1820 – Judith Sargent Murray, American author, playwright, poet and women’s rights advocate, known for her essay “On the Equality of the Sexes” published in the Massachusetts Magazine in 1790 (b. 1751) passed away.
Fat, Fair and Plan On Losing No Weight
Enter to win a copy of two books about mail order brides of the Old West. The titles you can win are
Hearts West:
True Stories of Mail Order Brides on the Frontier and
Object Matrimony:
The Risky Business of Mail Order Match Making on the Western Frontier.
In the early days of westward travel, when men and women left behind their homes and acquaintances in search of wealth and happiness, there was a recognized need for some method of honorable introduction between the sexes. The need was readily fulfilled by the formation of a periodical devoted entirely to the advancement of marriage. Throughout the 1870s, 80s and 90s, that periodical, to which many unattached men and women subscribed, was a newspaper called Matrimonial News. Here’s a sample of one of the advertisements that appeared in the publication:
No. 245 – I am fat, fair and plan on losing no weight. I am 48, 5 feet high. Am a No. 1 lady, well fixed with no encumbrance: am in business in city, but want a partner who lives in the West. Want an energetic man that has some means, not under 40 years of age and weight not less than 180; of good habits. A Christian gentlemen preferred.
To learn more about mail order brides and the advertisements they placed in various publications read Hearts West: True Stories of Mail Order Brides on the Frontier and Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail Order Match Making on the Western Frontier.
This Day…
1916 – Iva Toguri D’Aquino, “Tokyo Rose”, American typist and broadcaster, broadcast English-language propaganda via Radio Tokyo to Allied soldiers during WWII was born; the Department of Justice deemed her information innocuous, but she was eventually tried and convicted of one count of treason. She was eventually pardoned after witness testimony was shown to be false. (d. 2006)
A Husband Wanted
Enter to win a copy of two books about mail order brides of the Old West. The titles you can win are Hearts West: True Stories of Mail Order Brides on the Frontier
and
Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail Order Match Making on the
Western Frontier.
A Husband Wanted
By a lady who can wash, cook, scour, sew, milk, spin, weave, hoe, (can’t plow), cut wood, make fires, feed the pigs, raise the chickens, rock the cradle, (gold-rocker, I thank you sir!), saw a plank, drive nails, etc. These are a few solid branches; now for the ornamental. “Long time ago” she was good at syntax. She can read Murray’s Geography and through the rules in Pike’s Grammar. Could find six states on the Atlas. Could read, and you can see she can write. Can – no, could paint roses, butterflies, ships, etc. Could once dance, can ride a horse, donkey or oxen, besides a great many things too numerous to be named.
Now for her terms. Her age is none of our business. She is neither handsome nor a fright, yet an old man need not apply, nor any who have not a little more education than she has, and a great deal more goods, for there must be $20,000 settled on her before she will bind herself to perform all the above.
Advertisement placed in the Marysville, California newspaper in April 1849 by Dorothy Scaraggs.
To learn more about mail order brides and the advertisements they placed in various publications read Hearts West: True Stories of Mail Order Brides on the Frontier and
Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail Order Match Making on the
Western Frontier.
