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