Agnes Morley Cleaveland

Agnes Morley as a Stanford Women's Basketball player circa 1899.

"I wrote the two eight-line stanzas in a careful, precise hand, and put the sheet of paper in the bottle, and sealed it with its pressed-glass stopper. Then I rode to the spot where I had met the Indians who were so interested in my hair. Under a tree, which stood a little apart from all the other trees, I buried my bottled poem.

I hope it is there yet, nestled in the safe embrace of the clinging earth, guarded by the silent mountains, sung to by the whispering trees, all undisturbed by the eerie howl of coyotes, or the agonizingly human cry of mountain lions!"

No one knows when Agnes learned to write so well.  Chances are it was sometime deep in her girlhood. Her first mention of writing comes in what we call "The Perfume Bottle Story" early in "No Life for a Lady" and partially quoted above.

Clearly, Agnes had a stellar gift in her way with words.  She could write circles around anyone in her early life.  We speculate Agnes picked up her writing skills from Mom Ada who seemed to be writing all the time to someone somewhere about something.  After all, Mom Ada had a degree in English Literature!

Without Agnes, it's debatable if The Morley Family Story would ever have been known.  There's no doubt that Ray Morley would have achieved the fame and fortune that he did.  But what would our world be without "No Life for a Lady?"  A dimmer world for sure!

Since we haven't yet read "Open Range," the biography of Agnes, we're missing yet a lot of pieces of her total life.  However, we will attempt to tell her story with what we have.

The Lucien Maxwell House in Cimarron, New Mexico.

Not only did Agnes have great writing skills, she had that rare ability to remember things in great detail. Take, for example, her earliest recollection of living in Cimarron:

"A hot midday sun beats down on the adobe walls of the old Maxwell House.  I am sitting in the triangle of shade cast by one side of the deep doorway. In my two hands I hold a slice of bread and butter sprinkled with brown sugar. There sounds a hoarse cry. Startled, I drop my slice of bread in th4e dfust at the foot of the doorstep."

Agnes describes a brutal, violent killing that takes place and the dead man falls in front of her. Agnes continues her recollection:

"I gaze upon with two tragedies with equal distress---the dead man a few feet away from me and the slice of buttered and sugared bread in the dust at me feet."

Mom Ada's home schooling isn't mentioned in "No Life for a Lady" but we're confident it was part of Child Life for Agnes, Ray and Lora.  So, when Agnes was sent off to a Quaker school in Philadelphia, it's little wonder, the Principal remarked to her, "Thee expresses thyself well, my child. Be care that three does not let thy imagination run away with three."

Luckily for us and untold thousands of her readers, Agnes didn't heed the Quaker's advice.  Agnes inscribed a wide ranging writer's legacy far beyond her forever famous "No Life for a Lady."  We've enjoyed every one of her words that we've found.  Her literary skills were a great gift not only to readers of her Life & Time but will remain a treasure into the far flung future.

Agnes finished her higher education at Stanford where she also made history playing women's basketball, a huge paradigm shift from chasing cows in the Datils!  Agnes graduated in 1900 and married Newton Cleaveland  shortly thereafter. Agnes was blessed with a loving husband who supported her many trips "back home" to Datil.  Her son Norman regales his first trip there as an infant in 1901.

"We got well out onto the plains, nearly halfway to Granny's when a coyote trotted across the road in front of us. To my mother's horror, the lad dropped the reins, reached under the seat, and grabbed a rifle. My mother shouted, "Don't shoot, don't shoot, don't shoot!" She couldn't restrain him physically, because I was in her arms. The lad shot. The team bolted, broke the traces, and away they went

across the plains.  The lad ran after them. My mother sat there for about three hours before a freighter comes along with a covered wagon, but he was fully loaded. The only place he could put further

passengers was on top a coop of chickens in the back end of the wagon, where my mother couldn't sit up straight, because of the cover. The rocking of the wagon was sickening, the smell of the

chickens was also sickening. But worst of all, the milk turned sour, and I would not abide sour milk. So I nearly squalled my lungs out. Then Mom ran out of diapers, so she was in a horrible mess." 

"No Life for a Lady" is, of course, a timeless classic book but it tells nothing of  The Agnes Story much beyond Datil.  We learn of her marriage and Motherhood only from other sources.  Finding other examples of her writing is likewise a sort of an treasure hunt that brings reward only after digging deeply through many sources.

We're looking forward to reading "Open Range: The Life of Agnes Morley Cleaveland" by Darlis A. Miller.  We hope that Miller's work opens some more doors into that labyrinth of The Life of Agnes Morley Cleaveland.

This is a photo of Agnes circa late 1930's most likely taken near Navajo Lodge in Datil.  
This would have been about the time when Agnes decided to begin writing her book.

Fortunately, Agnes has her own roadside Historical marker near Datil.  It may be one of the few such roadside historical markers anywhere with Mother and Daughter  sharing both sides of the marker!

Courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/No-LIfe-for-a-Lady-121678261185971/

If you are interested in Agnes, please begin by reading "No Life for a Lady."  That's mandatory.

Miller's book would be a good second step.  Meanwhile, here are some links to assist your study:

 The Agnes Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Morley_Cleaveland

A short bio & commentary on Miller's book:
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/last-survivor-of-the-old-days/article_6215bc37-2083-5f3a-91b9-5662a150c2e8.html

https://www.nmhistoricwomen.org/location/agnes-morley-cleaveland/

J. Frank Dobie's 1941 review of "No Life for a Lady".

Dobie, J. Frank. Southwest Review, vol. 27, no. 1, Southern Methodist University, 1941, pp. 161–63, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43462695

Good Luck and Have Fun in your own search for more information about Agnes!