Volume 43- No. 06


February 09, 2012


Above right, mail order


bride from Bangladesh, other mail order brides shown are either from Taiwan, the Ukraine or Russia


by lyle e davis


• Aged 27, height 5 feet 9 inches, dark hair and eyes, considered handsome by all, his friends unite in saying he is amiable and will make a model husband. The lady must be one in the most extended acceptation of the word since the advertiser moves in the most pol- ished and refined society. It is also desirable that she should have con- siderable money.


• I am 33 years of age, and as regards looks can average with most men. I am looking for a lady to make her my wife, as I am heartily tired of bachelor life. I


The Paper - 760.747.7119 website:wwww.thecommunitypaper.co m


email: thepaper@cox.net


desire a lady not over 28 or 30 years of age, not ugly, well educat- ed and musical. Nationality makes no difference, only I prefer not to have a lady of Irish birth. She must have at least $20,000.


These are but several ads placed by lonely, and some would sug- gest, greedy, men who, living on the frontier, sought to find female companionship. This gave rise to the phenomenon known as “mail order brides.”


The "mail order brides" of the American west were the "sup- ply" that met two "demands." For the men of the west who far


outnumbered women and want- ed 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 spin- sterhood 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 com- munities. Only a few prospec- tors "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 sta- ble, lasting communities.


In the western territories, men outnumbered women dramati- cally, 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


Mail Order Brides Continued on Page 2


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