land and a new life, couples created farms and ranches in the rugged frontier. The children of the West took after their rugged and individualistic parents—they grew up learning determination with their prayers. While families worried about wild animals and Indian raids, their greatest difficulty might be just growing enough food to eat and staying sheltered. Yet, there was fun to be had, from tumbling down haystacks to grasshopper races, or a tea party with corncob dolls. Large families bustled with chores and chastisement, and there was endless opportunity for mischief among siblings.

The West attracted people from all over America and from all over the world. Luchetti looks at the lives of the black Exodusters, the native Spanish who created wealthy rancheros, and the Chinese and Japanese who sought greater economic opportunities than they could find in their homeland. And many new settlers encountered the Indians, whose lives were disrupted by the mandate of Manifest Destiny. Brought into lively, and often painful, proximity, their stories were made even more poignant through the lives of their children.

Children of the West reveals the bygone lives of the families who populated the pioneer West, as described in their own words in letters, diaries, and journals. We come close to them through their worries and joys. The photographs draw us even closer, as we see the face of family life in the changing West.

Review: This work of non-fiction provides an overview on family life for children living in the American west in the decades before and after the turn of the twentieth century. Author Cathy Luchetti gleans this portrait of early American childhood from letters, diaries, and first person accounts and the book is full of photos to further illustrate early western life. Rather than organized chronologically, the book's chapters each focus on a different aspect of life on the frontier including the journey west, childbirth, diet, games, education, illness, as well as chapters on the various ethnicities that were also living in America at the time. 

I found this book fascinating and particularly loved the individual accounts scattered throughout the book. This history has value because it provides insight into the daily lives of Americans living in the mid-west at the time. Many of the stories recounted were profoundly sad, including stories of children being orphaned and freak accidents that led to the tragic deaths of small children. The details of daily life at the time were also interesting to read, such as how early Americans handled things like food for small infants: many were fed "with scraps and bits from the family table mashed in milk, or a combination of cow's milk mixed with brown sugar and bread" (48).  Similarly, the thought alone of dealing with early diapers is exhausting; diapers were "made from fabric nearly a yard wide and folded repeatedly into four dense layers of material, then snapped closed with a large safety pin" (53). 

My greatest frustration with this book was not with the writing but with the design. This book is printed in coffee table size so it is greatly oversized and has two columns of text on each page. Although this allows for the inclusion of many photographs throughout the text, it was cumbersome to hold and read. Additionally, at times the author seems to use an example encountered in one journal and summarize it as a typical experience. However, overall this was an interesting read that makes modern parenting appear far less labor intensive and less risky overall. 

Stars: 4