Journal Notes

Enter now to win a book for history lovers and brides to be who believe the risk is worth it all – Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Bride Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

When Carroll B. Rablen, a thirty-four year old veteran of World War II from Tuttletown, California, advertised for a bride he imagined hearing from a woman who longed to spend their life with him hiking and enjoying the historic, scenic beauty of the Gold Country in Northern California. The ad he placed in a San Francisco matrimonial paper in June 1928 was answered by Eva Brandon. The thirty-three year-old Eva was living in Quanah, Texas when she received a copy of the matrimonial publication.

If Carroll had been less eager to marry he might have noticed the immature tone Eva’s letters possessed. If he’d taken the time to scrutinize her words he might have been able to recognize a flaw in her thinking. According to the July 14, 1929 edition of the Ogden, Utah newspaper the Ogden Standard-Examiner, one of Eva’s first correspondences demonstrated that not only did she seem much younger than thirty-three years old, but she also had a dark side. “Mr. Rablen, Dear Friend,” the letter began. “You wrote about a son I have. He has had no father since he was a month old. The father left me. I haven’t seen him. If a man leaves me I don’t want to see them. And I’ll make sure I can’t.”

Eva left Texas for California in late April 1929. She and Carroll were married the evening of April 29, 1929. The dance that followed the nuptials at the Tuttletown school house was well attended by Carroll’s friends and neighbors. They were happy he had found someone to share his life. Eva twirled around the room dancing with anyone who wanted to join her. She was elated with her situation. Carroll on the other hand chose to wait outside for his new bride in the car. According to the Ogden Standard Examiner, Carroll was slightly deaf and despondent over the other physical ailments that kept him from fully enjoying the festivities.

When Carroll’s father, Stephen Rablen began regaling guests with his rendition of the song “Turkey in the Straw” on his fiddle, Eva excused herself and went outside to visit with her husband. She took a tray of sandwiches and coffee to him. He smiled proudly at her and commented on how thoughtful it was for her to bring him some refreshments. Carroll helped himself to a cup of coffee, blew across the top of it to cool it down then took a sip. He made a bit of a face as if the coffee lacked something. He took another drink to determine what it needed.

To learn more about how mail-order bride Eva Brandon killed

her husband read

Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

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“I am a man of wealth and position,” said the widower Shyon Brane to the marriage broker, “and I seek a suitable mate. She must be handsome, cleanly, economical, industrious, and virtuous, a good cook she must be, a thrifty buyer, a capable housekeeper, and not easily stressed. She must know something of music and the arts, dance well and be able to discourse intelligently on history and philosophy withal, she must be cheerful and of affectionate disposition.”

“Lo,” said the marriage broker, “you come too late. One thousand years ago there was such a paragon but the gods took her to keep house for them. There is no wife for you, but the employment agency can supply you with a dozen domestics, who, in a measure, may meet your demands.”

Article placed in the Santa Fe New Mexican, Santa Fe, New Mexico, March 9, 1920.

To learn more about mail-order brides and their potential husbands read

Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

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Deacon Joe Sleet’s correspondence with the widow Nellie Wallace was full of promise for the future. When they began writing one another in late 1925, Mrs. Wallace had hoped to find a man who would love and care for her as her deceased husband once had. When she placed an ad in the Get Acquainted section of a western magazine and the deacon responded, she believed he was the answer to her heart’s longing. “I’m not a flapper,” her advertisement read, “but I would like to exchange letters with a man between the age of twenty-five and thirty-two. I want a husband good and true, there is a chance it might be you,” the notice concluded.

Twenty-two-year-old Nellie Wallace lived in Tchula, Mississippi, 1,500 miles from Joes Sleet’s home in El Paso, Texas. Of all the letters she received in reply to her ad, Joe’s struck her fancy completely. In a short time Nellie was writing Joe to the exclusion of anyone else. Through his letters she learned that he was a deacon in the Baptist church and that he was a widower. Nellie confided in him that she too was the victim of a sad romance, her husband having died some years ago.

The correspondence was hardly a month old before Joe had been granted permission to call his fair correspondent “Sweetheart.” Another week and respective photographs were exchanged; still another and a row of x’s appeared at the bottom of their letters. Another month passed and more letters were delivered at the Sleet home. In one of those letters Nellie admitted there was a “spark of love aglow” in her heart.

To learn what happened to Deacon Sleet and Nellie Wallace read

Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

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The SS Continental pitched and rolled as it traveled over the rough waters of the Pacific Ocean en route to the northwestern section of the United States. The nearly three dozen women on board were violently ill with seasickness and desperate for the waves to subside. They were either lying on their bunks in their berths or hanging over the railing of the vehicle heaving into the sea. The tormented females were part of a unique group headed west in search of a spouse.

In 1860, Asa Mercer, a twenty-one-year-old educator and entrepreneur, conceived the idea of bringing eligible females to the Washington Territory in hopes of settling the area and making it fit for societal advancements. The Pacific Northwest was known as a man’s paradise. Everything a young man ever dreamed of or wanted was there, except young women.

Life without the presence of a woman to share a home and life grew monotonous-so much so, in fact, that a big percentage of single men vowed they could pull up stakes and seek a new place to settle unless someone did something in a hurry. Enter Asa Mercer.

Mercer organized an expedition of prospective brides to go west in 1864. He recruited dozens of young ladies (mostly teachers) to journey to a place where their talent and gender were in high demand. The Mercer Belles, as the primarily Massachusetts-born females became known, welcomed the chance to accompany the businessman on his second voyage to the growing coastal town of Seattle. In addition to offering the chance to meet and marry ambitious, hardworking bachelors, Mercer promised the eager, single passengers honorable employment in schools and good wages.

To learn more about the Mercer Belles and the other mail-order brides who came West read

Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

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Matrimonial clubs date as far back as 1849. Lonely hearts from Syracuse, New York, to San Francisco, California, joined such organizations in hopes of finding a suitable mate with whom to spend the rest of their lives. The New Plan Company based in Kansas City, Missouri, was a matrimonial club that claimed to have more than thirty-two thousand members during its existence from 1911 to 1917. According to the New Plan Company’s handbook, printed in the fall of 1910, the plan and method of the club were simple and easy to understand and follow.

“Our time and money is devoted entirely to the interest of the unmarried. We are dedicated to elevating and promoting the welfare of marriageable people and furnishing them with a safe, reliable, and confidential method at a nominal cost, whereby good honorable people of sincere and moral intentions, may better enable themselves to become acquainted with a large number of such people of the opposite sex as they may deem worthy of consideration, which may lead to their future happiness and prosperity.”

The follow are a sample of some of the ads placed in The New Plan Company catalog:

American; widow by death, age 38; weight, 135; height, 5 feet 6 inches; brown eyes; brown hair; Methodist religion; occupation, housewife, income $700 per year, business education and musician. Have means of $10,000. I am considered very good looking and neat. Will marry if suited.

A nice little blue-eyed Miss from North Carolina, with brown hair, age 18, weight 125, height 54 inches, fair complexion; can sing and plan piano; have a fine home, also have means of $50,000; my occupation is trained nurse; would like to hear from a nice young man of suitable age, rich or poor, but must be good-hearted and true; will marry a true love only.

Am not considered good looking, but make a nice appearance; plain, and neat dresser; immaculate character; quiet, loving disposition; Christian religion, age, 22; weight, 135; height 5 feet 4 inches, blue eyes; blonde hair; light complexion. Would like to hear from gentleman interested in missionary work.

To learn more about the mail-order bride business in the Old West or to read exciting tales about mail-order brides read

Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

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Long after an advertisement is placed in the newspaper by lonely hearts in need of a spouse, and once nerves have settled after meeting the bride or groom of choice for the first time, comes the challenge of making a mail-order marriage last. Matches that came about through a public announcement, marriage broker, or matrimonial agency in the mid-1800s were not necessarily unhappy. Though embodying more of the lottery element than the ordinary marriage is said to contain, they frequently yielded surprises to the persons involved.

Conscientious marriage brokers like Edgar Kaborchev of Bachmut, Russia, wanted his clients to be satisfied with their decision for a lifetime. Kaborchev resided in New York City and represented several men west of the Mississippi looking for a bride. According to the June 23, 1890, edition of the Longansport, Indiana, newspaper the Daily Reporter, Kaborchev provided photographs to those interested in marrying so “the individual who hired him could make a more informed decision about the person entering into such a sacred union.” Each photograph was accompanied by details concerning the social and financial standing of the person pictured.

The Daily Reporter noted that Kaborchev was “kindly received everywhere.” He was quick to point out to the eager men and women he had arranged to marry that he wanted them to be happy for years. “Knowing a potential spouse is attractive and of fair fortune before they exchange vows is the key to success,” Kaborchev proudly confessed.

To learn more about the mail-order bride business in the Old West or to read exciting tales about mail-order brides read

Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

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Annie Gayle was considered one of the prettiest, most ambitious girls in Akron, Ohio. Her eyes were large, her features were well proportioned, and her desire to go west was her number-one aspiration. She was well on her way to achieving her goal when she accepted the proposal of a man living in French Camp, California. He had advertised for an adventurous woman anxious to settle in the Gold Country and experience the excitement of the wild frontier. Annie wasted no time favorably responding to his letter asking for her hand in marriage.

Born an only child in 1874 to Charles Gayle and Margaret Stantz Gayle, Annie grew up hearing her father’s tales of the land beyond the Rockies and the endless possibilities to be had there. Charles died before he realized his own dream of moving to San Francisco. Fearing that the chance to make such a journey had died with her father, Annie decided to consider mail-order bride opportunities.

Horace Knapp, a handsome man in his late forties, collected his teenage bride-to-be at the train depot in Sacramento, California, on September 10, 1890. Annie was anxious to meet the sheepish suitor who had described himself in his letters as a “good fellow, with means and prospects.” The plan was for the two to marry the day after Annie arrived—and only if their first encounter proved to be mutually satisfactory. The couple dined together and discussed their possible future. By the end of the evening they were in complete accord to wed. Vows and a ring were exchanged the following morning.

Annie was delighted not only to be married, but also finally to be at a location that seemed bursting with potential. If she had remained in Ohio working at a millinery shop, life as a farmer’s wife was the best she thought she could hope for. She believed being Mrs. Knapp would bring her happiness, and she therefore surrendered to her husband the small amount of money she had earned working as a seamstress in Akron. It never crossed her mind that Horace might be untrustworthy. She was honest and thought everyone else was as well.

The newlyweds moved to a small cabin nestled in a mining community in the San Juan Valley. Everything went along nicely. It was as though the couple had been settled for years in their new position. Horace invested his wife’s funds in a mining venture he explained to her would produce great dividends—enough for them to see the world beyond California. Annie was thrilled by the idea, and while her husband was away tending to their interests, she planned trips to distant lands.

One night, alone again in their fledgling homestead, a ragged little boy arrived at the doorstep and delivered a soiled note to her. It read as follows:

To learn more about the note found on the doorstep and tales from other mail-order brides read Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

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Business for matrimonial publications increased substantially whenever stories of successful mail-order connections were made. Editors for periodicals such as Matrimonial News and the New Plan Company shared happy ever after tales with daily newspapers in hopes they would print the romantic adventures of correspondence couples.

Several such stories appeared in newspapers like the Waterloo Daily Courier in Waterloo, Iowa and the North Adams Evening Transcript in North Adams, Massachusetts around Valentine’s Day in 1905.  Advertisements around the mail-order articles consisted of flower shops, jewelry stores, and chocolate makers.  According to a post in the February 6, 1905 edition of the Waterloo Daily Courier, readership for the paper doubled on romantic holidays like Saint Valentine’s Day and Christmas.  “Whenever mail-order love stories are printed, and particularly those that present a high view of matrimony and the fun couples could have in a happy marriage,” the editorial staff at the Courier noted, “the circulation grows.”

An article entitled “Would She Bother Him?” which ran on Sunday, February 10, 1905, was an example of a story that generated significant business for the Iowa paper.

“Martin Perkins, aged forty-one, and Eliza Gulless, aged thirty-seven, sat before an open wood fire, he holding his hands, she knitting. For two years the couple corresponded via mail then came the day Mr. Perkins asked Miss Gulless to come west.  Miss Gulless, now Mrs. Perkins, agreed.  Mr. Perkins resided in the area of Bisbee, Arizona.  The future Mrs. Perkins left her parents and siblings behind in Ohio to join him.  The two met through a mail-order advertisement.

“Twice a week for ten months the pair met. On Wednesday they were together at the church for choir practice and Saturday evenings were spent at Miss Gulless’s home talking and getting to know each other further.  Mr. Perkins lived with his mother and half the people in the Bisbee area said it would be a shame for him to marry and leave his mother alone, the other half maintained he was morally bound to marry Miss Gulless.

“During the ten months they spent together Mr. Perkins was endeavoring to make up his mind that it would be safe for a man of his confirmed habits to enter matrimony. He sat with Miss Gulless engaged in the same occupation every week-holding his hands with the occasional twirling of his thumbs-while Miss Gulless knitted.  But at last he had come to the determination to ask her to become his wife.”

To learn more about Miss Gulless and other mail-order brides read

Object Matrimony:

The Risky Business of Mail Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

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When Carroll B. Rablen, a thirty-four–year-old veteran of World War II from Tuttletown, California, advertised for a bride, he imagined hearing from a woman who longed to spend her life with him hiking and enjoying the historic, scenic beauty of the Gold Country in Northern California. The ad he placed in a San Francisco matrimonial paper in June 1928 was answered by Eva Brandon. The thirty-three-year-old Eva was living in Quanah, Texas when she received a copy of the matrimonial publication.

If Carroll had been less eager to marry he might have noticed the immature tone Eva’s letters possessed. If he’d taken the time to scrutinize her words he might have been able to recognize a flaw in her thinking. According to the July 14, 1929 edition of the Ogden, Utah newspaper the Ogden Standard-Examiner, one of Eva’s first correspondences demonstrated that she not only seemed much younger than thirty-three years old, but also had a dark side. “Mr. Rablen, Dear Friend,” the letter began. “You wrote about a son I have. He has had no father since he was a month old. The father left me. I haven’t seen him. If a man leaves me I don’t want to see them. And I’ll make sure I can’t.”

Eva left Texas for California in late April 1929. She and Carroll were married the evening of April 29, 1929. The dance that followed the nuptials at the Tuttletown school house was well attended by Carroll’s friends and neighbors. They were happy he had found someone to share his life. Eva twirled around the room, dancing with anyone who wanted to join her. She was elated with her situation. Carroll, on the other hand, chose to wait outside for his new bride in the car. According to the Ogden Standard Examiner, Carroll was slightly deaf and despondent over the other physical ailments that kept him from fully enjoying the festivities.

When Carroll’s father, Stephen Rablen, began regaling guests with his rendition of the song “Turkey in the Straw” on his fiddle, Eva excused herself and went outside to visit with her husband. She took a tray of sandwiches and coffee to him. He smiled proudly at her and commented on how thoughtful it was for her to bring him some refreshments. Carroll helped himself to a cup of coffee, blew across the top of it to cool it down then took a sip. He made a bit of a face as if the coffee lacked something. He took another drink to determine what it needed.

Shortly after Carroll swallowed the brew a third time, he dropped the cup and began to scream. Eva watched him slump over in the front seat of the car. Carroll continued to scream. Wedding guests poured out of the building to see what was wrong. Carroll’s father pushed past the people to get to his son. “Papa. Papa,” Carroll repeated, reaching out for Stephen’s hand. “The coffee was bitter … so bitter.”

Emergency services were called to the scene, but by the time they arrived Carroll had slipped into an unconscious state. Attendees at the reception told reporters for the local newspaper that Eva simply stood back and watched the action play out around her. She wore no expression at all; no worry, concern, anxiety, nothing. An ambulance transported Carroll to the hospital and Eva road along quietly in the vehicle with her husband. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

To learn more about the mail-order brides and the ads that lured them West read Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier