Go West, Young Woman! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Etta Place

Etta Place (if that is her real name) might have been the girlfriend of the Sundance Kid. After riding around with him and the other members of the Wild Bunch for six years, she disappeared into the west to make her name in the history books. However, not much is known of her after she left the Wild Bunch. Rumors are that she ran a brothel but according to another rumor she committed suicide.

Answer: Sacajawea

Sacajawea was born into the Shoshone tribe. She was the second wife of Toussaint Charbonneau, supposedly won during a gambling game. Sacajawea took her infant son Pompy with her while guiding the Corps of Discovery through the Louisiana Territory. After Sacajawea's death, her son and daughter were given to William Clark to raise. Sacajawea has been honored in U.S. history with a river, a lake, a monument, a U.S. ship, and a gold coin.

Answer: Ellen Watson

Ellen Watson was born in Ontario, Canada, but moved several times before settling down in Wyoming. She fell in love with a widower named Jim Averell and they ran several businesses together. When they bought property, Ellen also bought the land adjacent to their home and built a homestead. With both properties, Ellen and Jim had 320 acres of land. One day in July of 1890, Ellen and Jim were lynched from a pine tree for the crime of cattle rustling.

Their killers were cleared of all charges and the two teenage boys that were witnesses to Ellen's kidnapping were never seen again.

The newspapers referred to Ellen Watson as Cattle Kate.

Answer: Belle Starr

Myra Maybelle Shirley (aka: Belle Starr) was born on February 5, 1848. Her family lived in Missouri until the Civil War forced them to move to Texas. Belle married a criminal and had two sons. After her husband's death, she sent her sons to live with family and she began her outlaw life.

At the age of forty, Belle was killed by a shotgun blast to the back. Belle's killer was never found.

Answer: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura was born Wisconsin and spent most of her childhood and adult life in Missouri, South Dakota and Minnesota. She married Almanzo Wilder in 1885 and had one living daughter named Rose. After Almanzo became ill from diphtheria and they were struggling financially, Laura, Almanzo, and Rose moved to Florida where the climate was better for Almanzo.

In 1930, Laura began writing down stories of her youth and they were published. She died at the age of ninety-two in her bed in Mansfield.

Answer: Cathay Williams

Cathay was a house girl for the family of William Johnson in Missouri. After William Johnson died, Cathay was taken in by the Union army and made a servant. After her job with the Army ended, Cathay joined the elite group of black soldiers called buffalo soldiers under the name William Cathay. She served in the buffalo soldiers for two years before being discharged on October 14, 1868.

Answer: Narcissa Whitman

When Marcus and Narcissa Whitman began their journey along the Oregon Trail, they had no idea that it would end in death. The Whitmans took off in a covered wagon along with another couple to help people and preach the gospel. The traveling missionaries found themselves going back and forth between teaching the Cayuse Indians and helping white settlers.

After an epidemic swept through the trail killing more Cayuse Indians and children than white families, the Cayuse got angry and retaliated against the Whitmans. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman were massacred along with fourteen others.

The missions they had built along the trail were also burned to the ground. After Congress heard of this massacre, they gave status to the Oregon Trail making it the Oregon Territory.

Answer: Margaret Borland

Margaret Heffernan Borland was born in Ireland in 1824 to John and Julia Heffernan. Margaret traveled with her family from Ireland to Texas in 1829. Margaret was made a widow three times and each marriage brought children. After her last husband died, Margaret gathered her two youngest children, one granddaughter, several trail hands, and 25,000 head of cattle and headed to Kansas.

After reaching Wichita, Kansas, Margaret died of what is known as trail fever.

Answer: Annie Oakley

Phoebe Ann Moses (aka: Annie Oakley) was born on August 13, 1860 to a Quaker family. After her father died, Annie's mother sent her to a poor farm to work. To support her family, Annie shot wild game and sold it for money. She married Frank Butler in June of 1882 after beating him in a shooting match.

The last name of "Oakley" came from the street where Annie and Frank lived. After several freak accidents, Annie left the Wild West show and died at the age of sixty-six. Frank died more than two weeks later.

Answer: Calamity Jane

Martha Jane Canary was born in the town of Princeton, Missouri in 1852. She raised all five of her siblings after both parents died until she could find a home that would take them. Her work as a scout for the army was where she got the name Calamity Jane.

After Bill Hickok was killed in Deadwood, Jane claimed to have had his daughter and given her up for adoption even though there was no record found of it. Jane died from pneumonia in 1903 and was buried beside Bill Hickok as she requested.