Pioneer Women Left Their Mark on Lakin’s History

March is Women’s History Month and a perfect time to sing the praises of some of the pioneer women who were so vital to the welfare of our community in the formulative years. Even though woman’s place was considered to be in the home, many of Lakin’s needs would not have been met without a few courageous ladies who stepped up to the challenge.

With the nearest doctor located in Dodge City, women were essential to meeting Lakin’s medical demands. Castella Boylan and Amy Loucks were often called upon to deliver babies and nurse the injured and sick in the surrounding frontier community. Mrs. Boylan had learned much from her father, a doctor in the Midwest. Through association with her brother who was a practicing physician, Mrs. Loucks became interested in the science of medicine and surgery and also gave considerable study to those subjects.

According to Charles Loucks, his mother once used a small vial of carbolic acid as an antiseptic, a knitting needle as a probe and a pair of common pincers to remove a bullet and save a man’s life. At another time, with a razor as a lance and her embroidery scissors, Mrs. Loucks removed three fingers from the crushed hand of a railroad brakeman. Loucks also tended to a man who had been scalped by the Indians and left on the prairie for dead. His scalp had not been entirely removed, and to stitch his scalp back together, Mrs. Loucks used a common needle and fiddle string that had been soaked in water and unraveled until it was the right size.

Mrs. Boylan was appointed Lakin postmaster in 1885. She was succeeded by three women, and a male postmaster was not appointed again until 1921. Women were also important to education. Mrs. Loucks opened the first subscription school in her Lakin home on November 17, 1879, and at least four other women taught private school until 1884 when the first public school was organized. In a trend that continues still today, female teachers made up the majority of the teaching staff in our early Lakin schools. Although the board of education was primarily comprised of men until the 1950s, the county superintendents of public instruction were all female from 1895 until 1925.

The late 1880s and 1890s saw an increase in women’s rights groups and volunteerism. Women became more politically influential around the country, and this was particularly evident here. Lakin’s Christian Women’s Temperance Union was formed about 1889, and in 1891, Lakin citizens elected an all-female city council with the exception of the mayoral position.

While many women subsidized their household income by taking in laundry, mending, gathering buffalo bones and selling eggs, some worked out of the home as waitresses, typesetters, store clerks and more. But women were also business owners. It was not uncommon for women to run boarding houses, hotels and restaurants. In the 1880s, Delia Day and Gerty McCune had millinery and dress-making shops. In the 1890s, Mrs. C. O. Chapman opened a notion store which was a popular meeting place for the women of the community, and Mrs. J.M. Goeden opened a confectionery store which also offered optical supplies in the early 1900s. These are just a few examples of pioneering Lakin ladies who not only fried the bacon but brought it home.