Woman of the West: Sarah Bowman, The Great Western

She fought with Zachary Taylor’s army during the Mexican-American War, kept the mess hall open during the bombardment of Fort Brown, loaded cartridges and carried wounded during the battle of Buena Vista, marched with the army from Texas to California, was cited as El Paso’s first prostitute, mothered several adopted children, was known as Dr. Mary for her compassionate nursing of the sick and received a government pension for her army duty. Colorful and larger than life, topping out at over six feet and weighing 200 pounds, Sarah Bowman tamed the West on her terms.

People must have naturally commented, “What a woman!” when they met her. She was nicknamed “The Great Western”, most likely after the world’s largest steamship at the time. Described as dark-eyed and voluptuous there was no disguising The Great Western as anything but a woman. She stood out if not for her physical attributes than for the way she braved danger—meeting it head on. “She carried a pistol, could shoot a rifle and knock down any man who tried to bother her.” (Sarah Bowman and Tillie Howard,Borderlands.com)

During the siege of Fort Brown in May 1846 she refused to take refuge underground with the other army wives and instead operated the officer’s mess while the fighting went on for over a week. Legend says even as bullets hit her bread tray and bonnet she continued to keep the men fed earning her another nickname: The Heroine of Fort Brown. She was a woman who handled the west with grit, gumption and a heap of courage.


At the battle of Buena Vista she wasn’t prepared to sit on the sidelines but helped load guns and tended the wounded on the battlefield and was often referred to as Dr. Mary for her efforts. When her second husband lost his life in the battle, she was told only married women could march with the army to California, the regiment’s next destination. Supposedly, “she rode along the line of men asking, ‘Who wants a wife with fifteen thousand dollars and the biggest leg in Mexico? Come, my beauties, don’t all speak at once. Who is the lucky man?’” (Handbook of Texas Online, s.v.) In any event, David E. Davis was the lucky man and Sarah went to California. But I’m guessing Sarah didn’t squirrel away fifteen thousand dollars from supplying just food to the army. In any event, she reportedly received a lifetime government pension; for her public service and bravery, one assumes, not her private services.

Despite her rather loose ways, Sarah must have enjoyed being married because, whether divorced or widowed from Davis, she married Albert J. Bowman, her fourth and last husband, when she returned to El Paso in 1849. According to her biographer, Brian Sandwich, the hotel “business was good” as she offered entertainment with a room and is largely believed to be El Paso’s first prostitute. When her husband was discharged from the army in 1852, they opened another hotel and brothel in Fort Yuma. “Lt. Sylvester Mowry, a soldier stationed at Fort Yuma in 1856, wrote of Sarah that “among her other good qualities she is an admirable pimp.’” (Handbook of Texas Online, s.v.)

One of those other good qualities was evidently her compassion. Not being able to bear children, she adopted several orphans. What kind of example she set is debatable but she was widely regarded as a tender-hearted woman, the quintessential soiled dove with a heart of gold.

The Army thought highly enough of her to bury her with full military honors in the Fort Yuma post cemetery when she died somewhere in the mid 1860s from a tarantula bite. Her body was exhumed in 1890 by the U.S. Army, along with 159 other servicemen’s, and moved to the presidio in San Francisco, California.

A fighter and a lover, unconventional and compassionate, Sarah Bowman, the Great Western, was a woman who did it her way.


Sources:
Handbook of Texas online, Borderlands

Biographies and historical novels on Sarah Bowman:
Brian Sandwich, The Great Western; Legendary Lady of the Southwest
Lucia St.Clair Robson, Fearless: A Novel of Sarah Bowman
(Note: there are no known pictures of Sarah Bowman but the picture inserted fit my expectations.)

Happy Birthday Love Western Romances--plus current "Fav" books!

It’s officially one year since Karyna DaRosa and I started Love Western Romances.com to help readers who love the genre find new authors and authors who write western historical romances find new readers.

A lot of people told us that western historical romances were declining in popularity. Really? You wouldn’t know it from the readers who come to our site! Or the number of western historical romances being published. The support of those who Love Western Romances--readers and authors--has been phenomenal.

We’ve reviewed over 60 western historical romances on the site in the last year from over 30 different authors and that’s certainly not every author or book that has been published in the genre—try as we do to capture as many as possible.

Here are a few of my favorite books just released or soon to be released—and this list is by no means comprehensive because I wouldn’t have enough room to fit every one. You can find a complete listing of great western romances on http://www.lovewesternromances.com/. Let me know if there are any recent releases you'd add to the list.




(Just released in paperback)













(out in June)


(out in July)




(Released in February)

Those Western Women

One of the reasons the period of the Old West fascinates me is because I wonder if I would measure up to the men and women who risked everything, including their lives, for the chance at a new beginning. I love to research, in particular, the women who made the journey, generally following their menfolk or taking the leap of faith to become a mail order bride. With little respectable opportunities beyond marriage and teaching open to women, admittedly their options were limited. But what drove them to take on the hardships and deprivations that awaited them? How did they survive the loss of family members that were a certainty in such a challenging environment?

Take a woman like Mary Low, who came to Washington Territory at the age of nine with her family as part of the first settlers of what would become Seattle, Washington. Presumably she had no say in the matter when her father decided to leave Illinois for the new land. It was a cold and damp November when the family arrived by ship expecting a settlement with four cabins ready and found none completed. One can imagine she had to work hard, even as a youngster, to help finish those cabins by Christmas. According to an essay by Dorthea Nordstrand, (www.historylink.org/essays), that first Christmas was celebrated not only with four finished cabins but a feast consisting of two wild geese, salmon, wild potatoes and a few dried applies for pies as their bountiful supper.

If the rest of her life is any indication, the trek west and an upbringing in primitive conditions formed a life long pioneer spirit in Mary. When she was old enough, she became a teacher in Kitsap County near the lumber camps. In fact, at the age of twenty, she married a lumberman, Woodbury Sinclair, in 1862. Woodbury was seventeen years her senior. And when her husband decided to strike out and establish himself as one of the first residents in what would become Snohomish City in 1865, Mary followed him. On April 30 of that year she boarded a steamer with a month-old baby in her arms to make the trip across the Puget Sound and up the Snohomish River to her husband’s claim. She would be the first white woman in the area. Their new beginning would not come without cost. Twenty days later the baby died.

In her book, “Sketches of Early Snohomish Life” (1911) she reminisced in almost Whitmanesque terms about those early days giving some insight as to how women coped during a time of deprivation and hardship, loss and isolation:

“There was much to do, but the pioneers were hustlers and could turn their hands to anything -- no specialists in those days. The women, young and hopeful, fearing neither danger or privation, soon began to make things look homelike. A large fireplace assisted considerably in clearing the dooryard, in which later bloomed old-fashioned flowers -- Sweet Williams, Marigolds and Hollyhocks. There was no time to be lonesome; frogs sang cheerily in the nearby marshes; mosquitoes kept the people busy building smudges. Wild game was plentiful. The Indians brought venison, wild ducks, fish and clams. Also the ranchers from Snoqualmie Prairie brought delicious hams and bacons of their own curing."

Mary had two more children before her husband, then 46, died suddenly in 1872. Mary was a widow at the tender age of 29. Her husband, being one of the first settlers, had left her with prime real estate in the newly settled outpost and it is reasonable to assume she used the proceeds from rents and land sales to maintain her household. Besides being the first white woman in the area, she also became the first teacher when she opened her home as a classroom. You can’t help but wonder if she imbued her students with her pioneer spirit.

She died in 1922 at the age of 79, still in residence in Snohomish City in her original home on Pearl Street. During her lifetime she had seen Washington Territory move from a wilderness to a thriving state, had witnessed the area’s struggle to give women the vote (Washington Territory had given women the right to vote two times in the late 1800’s only to have it repealed both times due largely to saloon interests who feared women would vote in support of prohibition), had lived through the Civil War period, the Nez Perce war and the First World War, had witnessed the invention of the car and the airplane and most importantly, had participated in claiming a wilderness. A woman surviving despite extraordinary circumstances.

Cowboy Gear--For More Than Looking Good.

Chaps are not just for decoration though they can be pretty decorative. They help to protect the cowboy’s legs from getting cut up, whether from thorny bushes on the range or the horns of bucking bulls at the rodeo. There are different styles of chaps but rodeo cowboys like my character, Clay Tanner, in Re-Ride at the Rodeo usually ride with batwing chaps. Barrel racers often wear chaps too. Batwing chaps only have a couple of fasteners to go around the thigh and their loose fit allows the air to circulate. It’s also easier to mount a horse or bull with batwings and because they are loose they allow for the spurring movement that is part of score when riding broncs.

As the picture below illustrates, they look a lot like batwings when in motion.
















In the Old West, there were several versions that were popular depending on the region. Stovepipe or shotgun chaps were straight and narrow and were used by Texas cowboys beginning in the 1870s.

Chaps influenced by the vaquero tradition are the shorter chaps called Chinks and the slightly longer Armitas which enclose the leg and have to be put on like pants. The first guy in the photo to the right looks like he might have on Armitas.


Woolie chaps were used mainly by plains and mountain cowboys. Made of angora wool on hide, they were the warmest of the chaps—good for those cold winters in the Rocky Mountain states.

Chaps aren’t exactly cheap. Though a thrifty cowboy can buy a used pair of chaps for around $100 on e-bay if he’s not particular, a custom hand-made pair can run upwards of $250 to $350 or more. But then you can have it decorated with different colored fringe, add conchos, a fancy buckle and really express yourself. You could blow a day’s worth of hard-earned rodeo winnings just on a slick pair of chaps. Dress 'em up cowboy!

Who Rides Tall in the Saddle?

In Re-Ride at the Rodeo, Clay Tanner is a Texas rancher who has come to the saddle bronc event to earn some much needed money. At six feet, Clay’s not overly tall by hero standards but pretty tall by rough stock cowboy standards.

Take the current top ten saddle bronc riders. Only Anthony Bello tops out at six feet. Instead, 5’8” seems more the median height with Cody Wright, Samuel Kelts, Bradley Harter, J.J. Elswhere and Rod Hay, all either in the top ten or past NFR winners, reaching those heights.

Why is being a little shorter an advantage in rough stock riding?

http://www.shortsupport.org provides an answer: Shorter people of the same proportions as taller people have many physical advantages based on the laws of physics, and these advantages are supported by many researchers. Shorter people have faster reaction times, greater ability to accelerate body movements, stronger muscles in proportion to body weight, greater endurance, and the ability to rotate the body faster. They are also less likely to break bones in falling. As a consequence of these physical attributes, shorter people can excel as gymnasts, divers, skiers, martial artists, rock climbers, figure skaters, rodeo riders, soccer players and long distance runners.

So where do all those really tall cowboys go? Those who participate in the timed events (where the cowboy and his horse team up) tend to top the height scales of the rodeo cowboy. The current top three steer wrestlers and tie-down ropers all measure out at six feet or more.

That’s not to say Clay won’t be successful. Technique is more important in saddle bronc riding than in either bare back riding or bull riding. And tall cowboys sure look good when they mark out and do the required leg action in the event. Saddle bronc calls on traditional cowboy skills (no one had to ride bulls in the Old West) for breaking in a horse and is considered the hardest rough stock event to learn. But once you learn, they say, it’s easier to perfect. So how is Clay going to do in meeting the eight second challenge? You'll just have to read Re-Ride at the Rodeo to find out!

My Cover is Here! My Cover is Here--Hot enough for you?

My cover is here for Re-Ride at the Rodeo, part of the Wayback, Texas series from The Wild Rose Press! What do you think? Think Dusty will take a re-ride on love with him? Would you?

Saddle bronc rider Clay Tanner is looking for a good time and the tempting little blonde who’s working the beer concession at the rodeo looks like she could use one—except she turns him down. Feeling like he’s been bucked off before the eight second buzzer, Clay’s betting he can score if she’ll give him a re-ride. But qualifying may call for more than he’s prepared to give.

Dusty Morgan’s nonplussed when hard-bodied cowboy Clay Tanner hits on her. She doesn’t exactly have the kind of figure that attracts Texas cowboys. Besides, even though Clay’s deep timbered voice sends tingles clear to her toes, he’s an undependable rough stock rider and a player to boot. Though he may be what she desires, Dusty knows from experience he isn’t what she needs—or is he?

Drop me a comment and let me know what you think! Hot enough for you!:)

Re-Ride at the Rodeo contracted by The Wild Rose Press

Woo-hoo! My contemporary western romance, Re-Ride at the Rodeo, has been contracted by The Wild Rose Press.

While Re-ride at the Rodeo takes place against the backdrop of the rodeo, it is not a rodeo book as there are no rodeo event scenes in the story. It’s a romance, pure and simple between two people, Dusty Morgan and Clay Tanner, who meet as a result of the Wayback Rodeo.

She wants the happily ever after, he just wants a good time. She would never hook up with his type; he had never looked twice at her type. But when the rodeo gets them together, it’s anyone’s bet if they’ll take a re-ride on love.

I wrote Re-ride at the Rodeo expressly for The Wild Rose Press rodeo-themed series, Wayback Texas. I was checking out a friend’s book when I saw the invitation for submissions. I’ve got a strange obsession with the rodeo (it’s really for the cowboys :-) and for a girl from the east I’m pretty much out here by myself. We have a local rodeo in June in my town so I do get to see some now and again.

In any event, I hope you’ll pick up a copy of Re-ride at the Rodeo when it is released this summer. You don’t have to enjoy rodeo to enjoy this romance. It’s just that love can be found in the darnedest places!