Six hundred some women went west to bring education to the wild west. Here are the stories of just twelve.

This little book sure does pack a punch. Some of the true life For some of these women, the story is in how they crossed the wild country to get to where they would teach. Mary Graves Clarke survived the Donner Party and taught to support herself when her husband was murdered. Other women set out with the intention of teaching when they arrived, such as Mary Gray McLench.

I had expected there to be more information on the difficulties of teaching itself, different ways the teachers would teach in the absence of books. Brief mentions are made, such as using gravestones to teach reading, and how books were shared. It would have been interesting to see a glimpse of the day-to-day life of the teachers, which was only provided in one example: Anna Weber.

Nonetheless, this was an interesting read, and it didn’t take long to read it. I would recommend it to readers interested in true stories. ( )