Hearts West: True Stories of Mail-Order Brides on the Frontier
Chris Enss
Falcon (2005)
ISBN 9780762727568
Reviewed by April Sullivan for Reader Views (7/06)
Around the 1850s, pioneering American men left the east and headed west to uncharted territory like California, Oregon, and Wyoming to find gold or claim land. But what happened when they got out there and realized there were no women to share their land or riches with? How did they entice women to the wild west? And what type of woman was likely to make that journey across America? Hearts West tells us these stories.
Hearts West relays the true stories of mail-order brides and bachelors during the late 1800s in Americas wild west. Chris Enss has done her research and provides the reader with accurate information collected through journals, newspapers, letters, photographs, and other historical documents. She adds just the right amount of fictionalized commentary to draw the reader in, but not intrude upon the facts. This book is appropriate to use as a textbook or for research since it is so well documented. But it is also a good read for anyone interested in the topic.
Many methods were used to bring women to the west. Matrimony magazines and newsletters were the most common method. Men and women both wrote ads and answered by letter to find a suitable mate. Samples in the book were surprisingly similar to todays online dating service ads. More innovative methods include renting boats and shipping groups of women across country.
This book is filled with short anecdotes that tell a much larger story and provide a historical viewpoint of relationships. This is a viewpoint that we dont often get enough of. Without these brave men and women many of us wouldnt be here today. I found that there were two overwhelming themes in this book the power of survival and the power of love. After only a few letters passed between them, a man and a woman were brave enough to decide to meet and marry. Why would they take this risk? For many of the women it was a chance to make more of their life. Stuck in poverty, dead-end servant jobs, or just the thought of spinsterhood drove them to take that plunge. While some of these matches ended in disaster, others ended in long happy relationships. Hearts West provides a good mix of humor, disaster, sweetness, and sadness to give an overall picture of what our American ancestors went through, all for the sake of love and survival.
