by Chris Enss
American girl; farmer’s daughter; raised on the farm, own 40 acres of land; father owns 100. Would consider marriage if I can find some good honest man, no objections to widower with one or two children. My age is 22; weight, 160; height 5 feet 6 inches; black hair and eyes. Write and learn more.
Am a home loving lady never was married, am lonely and wish to hear from a good man who loves home life. I am German American; age 30; weight, 140; height 5 feet 4 inches; blue eyes; light hair; fair complexion. Have some real estate. Prefer city life. Matrimonially inclined.
A widow of refinement and education would be pleased to hear from gentlemen, one who is not looking for money, but for a companion. Am a well read woman, traveled ten years for a firm and have been all over U.S.A. Age 50, weight 160, height 5 feet 2 inches; dark blue eyes, dark hair mixed with gray. Nationality English-Scotch. Will answer all letters containing stamps.
Boys, you’ll enjoy receiving my letters, for I’m a jolly girl. Age, 24; weight, 130; height 5 feet 5 inches; brown eyes; blonde hair, nationality, French; Catholic religion; occupation, stenographer; income, $1,000; play violin. Will write for fun or matrimony. Catholic preferred.
If any of the advertisements resulted in matrimony, the subscriber and author of the ad agreed to pay a $5.00 service fee to the magazine.
We aid our members in every way possible to find their “ideal” and expect they will be prompt in paying us when they find the person of their choice, as we receive nothing for our time and labor until marriage occurs. We realize that we have something to do and will work faithfully.
The New Plan—1917
AFTERWORD
Throughout the mid-1800s, adventurous men from Boston to Georgia rushed west to lay claim to parts of the wild frontier. They came to farm, trap, ranch, and establish businesses. Those who heard the California streams were lined with gold came to find their fortune. While some found riches, many struggled winter after winter, unable to find a single nugget. Prosperous or poor, all at one time or another were lonesome, longing for the stability only the company of a woman could provide.
As there were very few available women living in the West, the only option was to attract women from the East. In an effort to entice the female population to the unsettled land, unique methods were employed. Men sought prospective brides through churches back home, letters to available schoolteachers, and advertisements in newspapers and magazines.
The practice of seeking a bride in this manner continued on into the turn of the century. Women in the East and the Midwest responded to ads, exchanged letters and photos, and eventually agreed to marry men they had never met. Ranchers like John Bartly of North Dakota had doubts that he would find a wife through an advertisement. After his friends assured him there was a chance it could happen, he reluctantly placed an ad in a Pennsylvania newspaper.
The article on page four of the May 8, 1912, edition of a North Dakota newspaper proved that Bartly’s friends were right and restored his faith in want ads.
Reverend C.L. Wallace of the Methodist church solemnized a marriage last evening which is the happy culmination of a novel but ardent courtship. About a year and a half ago, John Bartly, a prosperous farmer of Newbre Township and the step son of P.W. Hinebaugh, advertised in some rural paper for a wife with which to share his prosperity and comfortable home. He stated the fact that he was the owner of a well stocked farm of 640 acres of Ramsey County land. The advertisement found its way to McIntosh, Minnesota, where Mrs. C. E. Davis, who is devoted to her grand daughter, Margery, and is desirous that the young girl should enjoy some of the luxuries of life which she could not afford to give her, answered the advertisement without consulting the young lady.
When the gentlemen’s answer came, it not only pleased the fond parent, but met the approval of Miss Davis and immediately a lively correspondence with an exchange of photographs sprung up. This continued a year and by that time the young man decided that Miss Davis was the girl he wanted and asked her to come to North Dakota and be his wife. He wrote the grandmother at the same time assuring her of the sincerity and desires to give her grandchild a good home.
The date was set and the young lady, accompanied by Mrs. Davis, reached Lakota last evening. It was agreed before hand that each should wear a bouquet of flowers so that there would be no difficulty in recognizing one another. Mr. Bartly was at the depot at Lakota with a large number of friends. It was a case of complete satisfaction and they lost no time in coming to the county seat to secure the license, and have the ceremony performed. It occurred at the Sevilla Hotel last evening and the bride looked very attractive in a suit of dark blue serge with a veil of bridal net caught with a wreath and carrying a large bridal bouquet.
Mr. and Mrs. Mallough who are residents of the Sevilla, consented to be the attendants and it was a very impressive scene. Had it not been the busy season of the year the groom would have had a more elaborate wedding with a reception at his large country home, but under the circumstances it was a very quiet affair.
The Devils Lake Daily Journal—1912
Not everyone who favorably answered mail-order bride advertisements enjoyed happily-ever-after endings. In the case of a bachelor from Buford, North Dakota, the wedding was called off shortly after the engaged couple met.
Strange indeed was the experience of two girls aged nineteen and twenty years, who reached this city on Saturday without money and absolutely helpless.
As the story goes, the two girls left their homes, for they are not sisters, several weeks ago to come to Buford, North Dakota. One of the girls has been corresponding with a farmer living near Buford and their correspondence had progressed to the point where he had popped the question.
The girl immediately started for Buford from far away New York, but her friend insisted on accompanying her, probably with the hope that she, too, would become entangled matrimonially. But when they arrived at Buford and the elder of the two had gazed upon the face of the man with whom she had been corresponding the spell was immediately broken. He didn’t suit. In fact he wouldn’t do at all. The other girl fully acquiesced in the decision and so they started back again.
As girls will do, they carried all their money in one pocketbook and in some way this was lost with the result that they reached Grand Forks financially embarrassed to say the least. They took the only course they could take under the circumstances and told their story to Chief Lowe. Through his aid and that of other interested citizens enough money was raised to send them at least a long way on their return trip to Rochester.
They are sadder and wiser girls than when they left home and it is hardly likely that they will ever again, no matter what matrimonial stringency may come, try the correspondence route to matrimony.
The Wahpeton Times, North Dakota—March 9, 1911
In spite of the occasional mismatch or short-lived union, historians at the National Archive Department in Washington believe that mail-order brides produced a high percentage of permanent marriages. The reason cited is that the advertisements were candid and direct in their explanations of exactly what was wanted and expected from a prospective spouse. And if requested, the parties involved sent accurate photos of themselves along with a page of background information. Often, when the pair met, the groom-to-be signed an agreement, witnessed by three upstanding members of the territory, not to abuse or mistreat the bride-to-be. The prospective bride then signed a paper (also witnessed) not to nag or try to change the intended.
Desperate bachelors and pining maidens were willing to consent to whatever terms were necessary in order to secure a spouse. The scarcity of females in the West and the rapidly changing times forced traditional thinking women and men to succumb to new ways of finding a mate. Mail-order couples wed in hopes that their mutually beneficial marriage would develop into love. History records that many times the result was, indeed, a happily-ever-after life for both.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris Enss is an award-winning screen writer who has written for television, short subject films, live performances, and for the movies. She is the co-author (with JoAnn Chartier) of The Globe Pequot Press’s Love Untamed: True Romances Stories of the Old West, Gilded Girls: Women Entertainers of the Old West, and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon: Women Patriots and Soldiers of the Old West and The Cowboy and the Senorita and Happy Trails (with Howard Kazanjian). Her research and writing reveals the funny, touching, exciting, and tragic stories of historical and contemporary times.
Enss has done everything from stand-up comedy to working as a stunt person at the Old Tucson Movie Studio. She learned the basics of writing for f
ilm and television at the University of Arizona, and she is currently working with Return of the Jedi producer Howard Kazanjian on the movie version of The Cowboy and the Senorita, their biography of western stars Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.
