Elinore Pruitt Stewart

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Homesteader Elinore Pruitt Stewart wrote of Pruitt Stewart wrote of Wyoming’s beauty Wyoming’s beauty

Elinore Pruitt Stewart homesteaded in Wyoming after moving from Oklahoma. She later wrote of the state’s beauty.

CONTRIBUTED

ROBIN BEAVER

For the Star-Tribune

Apron-clad Elinore Pruitt Stewart stood in the doorway of her log cabin, waving her calloused hands in the air. Her smile beckoned the man at the fence as if to say, “Come on in. Finally, you’re here!”

This is how Mike Wire, Stewart’s grandson, imagined his late grandmother when he visited her Wyoming homestead in 2004.

Wire made the trip from Pennsylvania with the idea of helping initiate a restoration project for the cabin, now on the verge of collapse in the Burntfork Valley of Sweetwater County. Time has looted the home of its once sturdy frame, allowing local livestock easy access.

Coaxed by a storm to take refuge, Wire found an unexpected warmth inside the structure, which was erected in various stages starting in 1898, he said.

Stewart, a prolific writer who published “Letters of a Woman Homesteader” in 1914, once described the “tang of sage and of pine in the air.”

Wire let the words fill his senses as he peered out toward the Uintah Mountains. At the dilapidated gateway to the homestead, he found his grandmother’s yellow rosebush “still growing and blooming.” Susanne K. George (Bloomfield) so much that in 1992, she published “The Adventures of The Woman Homesteader: the Life and Letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart.”

“Elinore’s letters showed me that whatever you decide to do — if you’re not afraid of hard work — you can do it. You need to look at the positive things in your life and not dwell on the negative,” said Bloomfield.

It’s the core of Stewart’s message.

“Each one of us has a frontier,” added Bloomfield. For her, it was being a single parent, working and commuting across Nebraska to earn a Ph.D. — all on a limited income.

Stewart’s westward journey from Oklahoma was not unlike that of many women homesteaders. The oldest of nine children, she was born into poverty in 1876 and didn’t have the luxury of formal education.

She made a bold move when the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909 gave her the incentive to learn how to homestead, and she answered Clyde Stewart’s ad for a “young or middle-aged lady as companion and to assist with housework on Wyoming ranch.”

Thus she homesteaded on 160 acres adjacent to Clyde’s in Burntfork, and eight weeks later they were married.

No one knows if she had planned on marrying Clyde, said Bloomfield. “Personally, I think that she had planned on doing that. But she saw the probable marriage to (him) as a vehicle to get there. She was willing to think outside the box at the eventual idea of marrying him if they got along okay.

“They both needed a partner, and it turned out that it was a great arrangement — a great marriage,” added Bloomfield.

Becoming a writer

It was one of Stewart’s goals from an early age. Indeed, her writing skills were advanced for her limited education.

“It goes to show how reading voraciously — reading as a writer — can help you become a writer yourself,” said Bloomfield.

Though in reality Stewart’s life was fraught with hardships, her writings illustrate the way she saw her life.

“So even though it was tough, she chose to focus on the positive aspects and not let the negatives draw her down,” said Bloomfield.

This point is illustrated in the last chapter of Bloomfield’s book when she summarizes Stewart’s philosophy through a letter she wrote in 1920:

“But I can tell you my dear, that it is a relief when things get to their worst. You know what the worst is then and can begin to plan for better things. That’s what I have done. I have planted flowers (every) where.”

Of his grandmother’s yellow rosebush on the old homestead, Wire reflected, “It must grow like the sagebrush — durable and deep-rooted.”

Much like Stewart, whose published letters continue to o er strength and inspiration to modern-day readers.

Editor’s note: As part of our ongoing Breaking Through series, we’ll be occasionally sharing past profiles of women who made important contributions to Wyoming’s history. This story originally published in 2006.