Susan Payne’s Midwest Mail Order Bride Series

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My great aunt was born in 1873. She married at age fourteen. She kept house for her husband and his brother, who were more than ten years older than she was. She married young to relieve her parents of having another mouth to feed. She had two children and then buried her husband, leaving her a widow at a young age. She eventually found the love of her life—and then unselfishly allowed him his freedom to marry another.
My great aunt did what she knew. She rented out rooms in her home and then became a land owner by ‘flipping’ houses, sometimes making them into two or more apartments and renting them out. She became the matriarch of her family while still a teen. She gave sisters, aunts and other women jobs in her multiroom boarding house and laundry. She gave the male family members jobs and references to keep them working. They all followed her from VT to PA and then to MI following the logging camps. She settled in west Michigan as logging slowed to a trickle and manufacturing was rising. Families came into the cities looking for work and rental homes.

That woman and her sisters are my inspiration. It is why I write about such strong female leads. Why I know how women of that age thought. Uneducated past the sixth grade, my great aunt carved a prosperous career out of hard work, common sense and guts. She personally cared for her aging parents and any relative who fell on hard times. At 96 years old, she left enough money in her will so that even her great nieces and nephews received an inheritance they could use toward college.

I have always been intrigued by the mail order bride phenomenon. It was truly a western United States experience, although women from all over participated, and it is still active to this day in the form of ads on the internet. Particularly from Russian brides. It was similar to the age-old practice of neighboring families planning for their children to marry one another when they got to marital age. Only this time, the actual couple had a say in whether they married or not.

In the US, there were magazines such as The Matrimonial News, which bragged it had assisted in over three thousand marriages. Either the man or woman could place an ad for the fee of $1.50 per word (about $30 in today’s money); so they were short and sweet. Only those serious enough to put their lives in a stranger’s hands need apply.

The beginning of such ‘contracts’ began when gold had been discovered and men rushed west. It was said to have begun when men, after setting up a homestead or mining claim, wrote home asking family or their church if there were any single women interested in joining them with marriage in mind. I can see some safety in doing such a thing. The man would be known by others, and they could vouch for his competency and integrity.
The ones where men answered female-placed ads seemed a little less safe. Many times, these women were widows or spinsters without a family to depend on. If the woman arrived and found the man less than desirable, she didn’t usually have any other option than to marry him. Divorce was fairly high, with either party walking away from their commitment.

If the men were less than honorable, the women—young or old – could be sold to brothels or made slaves south of the border. No one knows how many women ended up like that, but it did happen. To help keep that from occurring, women were advised to ask for references from people who knew the potential husband. The sheriff and local minister were the two most trusted sources. The fact the women had no knowledge as to those references being truthful, was another thing. Usually, a few letters sent to one another over a couple of months was all they had to base their selection on.
I have wondered at the destitution of those seeking husbands among the rough men in areas where men outnumbered women sometimes ten to one. Not unmarried females, just females in general. Where fourteen was not an uncommon age for wives, where tombstones noted the early deaths of wives and the even higher mortality rate among infants.

Some of my mail order brides face hardships both before and after their marriages. Having the women I had as examples, my leading ladies and gentlemen eventually find their happy ever after with their spouses, and the reader can sleep easily knowing everything works out. Just as it did for the women in my family eventually.

I’m giving away a free e-book copy of In the Sheriff’s Sights to one winner from the comments.

Happy Reading!

 

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54 thoughts on “Susan Payne’s Midwest Mail Order Bride Series”

  2. I love the insight you have to your family history. That’s a blessing I’m sure comes out in your writing.

    • I should have listened in more often to their talks. I missed the opportunity I didn’t realize was right in front of my nose. I was in my 30s when they passed and could have learned so much more. They were tremendously inspiring.

    • My pleasure. I’m sorry to admit I’d never run across this site before. It is perfect for me and I have enjoyed several articles so far. Keep them coming…

  5. Good morning Susan , thank you for such an interesting blog this morning. Your Aunt sounds like a strong, exceptional young lady. She sounds like an amazing person. I’ve always been fascinated by mail order brides. The thought of traveling to marry someone that you never met , praying they were a good person, I wonder how many really found love. Your book sounds good and sharing your story about your aunt will definitely make for an interesting read.

    • My family members, especially the females, were strong and tenacious and driven. They went from hand to mouth in their youth which made fighters of them. Entreprenurial. Yet, supportive of others. Poor choices in husbands, but then no one’s perfect.

  7. Thank you for sharing. My mom grew up in New Hampshire with her parents and 7 children in the family. Dad passed away when she was young and mom was shall I say a absent mother and leave it as that. Mom helped raise her brothers and sisters but eventually ended up in foster care. She met my father and followed him to Vermont where he came for work. The house they lived in burnt down and the community donated materials for a 2 room house. Where she raised 6 children. She divorced my father and when I was 13 remodeled the house into a five bedroom house with indoor plumbing on her own while working nights.

    • That’s the kind of woman who built this country! Amazing what all they did – and many times on their own. If I had been faced with a part of what they endured and still flourished…I would rule the world by now. I’m glad they did what they did so I had the easy-life. Forever grateful for their strength.

  9. Your insight is very interesting, especially as your own kin carved a place for herself which was very lucrative. All due to marrying to ease the burden on her family. Such courage is sadly lacking in today’s world. My how things have changed. I do not feel I would have been so adventurous as to become a mail-order bride. Best wishes in your writing.

    • I hope my interpretation of the outcome of mail order brides are more true than not. Thousands of women married men they had no love for and raised families. I’d like to think love could have grown between them. I know there are more good than bad in the world. I hope those women found some of that for themselves.

    • I put a little of both my aunt and grandmother in my stories. Difficult not to when I knew them personally for so many years. they seem to whisper their secrets in my ears. By your name, you are keeping an old tradition alive. So is my oldest daughter. I have lovely mementos from her.

  11. I think many of us would have fascinating history of our families if we researched them. My great-grandmother’s name was Cinderella and her family were Quakers. Needless to say she was not a Quaker. She was married and divorced several times as early as the early the 1900s. My mother told me the only reason she didn’t divorce her last husband was because she died. She was buried with her maiden name.

  12. How great to use your family history to have strong women in your books! That just gives them an even stronger appeal.

    • We give too little credit to the women of the ‘old west’. It was the ordinary – by ordinary I mean those passed by – women who made life bearable. Sacrificed themselves for their families. Ate last or not at all. I can’t say how proud I am of my family and how much I gained at their giving natures.

    • She sounds like a woman who helped make this country what it is. I love to read or hear about these women. Some stories make me want to cry, but nothing is gained without sacrifice – or so they say. I’m grateful for those who came before me and made my life easier.

  14. Wow! Your great aunt sounds like a truly amazing woman. I can’t imagine being married at fourteen or being a mail order bride, either. I’m so thankful things have changed for women since those times.

    • I do not think she knew her husband very well – if at all. He worked with her father in the lumber camps. She was very pretty and he asked her father rather than her to marry him. His brother ended up marrying Laura’s younger sister, but not till she was 17. He would have been 30 at the time but it kept the 2 sisters together. Laura always protected her siblings for their entire lives.

    • She never talked about her life. What I know is what i picked up listening in on conversations between her and my grandmother. They had shared a husband – not at the same time – but she divorced the love of her life so that my grandmother married him, and he was my grandfather. Did I explain my family tree resembles a Banyon? No incest, but you need a scorecard to keep track.

  16. Strong women are something to be admired. There are too many who give in and marry and stay with an abusive sugar daddy, just so they won’t be alone. I’m glad your books all have a HEA!

  17. wow that is so great to have that information about your great aunt. thank you for sharing where your inspiration comes from. very cool. this is such a lovely cover. I have not read one of your books yet, but would most definitely love to.
    quilting dash lady at comcast dot net

    • I love the covers, too. None of my doing, I assure you. Magnolia Blossom is lovely to work with and proposed the cover with very little input from me. My oldest daughter is a quilter, as well, and has made me some wonderful mementos of the other children for me.

    • Thank you. It was fun meeting everyone and hearing their family’s histories. I think the best stories come from our experiences. Truth is stranger than fiction at times.

  19. Your great aunt was really a great business woman! I love reading mail order bride stories. I never get tired of reading the surprises that await them and how they deal with them.

    • That’s what drives me. It had to be so difficult to – usually blindly – meet a stranger and place your life in his hands. I’m not sure I could have done it.

  20. What an amazing woman your great-aunt was! I think the mail-order bride phenomenon gives scope for a lot of wonderful stories. Congratulations on your series!

    • Thank you, Laura. Historical romance never gets old for me. I have dozens of ideas still waiting for me in my WIP pile. I write multiples at a time so I’m hoping to complete more in the future.

  21. Such an interesting post, thanks for sharing! It’s so hard for me ot imagine traveling away from home and choosing to marry someone you don’t know or barely know, but they were a lot who did. It’s quite fascinating.

    • I learn more things about these two women in particular. Probably because I knew them best and as a child hadn’t put everyone together relationship wise. But I hope to write their story one day.

  22. I LOVE family history and yours is so incredibly interesting! Since this is the first I’ve heard of you, I haven’t read any of your books! I have a great grandmother, Laura, a sister, Laura, daughter, Laura, and granddaughter, born on the same day as my gr’ grandmother and sister, so her middle name is Laura! Let me tell you, these were and are some very headstrong, dedicated women! I would love to read your books…can’t wait! Thank you for sharing with us!

    • My mother was one of my Great Aunt Laura’s favorite and benefited from that position. My youngest sister was named Laura after her, of course. My mother’s middle name was after her mother, Maime

    • I often refer back to what my Great Aunt and Grandmother would have done in any situation – feisty, strong, independent and family oriented. They have always shown me the way.

  26. My mom dropped out of school to help support my grandmother and grandfather. She was the youngest of 5. My grandmother couldn’t read or write, my mom did teach her to write her first name eventually so she could sign documents.

    • We should honor those who sacrificed for their family. It shows a sense of loyalty and dedication we rarely see any longer. They lived through 2 World Wars and that is something the rest of us were saved from.

  28. You are lucky to have had such strong women in your family tree and even luckier to know their stories. So often those stories aren’t saved and passed down. Any of us who have had 14 year old daughters would find it hard to imagine having them marry at that age. Even knowing it wasn’t uncommon and people “matured” at an earlier age, their bodies were still more those of a child than of a woman. There were and are many strong women who seldom get credit for all the endured and accomplished. Your great aunt deserved to be recognized by more than just her family. She was obviously responsible for the success of both the men and women in her family over several generations.

    Knowing the hazards of the mail-order bride situation it took a lot of faith and/or desperation to take the leap and travel to whatever fate awaited them. The grooms took a chance also, but were not as much in danger of being taken advantage of. I look forward to discovering your books, especially knowing you have family memory guiding and inspiring your writing.

  29. My Great Aunt and Grandmother were not recognized as the heroes they were. My mother thought the world of her aunt and proved her own strength over and over. To them and the rest of their family, they were doing what they had always done. I wished I had asked more questions. Learned about their earlier lives more. How they managed with no running water, dirt floors, nomadic life-style – dirt poor meant something to them. They lived it.

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