Historian Anne Webb uncovered the forgotten stories of strong pioneer women who homesteaded on their own. She found records of thousands of female homesteaders — unmarried, widowed or divorced — who cultivated crops, built homes, raised children and eventually owned their land.
"You draw a strength from their success, or their perseverance," Webb, a Metropolitan State University history professor, said during a 1987 interview discussing her research.
Webb, a pioneer in her own right, died May 18 at a care facility in Bloomington from complications related to Alzheimer's disease. She was 87.
"It was groundbreaking work," said Jean Brookins, retired Minnesota Historical Society Press publisher. "It was early in the women's history movement and not many people were doing women's history, especially on the frontier."
Webb was born and raised in Yonkers, N.Y., and later Springfield, Mass., the daughter of Harold and Marie Smillie. In high school, she was told perhaps college wasn't for her.
A defiant Webb went on earn her bachelor's degree in history in 1953 from St. Lawrence University, and even studied abroad at St. Andrews University in Scotland for a year. Webb earned her master's degree in 1967 and her doctorate in history in 1976 from the University of Minnesota.
"She was strong-willed and she was intellectual," said her daughter, Jennifer Fusaro, of Eden Prairie.
Throughout her career, Webb devoted her research to women on the frontier, and colleagues said her findings were stunning, uncovering census and property records of thousands of lone women homesteaders — some who ventured to the edge of civilization on their own and others who survived after the death of or abandonment by a spouse.