As men press west across America and begin to settle down, one thing soon becomes clear: there is a distinct lack of women. A man's only option is to advertise, contact friends or family back east, for a bride to come to him. These are just a few of the stories.

This was a fun and interesting read! Like Frontier Teachers, which I read first, this is a short book with short chapters. Some of the chapters tell of a mail order "romance", whether it ended happily or not, and other chapters share actually advertisements of men and women from the past.

The last one was my favorite part of the book. Some of the ads made me sad, thinking about how desperate the person writing it must have felt. And others made me laugh. (I totally didn't contemplate what I would have put in my own advertisement).

It did come as a surprise to see a familiar name here. A teacher featured Frontier teacher was also a mail order bride. her parents answered the ad on her behalf. Sadly, it was not a happy ending and Bethenia Owens-Adair took on a teaching position after her marriage failed.

Overall, this was an entertaining read and provided a lot of detail in a short amount of time. I would recommend this to a reader who wants to know more about the business of mail order brides. ( )

I can't even imagine moving 3000 miles in the last 19th century to marry a man you've never met! ( )

I can't even imagine moving 3000 miles in the last 19th century to marry a man you've never met! ( )

True stories of mail order brides of the Gold Rush era.

"a gentleman of 25yrs, 5feet 3inches desires the acquaintance
of a young, intelligent, refined lady possessed of some means, of a loving disposition from 18 to 23, and one who could make a home a paradise

4*

easy to read and a great deal to learn about this era ( )

The settlement of the western United States was largely done by men who were trying to make their fortunes in the California Gold Rush, the silver mines of Colorado or as farmers or ranchers in the vast expanse of the great plains of the United States. y the end of the Civil War there was a predicament of too many me in the west where men could out-number women by a ratio of 12:1, and too many women in the east where the male population had been depleted due to the war. To solve this problem a newspaper called Matrimonial News was born. It ran advertisements from both men and women looking for spouses and was in existence from 1970 until the turn of the Twentieth Century, and was clearly the precursor of such modern dating web sites as match.com. The book tell the story of almost two dozen couples who met and married though the mail.

One has to admire the women who took their future into their own hands and took off from the comfortable eastern United States to the wilds of California or the Pacific Northwest. They were resourceful, practically fearless and always up for a good adventure. The book, based on the letters and diaries of these pioneer women, tells their stories with great compassion and affection.

To read this book i to find new admiration for the women who came before us and new appreciation for our own forebears,. ( )