Gold Rush, Rail Roads, and a sense of adventure, historians and Hollywood like
to use these stories often for origins of the wild west. But the contribution
of these factors was only limited to drawing people to the frontier. The Wild West didn’t
become the west until women arrived, and no we are not talking about wives and mothers of the
early settlers of the west. We are talking about the madams, the ladies of the lines,
and the white doves who used the world’s oldest profession to civilize the wild west. Welcome
to Nutty History and today let’s find out the filthy truth behind the brothels of the wild west.
Before women arrived at the frontier, the Wild West was Sad West as the towns back in the day
weren’t actually towns. They were just settlements with tents and holes. Some holes to sleep in,
some holes to do their morning business in, and lastly some holes for men to die in. These towns
were in fact simple work camps with no sense of domestic life whatsoever. These were the 1800s
and gender rules were quite strict. So, without women, domestic life was a distant dream for these
men. In fact, the situation was so dire that men would often take turns to cross-dress and comfort
each other or spend a fortune just to get their hands on women’s knickers or see a feminine ankle.
When women arrived in the west, they saw a lot of desperate men and they saw a clear financial
opportunity. There was no society yet in the wild west to judge these women and they knew
the demand for love in the frontier was high and supply simply didn’t exist unless… they provided
it! During the 1800s, job opportunities for women were extremely scarce. Those who dared to venture
this far out were relegated to roles like school teachers who would be paid a measly eighty dollars
a year. And that was the high end of paying jobs. Other opportunities were being laundresses,
clerks, and factory workers. Being a brothel worker not only allowed them to be independent
but a majority of women in this trade made more money than their customers, that is,
men. Once the sheets began selling on Wild West streets, the influx of women turned the
barren but testosterone-heavy camps into bustling fertile towns. Soon the women got wealthy with all
the money from desperate cowboys and they used it to create a market structure. Madams of the
Wild west often owned general stores, schools, and infirmaries and even provided money to build
churches so men could go and repent about spending time with Madam’s girls in the saloon. With all
these buildings cropping up, Wild West cities and towns were born. Madams had land, money,
and of course power but a lot of them used it to get orphans and poor kids into schools,
offer help during the civil war, and provide shelter during natural calamities. In fact,
it was the influence of the saloon girls that Wyoming became the first territory to offer
women the right to vote in 1869. Now don’t forget the suffrage movement didn’t begin in
the rest of America until 1920. Of course, the Wyoming suffrage law of 1869 was too vulgar for
the rest of America but Wyoming threatened to secede from the union if men of Washington DC
couldn’t bear the image of women voting. With a hurt male ego, Uncle Sam rescinded their demand
for abolishing the suffrage law. Because of the brothels of the Wild West, the idea of an
‘equality state’ spread, and the next eight states to pass suffrage laws were all from the West.
The office of soiled doves in the wild west could vary between the saloon, a dance hall, a ‘crib,’
a fancy parlor house, or even the street. These Saloons had humble beginnings in the Wild West.
The wagons these women arrived in as passengers had to do until buildings began cropping up. Due
to the political power held by madams, white doves had full legitimacy regarding the explicit nature
of their work and they had protection working right under the noses of the authorities in both
incorporated and unincorporated territories. However, the towns were small and humans well,
they have a tendency to populate quite rapidly. There would be nights when these saloons and
parlors would have more customers than the number of beds. The ladies of the line may have
protection from the law but that protection was often limited to permission to work as a ‘ceiling
expert.’ That’s not us making a humorous pun at the expense of these women but that was actually
a professional term used by their customers back then. Aggression against these working
girls was quite rampant in the west. First of all, the laws were rather ineffective to protect
women’s dignity, especially if they were in the business of being a parlor girl. Most of the time
women hesitated or shied away from reporting non consensual incidents because they knew the police
would not take their reports seriously and due to the report, the word of their tragedy would become
the gossip of the town. Fear of death was also a hazard on the job. Men sometimes became possessive
over the women or demanded more than they should. As a madam, it was necessary to have the skill of
breaking out a brawl or defending your girls from dangerous men. Madam Belgian Jennie, passed due
to her ex-lover who showed no mercy even after she was already wounded. Now, don't think these
women were safe with men who were polite and generous customers. In fact, there was a more
silent and dangerous peril that threatened these working women of saloons and parlors. Venereal
Diseases. Back in the 1800s venereal diseases were widespread and treatments for such ailments were
as dangerous as these diseases themselves. In the business of being a parlor or saloon girl, these
women were constantly vulnerable because you know penicillin wasn’t invented yet. So, for a madam,
it was of utmost importance that their girls stay healthy and well. A single rumor could damage the
reputation of their ‘fine’ establishment. Many madams would encourage their facility to have
monthly doctor visits and check-ups to make sure they were free from diseases. They will
also make sure that girls would maintain good hygiene and eat two proper meals every day.
So that they won’t appear sickly in any manner. Rubber was invented during the Wild West era and
was available in the West but was very expensive and so were the early versions of the diaphragm.
By some estimates, 20 percent of these workers became pregnant at some point in their careers.
Pregnancies were common in the life of a saloon girl and mostly unwanted. It was bad for their
life and bad for the business. However, avoiding pregnancies was a headache too. An archeological
dig of an early Wild West-era brothel site has revealed syringes used to inject mercury, arsenic,
and vinegar into the body to avoid pregnancies or treat venereal diseases. All those things are bad
for the human body! The Comstock Act of 1873 made things worse for the working ladies of the west.
It forced them to rely on homemade remedies which often didn’t produce desired results.
The substances they were forced to ingest to avoid unwanted pregnancies contained toxic ingredients,
often from plant sources. The true number of infants produced by working girls in the Old
West will never be known. At least some ladies, usually madams, were able to retire. The most
famous of them all is of course Sally Stanford who turned to politics after retirement and though it
took her five attempts, Sally won the election to the city council of Sausalito. Later she also was
elected mayor of the same town. When asked why she ran the fifth time, she replied with a smirk “We
sinners never give up.” Thank you for watching the nutty history of brothels in the Wild West,
hope you enjoyed the video. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more Nutty History.