Journal Notes

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Object Matrimony:

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

There’s an old cowboy expression that goes, “There’s only two things I’m afraid of, a decent woman an’ bein’ left afoot.” Being afraid of a decent woman didn’t stop lonesome cowboys from answering the following ads placed in specialty newspapers in 1887 from ladies looking for a husband.

“Would like to correspond with a rancher about 30 to 35 years old. Am an American widow of 33; height 5 feet 2 inches; weight, 200; brown eyes, brown hair; common school education. Personal property worth $1,500. Object matrimony. No flirts need write.”

“I am a modest little girl of 19 summers with pleasant disposition, black hair, pretty brown eyes, fair complexion, weight 134, height 5 feet 6 inches; I am a farmer’s daughter, dress plain but neat; can cook and do housework; fond of dancing and like amusement; would be willing to live in country; all letters answered. Object, matrimony.”

To learn more about the serious business of finding a husband or wife by mail in the wide-open days of the Old West read Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

Enter now to win a copy of the book along with a $100 gift certificate from David’s Bridals

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Object Matrimony:

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

If these matchmaking ads for women seeking a husband from 1877 were posted online today, I suspect they’d go viral.

“The people say that I am a good neighbor; a nice housekeeper, good cook and fine manager, always clean and neat, fond of home and children, and try to make home the happiest place on earth; am a widow; American, age 43, weight 120, height 5 feet 4 inches, blue eyes, brown hair, good education; have $500 personal property; object matrimony.”

“Here I am boys, all the way from Texas, a black-eyed maiden of 30 years with dark hair, a brunette type, weight 115, height 5 feet 4 inches, nationality German, religion Protestant, college education and piano player; wish to correspond with businessmen, Western men preferred, between the age 40 to 45. Will answer all letters.”

To learn more about the serious business of finding a husband or wife by mail in the wide-open days of the Old West read Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

Enter now for to win a copy of the book along with a $100 gift certificate from David’s Bridals

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Object Matrimony:

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

“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, clean, 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 arts, dance well and be able to discourse intelligently on history and philosophy withal, she must be cheerful and of affectionate disposition.”

“Oh,” said the marriage broker, “you’ve 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.”

To learn more about the serious business of finding a husband or wife by mail in the wide-open days of the Old West read Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

Enter now to win a copy of the book along with a $100 gift certificate from

David’s Bridals.

Enter now to win a copy of

Object Matrimony:

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

People in the American West have been using the mail-order system to find a spouse since Russell, Majors, and Waddell created the Pony Express. Ads were placed in the newspaper Matrimonial News and interested parties would send a letter to the ad they found most appealing. Women were very discerning about the men who wrote them. Many saw it more as a business venture. Some women wanted zero from a man, others wanted lots of zeros from a man.

In the mid-1860s, women believed they had to be married by a certain age or they’d never find stability. I wished someone had told them that looking to men for stability is liking going to Dr. Hannibal Lecter for psychoanalysis.

What women were looking for in a man hasn’t changed much from the 19^th century. They wanted fair treatment, respect, patience, sensitivity, passion, and a genuine effort at understanding. Or if that’s too much, a gigantic diamond the size of a wagon wheel. Oh, yeah, and the knowledge that if don’t tell her how to merge she won’t tell you to ask for directions.

I’m thrilled I no longer have to think about this aspect of life. I’ve been married for thirty-six years and wouldn’t start over again for anything. I believe the selection of eligible men isn’t great. And if you look like Ruth Buzzi it’s even worse. I was thinking about this the other day when I was at the post office. Standing in front of me was some guy in his mid-seventies. He was wearing a powder-blue polyester shirt more pilled than a nightstand at Graceland, and was dusted with so much dandruff, I was tempted to place Christmas Village figurines on his shoulders. He was also wearing a cap with the phrase ASK ME ABOUT MY PROSTATE on it, and off-white slacks with a white belt, and there was a large pee spot near his left knee. This guy is in the pool of candidates I’d have to select from if I were single at sixty-three.

I wonder if the woman who placed the following ad in 1869 had the same thoughts.

“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.”

To learn more about the serious business of finding a husband or wife by mail in the wide-open days of the Old West read Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier.

Enter now to win a copy of the book along with a $100 gift certificate from David’s Bridals

Enter now to win a copy of

Object Matrimony:

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

When gold was discovered in the far West during the nineteenth century, a billowing mass of humanity swept toward the setting sun with the swiftness of a tidal wave. Prospectors, businessmen, and explorers came seeking a better way of life and with the hope of amassing a fortune. No matter what riches were to be had or the endless territories yet to be conquered, unattached settlers who made the journey longed for a companion to share the new land.

The need for marriageable women in the West immediately following the Gold Rush was great. At the close of the Civil War, the lack of men in the East was just as pronounced. Capitalizing on that need on both sides of the country were mail-order bride publications.

The lonely-hearts ads placed in mail-order publications and tales of various love affairs found in the book Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier reveal how those desperate souls looked for that special someone.

More than 170 years after the first mail-order bride, the same method of choosing a life partner is still being used by some. Object Matrimony contains stories of the origin of the practice and the romantic unions that came about as a result, as well as the disappointments and desertions.

Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier by New York Times bestselling author Chris Enss is now available in bookstores everywhere, on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and at nbnbooks.com.

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David’s Bridals

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The Pinks:

The First Women Detectives, Operatives, and Spies with the

Pinkerton National Detective Agency

“When Allan Pinkerton founded the Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1850, he not only became the world’s first “private eye,” he also established an organization that would set the global standard for investigative and security excellence for generations to come.

But the agency had only just begun the process of setting that standard when Kate Warne walked into Allan Pinkerton’s office six years later and asked for a job. Her request was well timed. Pinkerton was keenly focused on new opportunities and was consciously looking to make bold choices that reinforced his vision of Pinkerton as an innovator and a disruptor.

Warne’s confidence and persuasive skills were impressive, and Pinkerton’s flexibility and willingness to “defy convention” perhaps equally so. It is to his credit, and to the enduring credit of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, that it took Pinkerton less than twenty-four hours to inform Warne that he would hire her—a decision that made her the nation’s first female detective. It was a remarkable turn of events at a time when only 15 percent of women held jobs outside of the home, and contemporary ideas about what constituted “women’s work” severely limited employment opportunities for women.

Kate Warne, and the accomplished women who played such an important role in building the Pinkerton Detective Agency into an iconic global security and law enforcement institution, made it abundantly clear that the prevailing definition of “women’s work” was not just inadequate, but wholly obsolete.

Kate’s story, and the stories of all these remarkable female operatives—presented so beautifully and in such rich detail here in this fascinating and important book—are not just a moving reminder of the achievements of a handful of bold pioneers, they are also a remarkable testament to the exemplary tradition of innovation that has distinguished the Pinkerton name over the course of more than a century and a half of dedicated service.

As you read The Pinks and enjoy these fascinating profiles of gifted Pinkerton operatives, you will readily see how their work and their character exemplified the agency’s values of Integrity, Vigilance, and Excellence. Ultimately, those attributes are at the heart of these tales, and at the heart of the larger Pinkerton story. It’s a history that spans three centuries, with compelling new chapters still being written each and every day.”

Jack Zahran, President of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency

To learn more about Kate Warne read The Pinks

The January 2025 issue of the review magazine

“Library Bookwatch” features a review of “Meet the Kellys”.

Synopsis: How did a small-time, hip-pocket bootlegger become one of the most notorious gangsters in the country? For George “Machine Gun” Kelly, the answer was simple: a woman.

Her name was Kathryn Thorne, a charming, strong-minded beauty who had family connections in the crime world — and big ambitions for the tall, handsome bootlegger. By the time she met Kelly, she was already an experienced criminal herself, divorced twice, and ready to marry a man who could give her the posh life she always dreamed of. With that in mind, she bought Kelly his first machine gun. And the rest is Prohibition era history…

George Kelly wasn’t a natural-born gangster and never carried a weapon bigger than a revolver. But Kathryn changed all that. Like a mobbed-up Lady Macbeth, she pushed her husband to commit greater crimes, introducing him to her friends in the underworld and convincing him to join in a series of bank robberies. Soon, the Kellys were living large, with a house in Texas, expensive jewelry, the works. But it wasn’t enough, and eventually the couple hatched a daring plot to kidnap oil tycoon Charles Urschel. Their plan worked. They collected the ransom — in doing so captured the attention of the nation, the world… and the FBI.

A shocking story of ambition and greed, crime and punishment, with the publication of “Meet the Kellys: The True Story of Machine Gun Kelly and His Moll Kathryn Thorne” by Chris Enss offers a fascinating portrait of a reluctant gangster named after a machine gun and a scheming moll as driven as Bonnie Parker and Ma Barker.

Critique: A meticulously documented history and biography that reads like an action/adventure novel from start to finish, “Meet the Kellys: The True Story of Machine Gun Kelly and His Moll Kathryn Thorne” will be of particular appeal to readers with an interest in the outlaws that made headlines during the ‘Roaring Twenties’ era of the Great Depression, Prohibition Bootlegging, Notorious Bank Robbers and Kidnappers. An inherently fascinating and riveting read from start to finish, “Meet the Kellys” by Chris Enss is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library True Crime and 20th Century American History/Biography collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that this hardcover edition of “Meet the Kellys” from Citadel Press is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.54).

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The Pinks:

The First Women Detectives, Operatives, and Spies with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency

Several months before the start of the Civil War, Kate Warne was masquerading as a Southern sympathizer and keeping company with women of refinement and wealth from the South. When war did break out, those women were unafraid to express how much in favor they were of the Rebels. Some of them were secretly supplying the Confederate forces with information they had acquired using their feminine wiles. Kate was tasked with staying close to opponents of the government who were seeking to overthrow it and secure proof that secrets were being traded.

For weeks Kate had been monitoring the movements of Mrs. Rose Greenhow, a Southern woman believed to be engaged in corresponding with Rebel authorities and furnishing them with valuable intelligence. By late August 1861, Allan Pinkerton and a handful of his most trusted operatives, including Kate, had compiled enough evidence against Rose that a warrant for her arrest was granted. She was outraged when Pinkerton detective agents invaded her home and began gathering boxes of secret reports, letters, and official, classified documents. She called the agents “uncouth ruffians” and objected to her home being searched.

Pinkerton and his team left none of Rose’s possessions intact in their quest to extract all suspicious paperwork. The headboards and footboards of all the beds were taken apart, mirrors were separated from their backings, pictures removed from frames, and cabinets and linen closets were inspected. Coded letters were found in shoes and dress pockets. Among the items found in the kitchen stove were orders from the War Department giving the organizational plan to increase the size of the regular army, a diary containing notes about military operations, and numerous incriminating letters from Union officers willing to trade their allegiance to their country for a romantic interlude with Mrs. Greenhow.

According to Rose’s account of the inspection of her house and the seizure of many, sensitive letters, the “intrusion was insulting.” One of the investigators at the scene complimented her on the “scope and quality” of the material found. It was “the most extensive private correspondence that has ever fallen under my examination,” the operative confessed. “There is not a distinguished name in America that is not found here. There is nothing that can come under the charge of treason, but enough to make the government dread and hold Mrs. Greenhow as a most dangerous adversary.”

Pinkerton had hoped to keep the arrest quiet, but Rose’s eight-year-old daughter made that impossible. After witnessing the operatives foraging through her room and the room of her deceased sister, she raced out the back door of the house shouting, “Mama’s been arrested! Mama’s been arrested!” Agents chased after the little girl. Having climbed a tree nothing could be done until she decided to come down.

A female detective Rose referred to in her memoirs as “Ellen” searched the suspected spy for vital papers hidden in her dress folds, gloves, shoes, or hair. Nothing was found. Historians suspect the operative Rose referred to as Ellen was Kate Warne. Kate divided her time between guarding the prisoner and questioning leads that could help the detective agency track and apprehend all members of the Greenhow spy ring. Rose realized quickly that Kate was not someone to be trifled with, and she kept her distance.

To learn more about Operative Ellen, the cases she worked,

and the other women Pinkerton agents read

The Pinks:

The First Women Detectives, Operatives, and Spies with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency

Enter now to win a copy of

The Pinks: The First Woman Detectives, Operatives and Spies with the

Pinkerton National Detective Agency

President-elect Abraham Lincoln showed no sign of being nervous or apprehensive about the late-night ride Pinkerton operatives arranged for him to take on February 23, 1861. Kate Warne noted in her records of the events surrounding Mr. Lincoln leaving Pennsylvania that he was cooperative and congenial.

When the politician arrived at the depot in Baltimore with his colleagues and confidants, Ward Hill Lamon and Allan Pinkerton, he was focused and quiet. He was stooped over and leaning on Pinkerton’s arm. The posture helped disguise his height, and when Kate greeted him with a slight hug and called him “brother,” no one outside the small group thought anything of the exchange. For all anyone knew, Kate and Mr. Lincoln were siblings embarking on a trip together. Neither the porter nor the train’s brakeman noticed Mr. Lincoln as the president-elect. Kate made it clear to the limited, railroad staff on board that her brother was not well and in need of solitude.

It took a mere two minutes from the time the distinguished orator reached the depot until he and his companions were comfortably on board the special train. The conductor was instructed to leave the station only after he was handed a package Pinkerton had told him to expect. The conductor was informed the package contained important government documents that needed to be kept secret and delivered to Washington with “great haste.” In truth the documents were a bundle of newspapers wrapped and sealed.

The bell on the engine clanged, and the train lurched forward. The gas lamps in the sleeping berths in Mr. Lincoln’s car were not lit, and the shades were pulled. Kate and Pinkerton agreed it would be best to prevent curious passengers waiting at various stops from seeing in and possibly recognizing the president-elect. No one spoke as the train slowly pulled away from the station. All hoped the journey would be uneventful and were hesitant to make a sound for fear any conversation might jeopardize what had been done to get Mr. Lincoln to this point. It was Mr. Lincoln who broke the silence with an amusing story he had shared with Pennsylvania governor Andrew Curtain the previous evening.

“I used to know an old farmer out in Illinois,” Mr. Lincoln told the three around him. “He took it into his head to venture into raising hogs. So he sent out to Europe and imported the finest breed of hogs that he could buy. The prize hog was put in a pen and the farmer’s two mischievous boys, James and John, were told to be sure not to let it out. But James let the brute out the very next day. The hog went straight for the boys and drove John up a tree. Then it went for the seat of James’ trousers and the only way the boy could save himself was by holding onto the porker’s tail. The hog would not give up his hunt or the boy his hold. After they had made a good many circles around the tree, the boy’s courage began to give out, and he shouted to his brother: ‘I say, John, come down quick and help me let go of this hog.’

Mr. Lincoln’s traveling companions smiled politely and stifled a chuckle. Had the circumstances been different, perhaps they would have laughed aloud. Undaunted by the trio’s subdued response, the president-elect continued to regale them with amusing tales of the people he’d met and experiences they shared. The train gained speed and soon Philadelphia was disappearing behind them.

To learn more about Kate’s heroic work read The Pinks

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The Pinks:

The First Women Detectives, Operatives, and Spies with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency

An article in the May 14, 1893, edition of the New York Times categorized women as the “weaker, gentler sex whose special duty was the creation of an orderly and harmonious sphere for husbands and children. Respectable women, true women, do not participate in debates on the public issues or attract attention to themselves.” Kate Warne and the female operatives that served with her defied convention, and progressive men like Allan Pinkerton gave them an opportunity to prove themselves to be capable of more than caring for a home and family.

Kate’s daring and Pinkerton’s ingenuity paved the way for women to be accepted in the field of law enforcement. Prior to Kate being hired as an agent, there had been few that had been given a chance to serve as female officers in any capacity.

In the early 1840s, six females were given charge of women inmates at a prison in New York. Their appointments led to a handful of other ladies being allowed to patrol dance halls, skating rinks, pool halls, movie theaters, and other places of amusement frequented by women and children. Although the patrol women performed their duties admirably, local government officials and police departments were reluctant to issue them uniforms or allow them to carry weapons. The general consensus among men was that women lacked the physical stamina to maintain such a job for an extended period of time. An article in an 1859 edition of The Citizen newspaper announced that “Women are the fairer sex, unable to reason rationally or withstand trauma. They depend upon the protection of men.”

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union played a key role in helping to change the stereotypical view of women at the time. The organization recognized the treatment female convicts suffered in prison and campaigned for women to be made in charge of female inmates. The WCTU’s efforts were successful. Prison matrons provided assistance and direction to female prisoners, thereby shielding them from possible abuse at the hands of male officers and inmates. Those matrons were the earliest predecessors of women law enforcement officers.

Aside from women hired specifically as police matrons, widows of slain police officers were sometimes given honorary positions within the department. Titles given to widows meant little at the time; they were, however, the first whispers of what would eventually lead to official positions for sworn police women.

Even with their limited duties, police matrons in the mid to late 1800s suffered a barrage of negative publicity. Most of the commentary scoffed at the women’s infiltration into the field. The press approached stories about police matrons and other women trying to force their way into the trade as “confused or cute” rather than a useful addition to the law enforcement community.

Allan Pinkerton’s decision to hire a female operative was all the more courageous given the public’s perception of women as law enforcement agents. Kate Warne had the foresight to know that she could be especially helpful in cases where male operatives needed to collect evidence from female suspects. She quickly proved to be a valuable asset, and Pinkerton hoped Hattie Lewis also known as Hattie Lawton would be as effective.* Hattie was hired in 1860 and was not only the second woman employed at the world famous detective agency, but some historians speculate was the first, mixed race woman as well.

To learn more about Hattie Lewis read The Pinks