Land in Her Own Name

Many women homesteaded across North Dakota in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. This work records their experiences as revealed in interviews with surviving homesteaders, land records, letters and diaries. They tell of locating a claim, building a shelter and living on the prairie.

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Land is often known by the names of past owners. ""Emma's Land,"" ""Gina's quarter,"" and ""the Ingeborg Land"" are reminders of the many women who homesteaded across North Dakota in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Land in Her Own Name records these homesteaders' experiences as revealed in interviews with surviving homesteaders and their families and friends, land records, letters, and diaries.These women's fascinating accounts tell of locating a claim, erecting a shelter, and living on the prairie. Their ethnic backgrounds include Yankee, Scandinavian, German, and German-Russian, as well as African American, Jewish, and Lebanese. Some were barely twenty-one, while others had reached their sixties. A few lived on their land for life and ""never borrowed a cent against it""; others sold or rented the land to start a small business or to provide money for education.

For this paperback edition, Elizabeth Jameson's foreword situates the homesteading experience for women within the larger context of western history.