PINTSIZED PIONEERS:

Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time

By Preston Lewis & Harriet Kocher Lewis

Young Adult / Nonfiction / History

Publisher: Bariso Press

Pages: 184

Publication Date: September 24, 2024

Synopsis

Children tread lightly through the pages of Old West history. Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time gives frontier children their due for all the work they did to help their families survive. Even at early ages, the youngsters helped families make ends meet and handled chores that today seem unbelievable. Written for today’s young adults, Pintsized Pioneers offers lessons on frontier history and on the value of work for contemporary youth.

In 1850, adolescents 16 and under accounted for 46 percent of the national population, making them an important labor force in settling the country. Pintsized Pioneers examines their tasks and toils starting with the chores on the trail west. Children assisted in providing fuel and water on the trail and at home when they settled down. In their new locations the young ones helped grow food, make clothing for the entire family and assist with the housekeeping in primitive dwellings.

These pintsized pioneers took on farm and ranch chores as young as six, some going on cattle drives at eight years of age. Even Old West town tykes, who enjoyed more career possibilities, helped their folks survive as well. In the end, many pintsized pioneers pitched in to help their families make ends meet. Difficult as their lives might have been, the lessons those children learned handling chores helped them and their country in the years ahead. Those pintsized lessons have contemporary applications to the youth of today.

Targeted at young adults, Pintsized Pioneers is written at a ninth-grade reading level and includes a supplementary glossary. Even so, Pintsized Pioneers is an eye-opener for adult readers as well.

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Review

Many have heard or read stories about pioneers and how life could be challenging and rough. We have seen it in shows like Little House on the Prairie, Gunsmoke, and more. However, the importance of children and their role in family lives was not as pronounced as it was during that time. This book aims to share what life was like in the 1800s and how important children were to the continuation of the family.

This book brings together multiple stories from children who grew up during that time from diaries and other sources. Children, even as young as 3, did chores around the homestead, such as collecting eggs and feeding the animals, to free up the parents and older children to do the more challenging tasks. Even when families traveled via wagon train, children still had chores to do along the way and when they stopped for the night. The tasks were not glamorous since they included things such as picking up buffalo dung to use for fires, looking for wood, and carrying pails of water. One of my favorite quotes is from Edna Matthews, who grew up on a Texas farm:

“It was instilled in us that work was necessary. Everybody worked; it was a part of life, for there was no life without it.”

Can you imagine how children might react today? It is a different world, but so much can be learned from this book. We can also be grateful for the advances that were made and the sacrifices that these pioneers made to settle the West.

As I finished reading this book, I had a greater appreciation for the pioneers, their struggles, their sacrifices, and their dedication to settling the Wild West. I especially marveled over the children and their no-nonsense approach to life. Could I live during this time period and do what they did? Maybe. But then again, maybe not. I expect that put into that situation without knowing what I know today, I could do it. It would be a hard life, but knowing that I contributed to the family’s betterment would have made it worthwhile.

We give this book 5 paws up.

About the Authors

Preston Lewis and Harriet Kocher Lewis co-authored three books in the “Magic Machine Series” published by Bariso Press:  Devotionals from a Soulless Machine, Jokes from a Humorless Machine, and Recipes from a Tasteless Machine. They reside in San Angelo, Texas.

Preston Lewis has published more than 50 fiction and nonfiction works.  The author and historian’s books include traditional Westerns, historical novels, comic Westerns, young adult books, and historical accounts.  In 2021 he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his literary accomplishments.

His writing honors include two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America and three Elmer Kelton Awards from the West Texas Historical Association.  He has received ten Will Rogers Medallion Awards, and in 2024, he earned an inaugural Literary Global Independent Author Award in the Western Nonfiction category for Cat Tales of the Old West.

He is a past president of Western Writers of America and the West Texas Historical Association, which named him a fellow in 2016.

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Harriet Kocher Lewis is the award-winning editor and publisher of Bariso Press. Titles she has edited have been honored with Will Rogers Medallion Awards, Spur Finalist designations, and Independent Author Awards.

Lewis concluded her 26-year physical therapy career as the inaugural clinical coordinator for the physical therapy program at Angelo State University, where she taught technical writing and wrote or edited numerous scientific papers as well as a chapter in a clinical education textbook.

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