Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: GraceG

100-some years ago, it wasn’t unusual for a 19-year-old man to put his 17-year-old wife into a covered wagon and go set up a homestead and start raising a family.


26 posted on 09/25/2013 10:37:20 AM PDT by Nea Wood (When life gets too hard to stand, kneel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: Nea Wood; GraceG

“100-some years ago, it wasn’t unusual for a 19-year-old man to put his 17-year-old wife into a covered wagon and go set up a homestead and start raising a family.”

My ancestors from Spain were in their mid-teens when they packed up and came to a new place to be away from royal domination-alone-sometime around 1600...

And before then-at least in the Middle Ages-it was common for men who were good strategists and warriors to lead armies in their late teens, if they were really sharp.

As for young women, there are a number of old family archives from Britain of correspondence between soldiers and their wives-him telling her he will be home as soon as may be, and her outlining her take from selling trade goods, and her expenditures for management of their estate-everything from food to livestock-in detail. Fascinated, I read a bunch of them when I was in college-the youngest of those women managing a sizeable estate and/or business was 15...


56 posted on 09/25/2013 11:27:43 AM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson