Hearts West II

Mae West once said, “Love conquers all things – except poverty and toothache.” I find it interesting that many women who came West between 1851 and 1879 felt the same way. I didn’t realize until I began doing research for Hearts West II: Mail Order Brides of the Old West, that finding love was secondary to finding a partner who could be economically supportive and father your children. Here and there in history you find a mail order bride situation where love successfully existed, but such marriages were novelties, rare enough to become fodder for romantic novels and books entitled Hearts West II: Mail Order Brides of the Old West. It was a business deal – at least that’s how the majority of those relationships started out. There was a close connection between marriage and the price of wheat, beef, pork, beans, corn and other thing which go to make up the main portion of human food during that time as well. According to the Ladies’ Home Journal in November 1876, “as the price of those commodities go up the number of marriages goes down.” Mail order bride or not, cupid didn’t have to work as hard during times of prosperity. How romantic. Not! But I guess that was the whole idea. Marriage then was not based on how “in love” you both were, but on supporting one another in a variety of ways and aiding the continuing of the species. If you’d lost that loving feeling for your spouse in the Old West it didn’t make much difference – that wasn’t why you entered into the union in the first place. Infidelity was high during that period too and acceptable. You married the one you could make the best business deal with and fell in love with someone else. Sounds like a line from the movie Arthur. “Arthur, marry Susan for her millions and have an affair with the nobody,” his grandmother told him. Marriages were much more difficult to get out of in those old days. Perhaps they were so frightened of the vows they didn‘t dare go against them. They are pretty scary. I mean, “We are gathered here to witness the joining of two people…” Joining. Could we come up with a slightly more industrial term, huh? How about, “soldering”? Yeah, have a couple of guys from the machinist union swing by, drop the welder’s masks, and handle that part of the ceremony. You know, it seems like the only two times they pronounce you anything in life is when they pronounce you “man and wife” or “dead on arrival.” To some those two pronoucements are one in the same.