Women of the Old West
The women of the old west played an important role to form the frontier culture, as entertainers, tamers of wild cowboys, and reformist during the Victorian error. Yet, the American imagination of the old west is traditionally played out from the memories of Hollywood scripts. These scripts provide viewers and listeners images of vast rugged landscapes dotted with remote settlements, cowboys on horseback, outlaws, and good guy sheriffs.
The true historian of frontier culture should not forget the women whose stories may have been completely ignored in the Hollywood scripts. These are the women of the west who played a major role to boost the economy in places like Dodge City, Kansas, between the years of 1872 - 1884. Although in the early years of this noted Queen of Cowtowns', the woman in this settlement played the role of a saloon dancehall girl.
Men would look hopefully at the dancehall girls in the saloons ... but they much preferred the younger women who had the charm of novelty. The Texas cowboys were irresistibly attracted by their wears, their sinuous easy touches, and charming freedom of manner. The average prostitute in Dodge City was white, unmarried, and was 23 years old. If she stayed healthy, no matter what she owned, or how she looked, she could find work in Dodge City.
The true historian of frontier culture should not forget the women whose stories may have been completely ignored in the Hollywood scripts. These are the women of the west who played a major role to boost the economy in places like Dodge City, Kansas, between the years of 1872 - 1884. Although in the early years of this noted Queen of Cowtowns', the woman in this settlement played the role of a saloon dancehall girl.
Men would look hopefully at the dancehall girls in the saloons ... but they much preferred the younger women who had the charm of novelty. The Texas cowboys were irresistibly attracted by their wears, their sinuous easy touches, and charming freedom of manner. The average prostitute in Dodge City was white, unmarried, and was 23 years old. If she stayed healthy, no matter what she owned, or how she looked, she could find work in Dodge City.
South of the Tracks
Dodge City grew overnight. The saloons, dancehalls, and women for hire were prevalent in makeshift establishments south of the tracks. Early Dodge City signified a town that awakened at noon and went to bed at 5 am. The "Hays Sentinel", reported every other house in Dodge City was a brothel and the dance halls were crowded with "lewd" women. Not all saloons employed saloon girls, such as in Dodge City's north side of Front Street, which remained the "respectable" side where both saloon girls and gambling were barred and featured music and billiards as the chief amusements to accompany the whiskey.
Famous Scarlet Ladies
Prostitution flourished in Dodge City from the earliest days of the cattle drives. Most of the women who arrived early on in the chaotic instant city were practitioners of the world's oldest profession, a fact laid out like a limerick of poetry with irregular rhythm. The Texas cowboys came in the spring, the dancehall girls followed, and when they got together they produced an instant passion and the economy flourished.
Squirrel Tooth Alice
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Perhaps one of the best-known soiled doves of Dodge City was Squirrel Tooth Alice. Born Mary Elizabeth Haley in 1855, "Libby" was born and raised in a life of privilege in Texas. Elizabeth Haley was 10 years old when she was kidnapped by Comanches and held captive for three years. Her father paid a ransom for her to be returned home, but life was never the same for Libby. Her father, certain she had been defiled by her captors, shunned her.
Her father refused to allow anyone to court her and kept her out of society. She fell in love with a man twice her age and had hopes of marriage. She brought the gentleman home to meet her father, but when met on the front porch, her father shot the man in the chest and killed him instantly. Libby sensed, at that moment, she could never be happy if she remained with her family, so she left home and ran away to Kansas. What follows is the true story of Squirrel Tooth Alice after she arrived in Abilene Kansas and met up with Texas Billy Thompson. |
