Beyond Schoolmarms and Madams

Sheriff Garfield had just been elected to a second term in 1920 when he was fatally shot. His wife Ruth, a ranching woman with a young son, set aside her grief to serve out her husband's term. She was Montana's first female sheriff and served two years. Stories like Ruth Garfield's fill the pages of Beyond Schoolmarms and Madams: Montana Women's Stories. The women featured in this book range from late eighteenth-century Indian women warriors to twenty-first century Blackfeet banker Elouise Cobell. They span geography--from the western Montana women who worked for the Forest Service, to Miles City doctor Sadie Lindeberg. And they span ideology--from the members of the Montana Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, who led the fight for laws banning segregation in public accommodations, to the Women of the Ku Klux Klan. With grit and foresight, these women shaped Montana.


About the Author
Martha Kohl is a Historical Specialist at the Montana Historical Society. She received both her BA and MA in History from Washington University in St. Louis. She served as project manager and lead historian for Montana: Stories of the Land, the Society's award-winning middle-school Montana history textbook. Her book, I Do: A Cultural History of Montana Weddings, was published in 2011.