Book review - Sept. 30

'A Man Was a Real Man in Them Days'

"A Man Was a Real Man in Them Days" by Rose Powers White

In "A Man Was a Real Man in Them Days," the lives and character of the pioneers who dared to challenge the vast prairie of Eastern New Mexico come to life.

First-person accounts are gleaned from letters and interviews of early settlers collected by Rose Powers White in the 1930s and 1940s.

In 1860 after the Civil War, cowmen began to bring their herds to the Plains; and in 1898 when the railroad came, homesteaders poured in, lured by promises of free land.

Barbed-wire fences were put up, and the day of the open range was at an end.

These ranchers and homesteaders faced drought, prairie fire, rustlers, lack of food and water, and perhaps most of all, loneliness.

The courage, determination, and good humor of these first settlers is revealed in their own words in their letters and interviews, recorded while they were still living.

— By Ruth White Burns