Blue Sky Brides
By Regina Scott
“The bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in Seattle. And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle.”
If you remember when that song was first introduced, you likely remember the late 1960s television show, Here Come the Brides. In it, timber baron Jason Bolt and his two brothers bring one hundred brides from the East Coast to marry lonely loggers in frontier Seattle. It’s based on the true story of Asa Mercer, who traveled East in two trips to bring back Civil War widows and single ladies to “civilize” the frontier. The total of the two trips was far less than one hundred, but all except one ended up married. Go figure!
The legend of the Mercer Belles had intrigued me since I was a child, so I was delighted to pen a series of books for the Love Inspired Historical line with some of the heroines who had come with Mercer to Seattle. And now I’m continuing the series with The Perfect Mail-Order Bride, Her Frontier Sweethearts, and, most recently, Frontier Cinderella.
But I kept wondering. What did Asa Mercer say to convince women he’d never met to journey with him and start new lives in the wilderness? The barriers to acceptance were many.
These ladies were from the Boston area (most from Lowell, Massachusetts), and they’d had some education. Many had been trained as teachers. In contrast, many of the loggers, miners, and farmers in Seattle had little to no education, and they’d been living among men long enough that they sometimes forgot the social niceties.
Then there was the distance. In the 1860s, there were no trains and only a few trails linked the East Coast and the West Coast. The Mercer Belles had to sail for months. The first group went by way of crossing the isthmus in Panama; the second sailed down the coast of North and South America, through the Strait of Magellan, and up the other coasts. Chances were, if these women left for Seattle, they were never going to see family or friends again.
Finally, there was Mr. Mercer. He claimed to have been appointed Commissioner of Immigration by the governor of Washington Territory and to have been made the first president of the Territorial University (both true), but he was only 25 at the time of his first trip, and a bachelor at that. Could he be trusted? The papers in the area thought not. They labeled him a swindler and predicted any lady who traveled with him would end up in a brothel.
So, what did he say? I found part of one of his speeches, courtesy of Lynn Bragg’s More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Washington Women:
“The climate of Washington Territory is marked by two seasons only, winter and summer. From the first day of April until the middle of November no other spot on this green earth boasts such a mild, equitable and delightful climate as does the valley of Puget Sound.”
It seems the bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in Seattle! Here’s to the women brave enough to take him at his word. Many a Northwest family owes them a debt of gratitude!
In honor of the Mercer Belles, I’m giving away two print copies of The Perfect Mail-Order Bride, U.S. only. Answer this question in the comments to be entered in the drawing: Would you have agreed to go with Asa Mercer and settle the frontier?
Series link to The Perfect Mail Order Bride
Regina Scott started writing novels in the third grade. Thankfully for literature as we know it, she didn’t sell her first novel until she learned a bit more about writing. Since her first book was published, her stories have traveled the globe, with translations in many languages including Dutch, German, Italian, and Portuguese. She now has more than sixty-five published works of warm, witty romance, and more than 1 million copies of her books are in reader hands. She currently lives forty-five minutes from the gates of Mount Rainier with her husband of thirty years. Regina Scott has dressed as a Regency dandy, driven four-in-hand, learned to fence, and sailed on a tall ship, all in the name of research, of course. Learn more about her at her website at http://www.reginascott.com
When I look out my backdoor and catch sight of Mt. Rainier, I know I am one fortunate gal. Something about that mountain, one of the tallest in the Continental U.S., draws me in. I’m not the only one. The first white men reached the summit in the mid-1800s. The first white woman reached it in 1890. And the heroine of A View Most Glorious, Coraline Baxter, is determined to climb it in 1893 as a way to raise awareness of a woman’s right to vote. After all, if a socialite like her can climb a mountain, why shouldn’t she be able to vote?
thing, most expected a woman to climb in skirts. Pretty hard to jump a crevasse or clamber up a glacier with ice crusted on your narrow hem. While a few hardy lady bicyclists and sportswomen had dared to try bloomers, the loose trousers were still considered scandalous. When Fay Fuller, the first woman to reach the summit, was photographed after her climb, the photographer carefully took the picture to avoid any appearance of the flannel bloomers she’d worn.
BIO: Regina Scott started writing novels in the third grade. Thankfully for literature as we know it, she didn’t sell her first novel until she learned a bit more about writing. Since her first book was published, her stories have traveled the globe, with translations in many languages including Dutch, German, Italian, and Portuguese. She now has more than fifty published works of warm, witty romance. She currently lives forty-five minutes from the gates of Mount Rainier with her husband of thirty years. Regina Scott has dressed as a Regency dandy, driven four-in-hand, learned to fence, and sailed on a tall ship, all in the name of research, of course. Learn more about her at her website at 
Greetings! I’m excited to be your guest author today on the Petticoats & Pistols blog! I write inspirational romance, both historical and contemporary. It is my hope that my books will encourage you and warm your heart!
marks the hazardous north entrance to Commencement Bay, located outside of Tacoma. In writing this story, I became curious about the history of lighthouses and their development in America, particularly along the Pacific coastline.
century BC.
The first lighthouse in America was the Boston Light, built in 1716 at Boston Harbor. In 1851, the U.S. Congress passed “An Act Making Appropriations for Light House, Light Boats, Buoys, &c.”, leading to the creation of the United States Lighthouse Board to replace the Department of Treasury’s Lighthouse Establishment as the governmental agency responsible for the construction and maintenance of all lighthouses and navigation aids in the United States.
Unfortunately the channel from Commencement Bay to Elliott Bay was treacherous, renowned for its thick fog blankets. Mariners complained that the light at Browns Point couldn’t be seen.
