Hearts West: True Stories of Mail-Order Brides on the Frontier by Chris Enss
Trade paperback edition in Like New condition. Photos and illustrations among 114 clean pages. Based on the historical letters and diaries of pioneer women who took their future into their own hands and left the eastern United States to travel the wilds of California and beyond in the mid- to late 1800s.
Reviews
"I found this book full of interesting facts and stories of women and how and why they came west. If you are looking for a novel type book this is not it. These are real women." Barnes & Noble
Overview
Complete with actual advertisements from both women seeking husbands and males seeking brides, Hearts West includes twelve stories of courageous mail order brides and their exploits. Some were fortunate enough to marry good men and live happily ever after; still others found themselves in desperate situations that robbed them of their youth and sometimes their lives.
One way for men living on the frontier to meet women was through subscriptions to heart-and-hand clubs. The men received newspapers with information, and sometimes photographs, about women, with whom they corresponded.