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The Changing Face of theAmerican Family: Early History

Go West, Go Forth!With
the downturn in the
economy came Horace
Greeley’s familiar saying,
“GoWest,young man,go
forth into the country”
(McElroy,2001),
encouraging the countless
numbers of unemployed—
both skilled and
unskilled—to think about
the potential which lay to
theWest.
After the CivilWar
(1861–1865),and as a result of the
HomesteadAct(1862),settlers could
receive 160 acres of land,provided they
resided on it for 5 years.The Plains and
Midwest became the new frontier,where
people of little means could become
landowners.This propelled family
ideology back to the idea of the family as
the unit of production,with Plains-family
survivaldependentoneachfamilymember.
Role Expectations.Life for the early
pioneers was hard.They were uprooted
from their previous ways of life,friends,
and families.They lived in crude dwellings
that served as shelter from the fierce winds
that blew across the plains—homes which
were impossible to keep clean in the
blowing dust.Plains women suffered
loneliness,food shortages,and perilous
childbearing.Many communities were
settled by the Mennonites,who came to
the United States from Russia and

Germany.By the mid-1800s,the average

pioneer family consisted of a nuclear

family of five—a husband,wife,and three

children (McNall,1983).

The role expectations in Plains families

were clearly defined.Men did the heaviest

labor—working the land,construction,

and fence-building on a homestead,

mining in the camps,and various big-

muscle jobs in the new towns—and took

off in search of other wage work when

necessary.Early in the settlement of the

Plains,a production ideology identified

women as an economic asset.Women

were responsible for the multitude of

domestic duties: caring for barnyard

animals,gardening,and earning cash by

washing,cooking,and sewing for others.

Children were a vital resource for pioneer

families,filling in wherever they were

needed: hunting,weeding,gathering wild

plants,herding,delivering laundry,caring

for younger siblings,cooking,canning,

Life for the early pioneers was hard. Uprooted from their previous ways of life,

friends, and families, they lived in crude dwellings that served as shelter

from the fierce winds that blew across the plains.

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