Regarding the 30-year-old single woman (a Vermonter, I hope), going to Iowa in 1880: Could have been a lot of things. Husband hunting. Homesteading on her own new land (women could and did do that). Just earning a living somehow or other. Lots of stuff. A book that might help is "The Female Frontier: A Comparative View of Women on the Prairie and the Plains," by Glenda Riley, 1988, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. My paperback copy is marked $13.95, but I got it for two dollars at my local library used book sale. I've only just skimmed parts of the book, but it appears to deal with your question, in addition to the overall subject of women's lives in general out there. My impression is that, while the image of the wife in tow behind a westward moving husband is probably largely correct around 1880 and earlier, you also need another equally valid image of the westward moving single woman who's on the road for her own reasons, economic opportunity being among those reasons. I note some criticism of cenus takers in this book, by the way. Women heads of household who made their livings by some means other than clothes washing tubs did not necessarily have their occupations correctly listed. Lester Powers Emmert6@aol.com: > Let me ask a general question then...why would a single, 30 yr. old > never-been-married woman head to Iowa in 1880...no family there yet...can someone give > me their thoughts. She was not a teacher, nor a doctor, not any special > profession. > thank you for any thoughts. ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!