Description:
Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time explores how children up to age sixteen helped tame the Old West through their labor.
Brief description: Author and historian Preston Lewis has published more than 50 fiction and nonfiction works. The versatile author's books include traditional westerns, historical novels, comic westerns, young adult books, and historical accounts. In 2021 he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his literary accomplishments. His writing honors include two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America and three Elmer Kelton Awards from the West Texas Historical Association. He has received ten Will Rogers Medallion Awards for western humor, short stories, traditional westerns and nonfiction articles. In 2024 he earned an inaugural Literary Global Independent Author Award in the Western Nonfiction category for Cat Tales of the Old West as well as two finalist designations in the IAA's Memoir and Humor categories. Lewis is a past president of Western Writers of America and the West Texas Historical Association, which named him a fellow in 2016. He earned a bachelor's degree from Baylor University and a master's degree from Ohio State University, both in journalism. He holds a second master's degree in history from Angelo State University. Lewis resides in San Angelo, Texas, with his wife Harriet Kocher Lewis.
Review Quotes:
What Pintsized Pioneers Say:
"Though the pioneers had their faults and weaknesses, few could shirk work or indulge in idleness. In a very literal sense, work was a life preserver, and every member of a family had his tasks."-Lily Klasner of New Mexico
"That was the way of the old-timer days, though. Kids got to be men a heap quicker than they do nowadays."-W.H. Childers of Texas
"I walked every step of the way across the plains and drove a cow; and a large part of that way, I carried my brother on my back."-Margaret McNeil of Utah
"I have plowed acre after acre from the time I was twelve years old."-Percy Ebbut of Kansas
"What a job, that churn! The man who invented that instrument of torture must have been an ogre and hated children."-David Siceloff of Oklahoma
"I hated to see Ma come in with a big batch of sewing, for I knew it meant many long hours sitting by her side sewing seams.... I could help the boys with the plowing or trapping, but they would never help me with the sewing."-Susie Crocket of Oklahoma
"No one can tell the hardships I went through; carry water from the well; rub the clothes on a washboard; and keep the housework up.... They never thought a young girl ever got tired."-Hattie Lee of Kansas
"It was instilled in us that work was necessary. Everybody worked; it was a part of life, for there was no life without it."-Edna Matthews of Texas