Hearts West: True Stories of Mail Order Brides

Cover Via Goodreads

Hearst West

by Chris Enss

Edition: paperback, 2005

Synopsis: Complete with actual advertisements from both women seeking husbands and males seeking brides, New York Times bestselling book Hearts West includes twelve stories of courageous mail order brides and their exploits. Some were fortunate enough to marry good men and live happily ever after; still others found themselves in desperate situations that robbed them of their youth and sometimes their lives.

Desperate to strike it rich during the Gold Rush, men sacrificed many creature comforts. Only after they arrived did some of them realize how much they missed female companionship.

One way for men living on the frontier to meet women was through subscriptions to heart-and-hand clubs. The men received newspapers with information, and sometimes photographs, about women, with whom they corresponded. Eventually, a man might convince a woman to join him in the West, and in matrimony. Social status, political connections, money, companionship, or security were often considered more than love in these arrangements.

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