Pioneer Women of Wooster

By Anna Claspy

The first families to come to Wayne County in the early 1800s endured an arduous life in what was then a secluded, wolf-ridden area on the edge of their known world. The Pioneer Mother faced the task of creating a comfortable family home. When the nearest doctors and schools were miles away, much of their responsibility fell on pioneer women. The isolation and unpredictable experiences of pioneer families meant the mothers needed a tremendous amount of resourcefulness to create a home in the wilderness. Throughout the first few decades of the nineteenth century, pioneer women helped Wooster grow from a group of log cabins in the woods to a busy, prosperous town.