Seven Frontier Women and the Founding of Spokane Falls
by Barbara F. Cochran

Edited by Suzanne and Tony Bamonte

Although the experiences of the seven women featured in this book were uniquely forged by their respective circumstances, they shared a common trait. They were absolutely intrepid. Each witnessed the settling of the western frontier from her own personal vantage point and faced the unknown and the inherent hardships with fierce determination. Alongside their challenges and triumphs in forging new paths for others to follow, they all experienced loneliness and the heartbreak of leaving behind a familiar and comfortable way of life.

The stories are many and varied. Anna Browne, whose marriage to J. J. Browne was a true love story, knew the challenges of nursing a baby through their first winter in Spokane on bread soaked in warm water or weak tea. Susan Glover, first wife of the father of Spokane, left a loving extended family to help pioneer the new town of Spokane Falls. Yet years later, suffering from depression, her former husband participated in having her locked away in a mental hospital, where she remained until her death 22 years later. All but forgotten, the "First Lady of Spokane Falls" was buried in the hospital's cemetery with only a number etched on a small concrete brick marking her grave. Mary Latham was lauded as Spokane's first woman doctor, but became a fugitive from the law when mental problems began tearing at her underpinnings. Despite believing a woman's place was in the home, Alice Houghton assumed a high profile as Spokane's first female real estate agent. Assisting her husband in search of possible railroad routes to the West, Carrie Adell Strahorn traversed thousands of miles, crisscrossing the unsettled western frontier. This was unheard of for a woman of her time and, after settling in Spokane, she wrote a bestselling book about their perilous travels.

Hardcover (7" x 10"), 304 pages, 154 photo illustrations, indexed.

For years I was fascinated by Spokane's beginnings and, in reading historical accounts, observed that women seemed to be identified only by their relationship to men. For the first twenty years, our city directories carried these sorts of entries: "Jane Jones, spinster;" a divorcee would be listed as "Jane Jones (widow of Thomas)," although Thomas might have been very much alive and with a second spouse. A widow was still linked to her dead husband: "Jane Jones (widow of Jas)." Married women fared the worst. Until 1912, they were not listed at all, the only exceptions being women who operated businesses: millinery, dressmaking, piano teaching, etc.

Even today we still hear: "What women were of historical significance in Spokane?" The inference is that to be important a woman had to have designed the first building, or built the first bridge, or even taught in the first school. It is rather certain that a woman gave birth to the first child, created the first home, scrubbed the first laundry, swept the first floor, and probably endured the greatest loneliness.

The very fact that women were here from the beginning makes them historically significant. No town was ever built without women. With women in residence, the smallest hamlet can become a town. Towns attract people. People need buildings and services. People can provide the architects and carpenters and brick layers and store keepers and dentists with something to do. For all of the above reasons, I started looking for Spokane's petticoated pioneers, with the goal to introduce some of the ladies who also pioneered the town by the Falls.