Various studies conducted over the past three decades have highlighted the social, political, and economic impact that women homesteaders had on the western prairie region. Their involvement on the family homestead, whether taking part in subsistence and domestic chores or as workers in the fields, was a necessary aspect of the development and success of family farming and an agriculture-based economy in Western Canada. This paper reveals details of another aspect of family labor that often fell on the shoulders of women, that is, the provision of medical care needed to ensure the health of themselves, their spouses, and their children. Given the labor-intensive nature of the frontier lifestyle, the associated physical hazards, the number of disease-susceptible children in the region, and the scarcity of medical institutions and personnel, women were often called upon by their families and neighbors to deal with outbreaks of disease, injuries, and health crises. Using survey data collected by the Saskatchewan Archives Board in 1955 to illustrate the nature of the work performed, this paper argues that women's health care labor efforts were vital to the preservation of homesteading families in the prairie region.
For a detailed discussion of the process of nation building, rail construction, economic expansion, and settlement, see William A. Mackintosh, The Economic Background of Dominion Provincial Relations: A Study Prepared for the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations ( Ottawa: King's Printer, 1939); Economic Problems of the Prairie Provinces (Millwood, New York: Kraus Reprint Co., 1935 ); and Prairie Settlement: The Geographical Setting (Toronto: MacMillan Company of Canada Ltd. , 1934); Chester Martin, History of Prairie Settlement: "Dominion Lands" Policy (Toronto: MacMillan Company of Canada Ltd., 1938); Arthur S. Morton, "History of Prairie Settlement," in Canadian Frontiers of Settlement (9 volumes) , eds. W. A. Mackintosh and W. L. G. Joerg ( Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd., 1938), Vol. 2, pt 1; W.T. Easterbrook and Hugh G. J. Aitken, Canadian Economic History (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada , 1963); Donald Grant Creighton, British North America at Confederation: A Study Prepared for the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations (Ottawa: Queen's Printer , 1963); and Vernon Fowke, The National Policy and the Wheat Economy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1983).
2.
Dominion Lands Act, 1872 (Canada).
3.
Morton, "History."
4.
CPR [Canadian Pacific Railway], Free Facts, Farms and Sleepers (Montreal QC: Author, 1884); The Saskatchewan Homestead Company Limited, The Settler's Guide to Homesteads in the Canadian North-West (Toronto: John T. Moore, 1884); Canada (Department of the Interior), Prosperity Follows Settlement in Western Canada (Ottawa: Canadian Government Print, 1905); Canada (Department of the Interior), The Last and Best West (Ottawa: Dept. of the Interior , 1906).
5.
Thomas Spence, Useful and Practical Hints for the Settler on Canadian Prairie Lands and for the Guidance of Intending British Emigrants to Manitoba and the North-West of Canada (Saint-Boniface: Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, 1882), 30.
6.
Fifth Census of Canada (Ottawa, 1911), Tables V and VII.
7.
Morton, "History."
8.
For a detailed discussion of the hazards and working conditions during the pioneer era, see Sandra Rollings-Magnusson, "Canada's Most Wanted: Pioneer Women on the Western Prairies," The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology37 (2000): 223-38.
9.
Seena B. Kohl, Working Together: Women and Family in Southwestern Saskatchewan ( Toronto: Holt, Rinehart & Winston of Canada, 1976); Carolyn E. Sachs, The Invisible Farmers: Women in Agricultural Production (Totowa: Rowman & Allanheld, 1983); Jane Ursel, Private Lives, Public Policy (Toronto: Women's Press, 1992); Rollings-Magnusson , "Canada's Most Wanted."
10.
Children were expected to die, sometimes with their mothers, during childbirth, and while the "frequency of infant death did not reduce the sense of loss, … it did lead to the expectation, for both parents and physicians." Charles R. King, "Childhood Death: The Health Care of Children on the Kansas Frontier ," Kansas History14, 1 (1991): 28.
11.
Sharon Richardson noted that as late as 1925, maternity was the second most common cause of death for women. "Major obstacles to safe birthing for homestead women on the prairies included the lack of trained doctors, nurses and midwives; long distances to travel to obtain whatever help was available; primitive living conditions; an absence of hospitals and maternity homes for difficult confinements; and women's own limited knowledge of the birth process." Sharon Richardson, "Frontier Health Care: Alberta's District and Municipal Nursing Services, 1919 to 1976," Alberta History46, 1 (1998): 2-9. For more information on difficulties relating to maternal care on the prairies, see Nanci Langford, "Childbirth on the Canadian Prairies 1880-1930," Journal of Historical Sociology8, 3 (1995): 278-302.
12.
Census of Manitoba 1885-86 (Ottawa: MacLean, Roger & Co., 1887); Census of Canada 1911, Occupation Volume VI (Ottawa: C. H. Parmelee, 1912).
13.
Census of Canada 1911.
14.
The first nurse training program in Canada was not established until 1873 in St. Catharines, Ontario. Training expanded quickly to Toronto, Ontario, in 1881, Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1887, Medicine Hat, Alberta, in 1889, Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1891, and Calgary, Alberta, in 1895. By 1900, twenty nursing schools were opened in towns and cities along the transcontinental railway. See Martha Batson, Inez E. Welling, and Anne Slattery, Pioneers of Nursing in Canada (Montreal: The Canadian Nurses' Association, ud). LaVerne Graham, Accession No. 80-577, Collection No. R-E738, Saskatchewan Archives Board; Isabel M. Stewart and Anne L. Austin, A History of Nursing: From Ancient to Modern Times. A World View (5th edition) ( New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962 ); Catherine Nunn Smith, "Marion Moodie: From Proper Lady to New Woman," Alberta History49, 1 (2001): 16-20.
15.
For a detailed history of hospital development in the prairie region from inadequate units established by the North-West Mounted Police and the Canadian army during the 1885 Riel Rebellion to cottage hospitals and general purpose hospitals founded in urban areas, see Joan Feather, "Hospitals in Saskatchewan in Territorial Days," Collection No. R-E2322, Saskatchewan Archives Board; Elizabeth Domm, "Called to Duty: Medicare and Nursing Care at Saskatoon and Moose Jaw during the Northwest Rebellion in 1885," Saskatchewan History58, 2 (2006): 15-23; and Malcolm G. Taylor, Insuring National Health Care: The Canadian Experience (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1990).
16.
(Quoted in Richardson, "Frontier Health Care.") Private insurance, donations, pre-paid health care, and, eventually, limited government funding were all drawn upon to establish and run hospitals and care programs ( Taylor, Insuring National Health Care).
17.
Ruth Matheson Buck, The Doctor Rode Side-Saddle: The Remarkable Story of Elizabeth Matheson, Frontier Doctor and Medicine Woman ( Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 2003); C.J. Houston and C. Stuart Houston, Pioneer of Vision: The Reminiscences of T. A. Patrick, M.D (Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1980).
18.
The lack of money in the region was reported by many settlers. For example, Lockhart (1978, 10) noted in her memoir that "no one had any money to buy" goods, Mitchell (1976, 1) indicated that in 1907 her father "worked in the town [Regina] twenty miles away for money to buy their food," and even governmental advertising made note of the need for cash and suggested that any adult settler with less than $500 take on paid labor for "a year until one learns the value of things as well as the method of farming." Olive Lockhart, Autobiography, Accession No. 82-372, 1978:10; Saskatchewan Archives Board; Sylvia Mitchell, Autobiography, Accession No. E-94, 1976:1, Saskatchewan Archives Board; Canada (Department of the Interior), The Last, 15.
19.
Anne Woywitka , "Pioneers in Sickness and in Health," Alberta History49, 1 (2000): 16-20.
20.
Jim Cameron , Good for What Ails You: Self-Help Remedies from 19th Century Canada (Burnstown: The General Store Publishing House, 1995), 29.
21.
W.J.C. Cherwinski , "In Search of Jake Trumper: The Farm Hand and the Prairie Farm Family," in Building Beyond the Homestead: Rural History on the Prairies, eds. David C. Jones and Ian MacPherson (Calgary: The University of Calgary Press , 1985), 111-34; G.F. Warren, Farm Management (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1917 ).
22.
See Seena Kohl, Working Together: Women and Family in Southwestern Saskatchewan (Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited, 1976); David Symes and John Appleton, "Family Goals and Survival Strategies," Sociologia Ruralis26 (1986): 345-63; Claire Wallace, David Dunkerley, Brian Cheal, and Martyn Warren, "Young People and the Division of Labor in Farming Families," The Sociological Review42 (1994): 501-30; Laurence Fontaine and Jurgen Schlumbohm, "Household Strategies for Survival: An Introduction," International Review of Social History45 (Suppl. 8: Household Strategies for Survival 1600-2000: Fission, Faction and Cooperation) (2000): 1-17; Harriett K. Light, Doris Hertsgaard, and Ruth E. Martin, "Farm Children's Work in the Family," Adolescence20 (1985): 425-32; Mary Neth, Preserving the Family Farm: Women, Community and the Foundations of Agribusiness in the Midwest, 1900-1940 ( Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1995); and Louise Tilly and Joan Scott, Women, Work and Family ( New York: Methuen, 1987).
23.
Phyllis M. Japp , "Pioneer Medicines: Doctors, Nostrums, and Folk Cures," Journal of the West21, 3 (1982): 16.
24.
Joan Scott and Louise Tilly, "Women's Work and the Family in 19th Century Europe," in The Economics of Women and Work, ed. Alice Amsden (Bungay: Chaucer Press , 1980); Carolyn E. Sachs, The Invisible Farmers: Women in Agricultural Production (Totowa: Rowman and Allanheld, 1983); Marjorie Cohen, Women's Work, Markets, and Economic Development in Nineteenth Century Ontario ( Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988).
25.
Kohl, Working Together; Rollings-Magnusson, "Canada's Most Wanted."
26.
This point was made clear by research into the contribution in money or other value made by the labor of women. See Sachs, The Invisible Farmers; Scott and Tilly, "Women's Work"; Cohen, Women's Work; Parvin Ghorayshi, "The Indispensable Nature of Wive's Work for the Farm Family Enterprise," The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology26 (1989): 571-95; Ursel, Private; and Rollings-Magnusson, "Canada's Most Wanted."
27.
The original survey responses are held by the Saskatchewan Archives located at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.The intention was to collect and disseminate information on the pioneering period as part of the celebration of the province's fiftieth anniversary celebration in 1955.
28.
Marjory Harper , "Probing the Pioneer Questionnaires: British Settlement in Saskatchewan, 1887-1914," Saskatchewan History52, 2 ( 2000): 28-46.
29.
Ibid.
30.
Unfortunately, there were no questions relating to marital status or number of children in the files and this information could not be gleaned from any of the other questions that were provided.
31.
Dominion Lands Act.
32.
Allan Turner , "Pioneer Farming Experiences," Saskatchewan History7, 2 (1955): 41-55; Elizabeth Ruthig, "Recollections and Reminiscences: Homestead Days in the McCord District," Saskatchewan History7, 1 (1954): 22-27.
33.
Edith Rowles , "Bannock, Beans and Bacon: An Investigation of Pioneer Diet," Saskatchewan History5, 1 (1952): 1-16; Turner, "Pioneer Farming"
Tuberculosis is an airborne disease that is contagious when an individual "actively" has it; otherwise it is dormant. Symptoms include chest pain, coughing, and bloody sputum, and could result in death. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, "Tuberculosis TB," accessed online July 16, 2007 ( http://www.3.niaid.nih.gov/healthscience/healthtopics/tuberculosis/Basics/symptoms.htm ).
46.
Diphtheria is a life-threatening contagious disease caused by a bacterium that produces a poison in the body. It was found in areas where sanitation conditions were poor and was spread easily by person-to-person contact. This bacterium attacks the breathing system, nerves, and heart. Directors of Health, Promotion and Education, "Diphtheria ," accessed online August 2, 2007 ( http://www.astdhpphe.ord/infect/dip.html).
47.
With scarlet fever, an individual can suffer from either a throat infection (i.e., strep throat) or a skin infection (i.e., rash) or both. The rash begins on the face and eventually travels across the body. In the initial stages, it looks like a bad sunburn with tiny bumps that may itch. Eventually the individual will suffer with a high fever (over 101 degrees Fahrenheit) and chills, have swollen glands, and tonsils that become covered with either a white coating or are red and dotted with specks of pus. Kidshealth for Parents, "Scarlet Fever," accessed online August 2, 2007 (http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/scarlet_fever_p3.html ).
48.
Measles is a respiratory infection that begins with red eyes, high fever (105 degrees Fahrenheit), hacking cough, runny nose, and irritability, and leads to a rash that eventually covers the body. The rash looks "like flat red to brown blotches that often flow into one another to completely cover the skin" and will peel in the end. Measles is dangerous as it can lead to pneumonia, hepatitis, and bronchitis as well as to ear infections. Kidshealth for Parents, "Rubella (Measles) ," accessed online August 2, 2007 ( http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/lung/measles.html).
49.
Whooping cough is an infection in the lungs that begins like a regular cold, but will eventually result in a period of uncontrolled coughing. The "whooping" in the name of the illness refers to the noise that is made by the sick individual when they are breathing in, between the coughs. The coughing may result in vomiting and the individual turning blue. Medinfo, "Whooping Cough," accessed online August 2, 2007 (http://www.medinfo.co.uk/conditions/whoopingcough.html).
50.
Dysentery refers to having an intestinal infection caused by eating or drinking contaminated products. Initial symptoms include stomach cramps and foul-smelling diarrhea. It can be a life-threatening disease if it progresses and the infection begins to seriously harm the walls of the intestine and cause bleeding. Netdoctor, "Amoebic Dysentery," accessed online August 2, 2007 ( http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/travel/diseases/amoebic_dysentery.htm).
51.
SAQ, File #2688, Mrs. Esther Maud Goldsmith.
52.
Cameron, Good for What Ails You.
53.
Smallpox was a serious contagious disease. The onset of this "disease is sudden without any premonitory symptoms. The temperature suddenly shooting up to 104 degrees F or more with shivering, the pulse is rapid, extreme thirst, pain in the back of the neck, intense headache and vomiting. In Small pox, there is an eruption, more serious than scarlet fever, all over the body. The vesicles resemble blisters which harden and later on fill with pus. They dry up, the scabs fall off but they leave ugly scars on the body. In severe cases the eruption appears also in the eyes, leading to total blindness." Sufferers may also experience backache, vomiting and diarrhea, excessive bleeding, and delirium. Diseases A to Z, "Small Pox," accessed online August 2, 2007 (http://www.diseasesatoz.com/small-pox.htm).
54.
SAQ, File #2676, Mrs. Lattie Clarke Diggle.
55.
SAQ, File #2685, Mrs. Maggie M. Whyte.
56.
According to the Utah Office of Epidemiology Typhoid Fact Sheet (2006), typhoid fever is a life-threatening illness that can easily be spread not only by drinking contaminated water or eating infected food but by person-to-person contact. It results in an individual suffering with a fever of up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, diarrhea, stomach pain, headache, slow heart rate, a nonproductive cough, and anorexia. Utah Office of Epidemiology, "Typhoid Fever," accessed online August 2, 2007 (http://hlunix.hl.state.ut.us/els/epidemiology/epifacts/typhoid.html ).
57.
There was a specific question that focused on typhoid fever in the questionnaire. Respondents were asked if there was ever an outbreak of typhoid fever in their area. Twenty-seven respondents (40.3 percent) reported outbreaks in their vicinity. Another question asked respondents about the source of typhoid fever. Thirteen respondents (59.1 percent) said that it was believed that typhoid fever was caused by bad river water or bad well water. Some stated that speculation focused on the fact that old wells needed to be cleaned out, that all drinking water should be boiled, that the well water was too low, that typhoid was from creek water, or that cattle infected the water. One reported that a father who had come to a church picnic was a carrier of the disease and had brought his well water with him for use in the lemonade and 65 people became infected. Five respondents (22.7 percent) felt that the milk supply was tainted.
58.
As set out in a report by Joan Champ entitled The Impact of the Spanish Influenza Epidemic on Saskatchewan Farm Families, 1918-1919, thousands of Saskatchewan people, primarily between the ages of twenty and forty, died from this fast-paced viral infection. Symptoms included cold-like symptoms followed by a feeling of weakness, pain, delirium, chills, and coughing (with blood). The patient's body would eventually turn blue, and the tongue brown. The patient would die from respiratory failure. As Champ states "There were few funerals, only burials. Dead bodies were literally stacked up and municipal laws requiring burial permits were often overlooked." Joan Champ, The Impact of the Spanish Influenza Epidemic on Saskatchewan Farm Families, 1918-1919 (Saskatoon: The Western Development Museum, 2003), 4.
59.
It seemed that the high number of deaths stayed on people's minds years later when they were filling out the questionnaire. One respondent reported that people at that time died so fast that they couldn't get them buried quickly enough. Another stated that two of their local doctors had died from the disease.
60.
SAQ, File #2682, Lena May Purdy.
61.
SAQ, File #2694, Mrs. Harry Teece.
62.
In a separate question, ten respondents indicated that their house had been quarantined so that neighbors would not approach. A red card or red poster was placed on the door with the words "quarantine" written on it. All family members (regardless of whether they were sick or not) were isolated with the sick person. In other words, no one was allowed to leave their residence, while others from outside were not allowed in.
63.
Pink eye is a mild contagious ailment that refers to having an infection in the eye. Symptoms include irritation and redness, and watery eyes with discharge. Eyecaresource, "Eye Conditions and Problems: Pink Eye or Conjunctivitis," accessed online August 4, 2007 (http://www.eyecaresource.com/conditions/pink-eye/ ).
64.
Trachoma refers to corneal swelling and symptoms include tearing, eyelid swelling, and pain. The "upper lid may turn inward and the lashes then abrade the cornea, corneal ulceration results, becomes infected and ultimately scars." Blindness may result. Spedex, " Trachoma," accessed online August 4, 2007 ( http://www.spedex.com/resource/documents/veb/trachoma.html).
65.
Mumps is a contagious virus and may affect the salivary glands, the pancreas, testes, and ovaries. Symptoms include earache and tenderness in the jaw. Kidshealth, "Mumps," accessed online July 23, 2007 (http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/mumps.html).
66.
It is interesting to note that these respondents listed maternity cases as "illnesses."
67.
Lumbago typically refers to lower back pain and is typically caused by performing hard physical labor. The pain can travel from the lower buttocks to the groin area to the thigh or it can be found in the neck. Spasms or tingling sensations are usually associated with this problem. Irishhealth, "Lumbago," accessed online August 2, 2007 (http://www.irishhealth.com/?level=4&con=181 ).
68.
There are two forms of pleurisy that an individual could suffer from, wet pleurisy and dry pleurisy. With wet pleurisy, a large amount of fluid gathers around the lungs, so much so that the lung becomes tightened and the heart may be displaced. This fluid may become infected, turn into pus, break through the lung wall and enter the air passages. Dry pleurisy does not involve fluid; rather it is an inflammation around the lungs that involves strands of fibrous tissue that become tied to the lung and the chest wall. There is typically a lot of pain involved with every movement or cough. Other symptoms include shallow breathing, a feeling of weakness, headaches, fever, rapid heart rate, and loss of appetite. Lung Association, "Pleurisy," accessed online August 3, 2007 (http://www.lung.ca/diseases/pleurisy.html).
69.
Quinsey "manifests itself as a painful puss-filled inflammation of the tonsils, usually caused by a complication in tonsillitis. It can cause great pain in the throat and ear, when trying to open the mouth fully." Wikipedia, "Peritonsillar Abscess," accessed online August 3, 2007 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peritonsillar_abscess ).
70.
SAQ, File #2682, Lena May Purdy.
71.
SAQ, File #2684, Edith Mary (Franks) Stilborne.
72.
SAQ, File #2682, Lena May Purdy.
73.
One respondent, Lillian Miles, reported that her grandmother was a registered mid-wife. As such, "she did a great deal of the work in connection with caring for patients and people would drive for miles to fetch her to come to their homes." SAQ, File #2696, Mrs. Richard Miles (Lillian).
Improvised Ambulance, Patient brought 60 miles to Yorkton Hospital, 1905. Photo #S-B3969. Saskatchewan Archives Board.
76.
SAQ, File #2698, Mrs. W. B. Carmichael.
77.
Many people resorted to ordering their medicines from the Eaton's catalogue. Prices of medications would vary. For example, in 1901, quinine cost 10 cents a bottle, Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound was 85 cents, and castor oil was $1.75. The 1901 T. Eaton Co. Limited Catalogue ( Toronto: The Musson Book Company, 1970).
78.
Ringworm "is a contagious fungus infection that can affect the body (particularly the groin), the feet and the nails. Despite its name, it has nothing to do with worms. The name comes from the characteristic red ring that can appear on an infected person's skin." These rings (also described as rashes) can become itchy. Directors of Health Promotion and Education, "Ringworm," accessed online August 3, 2007 (http://www.astdhpphe.org/infect/ringworm.html ), 1.
79.
Japp, "Pioneer Medicines ," 18.
80.
In the Canadian context, Lena May Purdy noted that in 1897, she was having her first baby and after her husband drove his horse and buggy in a 24-mile round trip to Regina, the doctor arrived in time to see the newborn baby, ask if everything went well, and then charge $15 for the trip.
