My interest in mail-order bride romance, which was the genre
of my first historical romance Secrets & Charades, came from a
short-lived TV show from the 1960s,
Here Come the Brides
I watched it faithfully every week on our new colored TV while in middle school. It was loosely based on a true event. Loosely, because the stories told once the women arrived were strictly fiction.
Two diaries are available in the Maritime Museum in
Portland, Oregon recounting the sea voyage. And excerpts and retelling of the ladies’
adventure are in the book Hearts West: True Stories of Mail-Order Brides on
the Frontier by Chris Enss, published in 2005. This book has been in my
reference library for years. The anthology is fascinating.
I found the article of the brides-to-be who traveled from Elcott City, Maryland to Albany, Oregan in 1865 very interesting. Sadly, there are no photos or evidence of these ladies and their travels on the internet. But that is not unusual when it comes to historic documents such as old diaries and journals. My husband has a potential ancestor’s diary written while traveling on a wagon train, and his grand-aunt’s diary while living in the oil fields during the 1940s. Their stories are true, but unless you are a family member, you would never have read them. Sharing these women’s bold adventure might just inspire you to be bold too.
A bit of Background History
By the mid-1800s the eastern United States had an overabundance of single women, due to the Civil War, which reduced the population of single men and produced many widows. Meanwhile, the west was populated with single men who had gone west with a desire to make their fortune. Some pursued mining, some lumber and others land. These men were desperate for wives. And with the antiquated idea that a woman of 25 was an old maid, it was no wonder young ladies ‘long in the tooth’ sought marriages out west.
There were a few attempts at bringing women by the boatload to Oregon and Washington by others such as Asa Mercer. But the story of the Benton Brothers Brides showcased the determination of the brides rather than the men who put the expedition together.
The Benton Brides
Archer, Thaddeus and Samuel Benton owned a sawmill in Albany, Oregon and a group of single men from the area commissioned them to encourage women to come as potential brides.
When they arrived, in December of 1864, in Ellcott County, Maryland, they mailed their brochure, Brides Wanted, to every household. The brochure asked single women interested in marrying the man of their choosing from the eligible bachelors in the Willmette Valley to attend a meeting at the townhall.
Two of those women were Constance Ranney, a maid for a wealthy household who hated her job. And Josephine Gibney whose grandfather had owned a fishing vessel, and she’d traveled with him. After hearing Archer describe the beauty of Oregan and their option of choosing their husbands, Constance was excited. She wrote her uncle explaining all the women would be equal, no matter their station, as they were all looking for husbands. Unlike Constance’s parents who forbade her to go, Josephine Ann Gibney’s parents gave their blessing. Both women kept journals of their sea travel. On January 16, 1865, they joined over 100 women packed and waiting at the docks.
Aboard ship
The character of the women aboard ship gives us a hint of their tenacity and determination when they reached Oregon. The women boarded the schooner Osceolo. Most were so busy waving farewell and crying that they hadn’t noticed the condition of the ship. The Osceolo’s cargo was usually livestock, so when the women saw that their sleeping quarters were in animal stalls, they were upset to say the least. Josephine shared in her diary that after a lot of complaining and then discussing the possible hardships they would encounter in their new home, they decided to make the best of it. They put things in a semblance of order so they could sleep, and then the next morning would clean their new home until it was spotless.
After several days of scrubbing, they’d transformed the smelly, filthy boat into a suitable home. The women took over the cooking. Miss Gibney had cooked on her grandfather’s ship and was able to teach the others how. The sailors exclaimed they’d never eaten so well. The women endured rough seas, seasickness, and the horror of seeing a young sailor fall overboard during a fierce storm, never to be seen again.
The women were determined to change more than the appearance of the interior of the boat. They insisted that the sailors not drink alcohol, bathe regularly and have Sunday services. Archer Benton was able to persuade the reluctant sailors to comply.
After the seas quieted, following several rough stormy days, and most of the women had recovered from seasickness, the sailors entertained the women with music. A quartet of sailors sang while accompanied by a mouth harp (harmonica). Some of the brides danced with the sailors. The men took to referring to the group as “the brides”.
In March 1865, Constance mentioned in her journal that her seasickness had been replaced by homesickness. She didn’t want to return home but missed dry land. She could hardly wait to meet her prospective groom.
On April 4, 1865, the schooner docked at an Oregon port and over 150 men, loggers and miners from Willamette Valley, were there to greet them. The brides carried only one suitcase and a letter of introduction. Letters of introduction were common when meeting strangers. The letters spoke of their good character. I’m not sure who offered the letters of introduction unless it was the Archer brothers because they would be the only mutual acquaintance between the two. Just a curious question I had as I read their story. The brides were taken to Albany, and all but seven were married within a year.
If not for the diaries, we would never know there had been a successful shipload of brides delivered to lonely single men on the west coast. Unfortunately, that is where the journals stop. We have no idea who they married or if they had happy unions. But we can see that these women were determined, practical and not afraid of meeting the next bump in the road head-on. Just the sort of women to civilize the west and help it thrive.
Have you read a diary or journal from an ancestor or from a museum collection that gave you insights into real life in the past?
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