I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall.
~ Patricia MacLachlan, Sarah, Plain and Tall
I Will Come by Train
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I will admit to a fondness for both the movie and book, despite certain “Hallmark movie” aspects of both. Good characterizations of the principals and the challenges of the community.
Don’t care much for the sequels. I hadn’t realized until I looked just now that this won a Newberry Medal (as though it were not an adult book). Doesn’t strike me that way.
I don’t know what the actual demographics were for mail-order brides during the country’s settling, but one can understand why it is a fruitful concept for (typically poorly researched) Romance novels. This book is several levels above that.
I tried to do some research for this comment, but the modern version of mail order brides swamps any historic info. A bit of background from Wikipedia (I know, but it’s all I’ve got): “European American men found financial success in the migration West, but the one thing that was missing was the company of a wife. Very few women lived there at this time, so it was hard for these men to settle down and start a family. They attempted to attract women living back East; the men wrote letters to churches and published personal advertisements in magazines and newspapers. In return, the women would write to the men and send them photographs of themselves. Courtship was conducted by letter, until a woman agreed to marry a man she had never met. Many women wanted to escape their present way of living, gain financial security and see what life on the frontier could offer them. Most of these women were single, but some were widows, divorcées or runaways.”
The movies are Hallmark staples, showing up practically every other month.
BTW, did you try searching for “19th century mail order brides”?.
Bing coughed up a lot, including this one:
http://www.kristinholt.com/archives/441
Photos, too.
Here’s an interesting, albeit small one:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=pmecGCJe&id=F2ACEBFC9D8686CA9F87D21FDADB1CE3871CF38D&thid=OIP.pmecGCJe_L3n3RcTg_31pwEsDA&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2F736x%2Fb8%2F80%2Fe3%2Fb880e3e10f968bcd2a1d6b804179ef44.jpg&exph=288&expw=450&q=19th+century+mail+order+brides&simid=608008497114057192&selectedindex=10&qpvt=19th+century+mail+order+brides&ajaxhist=0&vt=1&eim=1,2,6&sim=11
Zoom in to read the text.
The rates are “verrrry interestink”. 😉
Thanks for the links, Felix.
The rates are not surprising: if you’re a 60+ year old looking for someone to marry you to keep house for him and inherit, you ought to expect to pay more for the possibility than if you’re 25.
The scams, however, are evergreen and familiar. Rip-offs, men posing as women and vice versa, con artists, etc. — we see them all every day.
“Wealthy lady with unexpected child seeking a man to protect her with his name. To prove your sincerity, just enclose a mere $0.10 in your return reply.” (times hundreds or thousands of replies…)
In those days (~1850) $0.10 was useful money. About $3 today.
So yes, times thousands of replies…
Story fodder right there.