History of the Mail Order Brides of the Old West

The "mail order brides" of the American west were the "supply" that met two "demands". For the men of the west who far outnumbered women and wanted to create families, farms, and towns, a mail order bride could be the solution. And for young women of the eastern states who faced loneliness, poverty, and the social stigma of spinsterhood if they didn't marry, being a mail order bride could offer social and economic opportunity.

The story of the famous mail order brides of the old west began when the gold rush brought men over the Rocky Mountains to new mining communities. Only a few prospectors "struck it rich", but many young men stayed in the west, mining, ranching, farming, hunting or opening businesses. As towns began to grow, these men wanted wives to create families, and to build more stable, lasting communities. In the western territories, men outnumbered women dramatically, sometimes by as many as nine to one. The obvious answer was single women from the east, willing to start new lives.

Just as the gold rush created a disproportionate ratio of men to women in the west at the end of the 1800s, the Civil War and the migration of men to the west, created a disproportionate ratio of women to men in the eastern states. There were few careers open to women, and women who did not marry early faced not only the loneliness and social stigma of spinsterhood, but the prospect of poverty. Thus, the opportunity to move west, make a life and have a family was one some women were willing to sacrifice for.

Many mail order brides and their frontiersman husbands found one another on their own, through ads in newspapers or church circulars. Other couples used "The Matrimonial News," a paper published in San Fransisco specifically to run personal ads for men and women seeking marriage.
Some people tried, with varying degrees of success, to organize "shipments" of mail order brides. Activist Eliza Farnham tried in 1849 to bring young women westward by ship, but recruited only three. Asa Mercer famously brought two groups of young women to Seattle, as potential teachers as well as potential brides.

There was always some opposition to the concept of mail-order brides.There were also occasional "horror stories" of tragedy or scams. But many mail order bride stories in the old west ended in long and seemingly happy marriages. As women arrived and men started homesteads and families, the "wild west" began to evolve from a place of saloons, brothels, and mining camps, into a landscape of towns, with homes, churches and schools.