Also because the west was so large there was no real police enforcement for most towns, as judges and authorities had to travel vast distances to be at the scene of the crime. By the time any authority could arrive the criminals would be long gone.
Vigilantes could deliver swift law enforcement and punishment for the town, which is what most citizens of the town wanted, but sometimes they punished the innocent in their zeal to rid the area of criminals, trials were hurried and the accused were not given the chance to claim their innocence and as in the case of Ella Watson and Jim Averil of Johnson County they were executed and then found to be innocent of the crime they were accused of, this caused the towns people to rise up and take to arms against the cattlemen. This caused much violence between the two groups and many had to protect themselves by carrying guns. This trial showed that vigilantes could and did get it wrong also that they could bully whole towns and the townspeople feared many of them.
The women of the west believed they were responsible for the morals of the town not just their own family. Without their resourcefulness populating the west would not have been achieved, without their work on the west, surviving on the plains would have been almost impossible, because they were responsible for almost all the work around the plains.
The women decided to act upon the problems with the towns and try and improve the way of life in the West. Women saw education as an extremely part of a child’s life, so they worked together to raise money to hire teachers for the schools. Parents paid a subscription each month to the teachers and also offered lodge in exchange of educating their children.
Women also believed that lack of religion was also a huge problem with the towns, they wanted to employtheir own minister, so they raised funds through raffles, fairs and picnics. Until they raised enough money for a proper church to be built, women organized services to be held in private houses.
Alcohol was seen as a major problem with the American west because alcohol led to extreme violence, men who drank to much put their family at risk of danger with many people carrying a gun for “self defense” this could lead to accidental shootings, the women founded groups such as the W.C.T.U (Women Christian Temperance Union) and they started to campaign for the ban of alcohol. They had their first success in 1860 when Kansas introduced prohibition.
There were other campaigns which the women successed in such as the increase of women working in factories, women set up their own organizations to protect their interests and rights. They also started to fight for better wages and also the women thought that getting the vote would improve their conditions.
As you can see women had a big part in the American west with their contribution with education, religion and people’s rights. without the women it would be almost impossible to live there, the vigilantes helped the problems in the west by delivering swift law enforcement and punishment for the town, but this also caused many problems sometimes they punished the innocent.
