the start of the 20th century. While accepting the domestic role established by the cult of domesticity, their reformist activities reveal a persistent demand for self-expression outside the home. Homesteading was a significant experience for altering women's perceptions of their roles. They expressed their aesthetic interests in gardens and organized social activities. Though these clubs allowed women to fulfill their traditional roles they also encouraged women to pursue social, intellectual, and community interests. Women took an active role in the Progressive Movement, especially in battles for suffrage, prohibition, and better schools. Women were also prominent in church activities, charity work, and crime reduction. Childbirth was serious and sometimes life-threatening for rural women well into the 20th century. Although large families were favored by farm families, most women employed birth control methods to space their children and limit their family size. Pregnant women had little access to modern knowledge about prenatal care. Delivery was the big gamble; the great majority gave birth at home, with the services of a midwife or an experienced neighbor. Despite the increased availability of hospital care after the 1920s, modern medical benefits to mitigate the danger of childbirth were not available to most rural Montana women until the World War II era. Agricultural history Cattle ranching Cattle ranching has long been central to Montana's history and economy. Cattle ranching came early to Montana with the entrepreneurship of Johnny Grant in the Deer Lodge Valley in the late 1850s, who traded fat cattle to settlers in exchange for two trail-worn (but otherwise healthy) animals. He later sold his ranch to Conrad Kohrs, who developed a major cattle empire in the area. Today, Grant's core homestead is the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site on the edge of Deer Lodge, and is maintained as a living demonstration of the ranching style of the late 19th century. It is operated by the National Park Service. In 1866 Nelson Story brought the first herd of Texas longhorns up from Texas. Additional herds came into Montana east of the divide and initially expanded greatly on the open range. Montana stockmen and farmers survived the slump in mining during the early 1870s and were ready by mid-decade to expand eastward onto the plains, as a recovery in mining led to improved markets. However, cattle ranching expanded beyond the carrying capacity of the land, and a drought year combined with the harsh winter of