Jedadiah's Mail Order Bride

Jedadiah’s Mail Order Bride

A Lonely Rancher Series and Mail Order Bride Series

By Susan Leigh Carlton

The
lure of gold and instant riches drew many men, young and old alike to the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory.  A few got rich, most didn’t.

The men that didn’t find their dream moved on into Montana and Wyoming Territories.  Some continued to prospect, addicted to the dream of finding gold.  A few returned east.  Those that remained, drifted into raising cattle, or working as cowboys.  Some farmed, renewing the profession they left behind to search for gold.

Congress passed the Southern Homestead Act in 1866, giving free land from the government owned land.  A provision of the act required the claimant to live on the land for five years, making improvements to indicate permanent residence.  Many of the discouraged miners took advantage of the offer of free land.

In a short time, these men discovered something else.  It wasn’t gold.  It was loneliness.  There were no women available.  Meanwhile, back in the eastern US, the War Between The States had claimed the lives of thousands of young men.  There was a dire shortage of eligible young men.

The law of supply and demand took over.  The men in the west advertised in eastern newspapers for potential brides.  The women advertised for eligible husbands.

A newspaper in Kansas City called The Matrimonial News featured these ads.  Quite a few young ladies and matrons as well responded to these ads and journeyed west looking to get married.

The women were called mail order brides.  This is the story of Sarah Harding, a young woman from New York, whose fiance had been killed in the war and Jed Barnette, a prospector from Pennsylvania, turned rancher who had placed an ad and also responded to Sarah’s ad.

This is their story…

Copyright © 2013 by Susan Leigh Carlton
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed
in the United States of America

First
Published, 2013

Life on the early American frontier was harsh.  Early settlers had to contend with a lack of law and justice.  There were no comforts similar to those in the eastern United States at the time. 

Early
settlers were fur trappers and buffalo hunters until gold was discovered in the Black Hills, leading to the start of what is termed "the gold rush".  The Black Hills Gold Rush began in 1874. The first people to arrive were part of a force of About one thousand men led by George Armstrong Custer.  They came to investigate rumors of gold in the area of the Black Hills.  At this time, the land was owned by the Sioux and whites were forbidden entry.  To be sure, they found small amounts of gold flakes in what is today, Custer South Dakota.  They moved north in search of more abundant ore but never found the mother lode.  As they moved north, they established cities, and finding gold at each location, but again only flakes.

Things changed when the miners came to Deadwood and Whitewood Creeks in the northern Black Hills.  The early miners found fortunes in each spadeful of dirt and staked their claims, gaining control of all of the land around the creeks.  Even though all the land was claimed, thousands more rushed in, hoping to find a missed spot. The gold the miners found was placer gold, loose gold pieces that were mixed in with the rocks and dirt around streams.  [Placer gold is gold that has broken off from its original location and moved to another site by water.]

On April 9, 1876 Fred and Moses Manuel, Hank Harney and Alex Engh discovered a gold outcropping near Lead, South Dakota; they filed their claim and named it the Homestake. They had located the area from which the placer gold in Deadwood Creek had eroded. It was here that men would produce ten percent of the world's gold supply over the next one hundred and twenty five years. Many more prospectors hoped to find another "Homestake" so they continued to look, but the Homestake mine was unique.  There would be no others.

Hundreds of dejected miners came to the realization they would starve under the conditions in which they found themselves.  They turned to farming and ranching.  When they came to the Dakotas they came alone and lived in tent cities.

When the dreams of gold and riches faded, they turned to livelihoods other than mining.  One day, they raised their heads and discovered they were missing a vital element of life... Women. The only females in the area were prostitutes, usually held under tight control by their owners and they usually worked in conjunction with saloons/hotels.

At the same time, in the eastern United States there was an over abundance of unmarried women, due in part to the loss of thousands of young men in the recent War Between The States.  In other words, the law of supply and demand was momentarily thwarted.  The supply was in the east and the demand was on the frontier.

It is not known who placed the first ad in an eastern paper looking for a bride.  Newspapers were begun with the sole purpose of matchmaking.  The Matrimonial News was one such paper.   

Women advertising in the paper for husbands were given a break in price over men using the same paper.  Published in the 1870's, 80's and 90's, The Matrimonial News was the frontier version of eHarmony or match.com. The newspaper was published weekly in San Francisco, California, and Kansas City, Missouri, and London.  It featured classified ads for men and women seeking matrimony.

An applicant would purchase an advertisement stating their qualifications and requirements and their ad would be given a number. Anyone who wanted to respond to the advertisement would do so via the newspaper office, putting the number of the advertisement on all correspondence to avoid publishing names and locations.

Gentlemen paid $.25 for forty word advertisements. The ladies were given forty words free of charge. Any advertisements over forty words were charged at a rate of a penny per word.

In perusing several of the advertisements, some trends appear. Age and height, some listing weight, were usually a lead in, as well as occupations. Some were quite frank about being poor, and others were equally frank about the fact that they were looking for a spouse with some cash.

Jed Barnette decided times were desperate and he was getting no younger.  He decided to take the bull by the horns and find himself a wife.  His first step was to place an ad in the Kansas City edition of The Matrimonial News.  This is Jed's story.

The headlines of the Lebanon, PA Daily News screamed in large, bold, black letters.  The single word headline was definitely an attention getter.  The sub-title lead was "Gold discovered in Dakota Territory!"  It carried several accounts of individuals turning over shovels full of gold.  The one word that generates excitement of the young and old.  Fabulous wealth to be had just for the picking.

Jed Barnette paused his task of sweeping the mercantile store in Lebanon.  "I need something like that," he mused.  “I'm never going to have anything sweeping Mr. Bectlor's store.”  To be sure, Jed saved the money he earned in the store, there was nothing to spend it on in Lebanon.  He didn't have a girl, and he still lived with his parents.

Finishing his sweeping, he put the broom away and moved to greet the customer walking in the door, causing the small bell mounted on the door to jangle.  "Good morning, Mr. Scheckler!  How are you this morning?"

John Scheckler, nodded and grunted something that was unintelligible.  "What can I get for you this morning?" Jed asked.

Scheckler asked for some beans and salt pork.  He also needed some nails and the staples to fasten fencing to posts.  "Still having problems with the hogs getting into the corn?" Jed asked.

Scheckler
finally broke his silence. 

"Four got out last night and ruined more than an acre of corn.  I tell you, I'm sick to death of farming.  There's got to be a better way to live than always cleaning up messes made by animals."

Jed asked, "Did you see the Daily News today?  Gold was discovered in the Dakota Territory.  It tells about men turning over shovels of gold.  They are making fortunes with every shovel full.  I sure would like to try my luck at it.  It would be nice to be rich."

"Just hard work won't do it," Scheckler said.  "I'm working from sun up to sun down, seven days a week and all I have to show for it is blisters.  One night of the hogs in the corn ruins months of hard work.  Let me see that paper," he said.  He laboriously read the article, moving his finger along the typeface as he read.  "It's just not fair," he said.  "Not fair at all.  Well, I got to be getting along and see what else has come apart while I'm in here gabbing with you.  Thank you, Jed."

Looking through the dirty window on the front of the store, Jed saw his future pass before his eyes.  He saw himself as an old man, his hair was gray his shoulders drooping, and walking stooped over, just as Mr. Bechtlor did.  You were born, you worked hard all of your life and then died with nothing to show for it.

It was a grim dream.  Jed decided it was not his dream.  He was going to do something about it.  At the dinner table that evening, he told his mother and dad, "I'm thinking about going west," he said during one of the frequent lulls in the conversation.

His father, in his late forties and already an old man, said, "Why would you want to do some damn fool thing like that?" he asked.

"Elias, you watch your language.  You know I don't hold with cursing in my house and at my table.  Jed, where did this idea come from?"

"Ma, they discovered gold in the Dakota Territory.  I want to go get my share of it.  There's nothing here for me.  I don't want to be swamping out Bectlor's store till I'm an old, stooped over man.  I want more and the Black Hills are the place to get it."

"That's silly, Jed.  You don't know anything about gold mining.  Besides, Dakota is half way across the country.  They have wild Indians and no law there.  It's no place for a nice man like you."

His father said, "When I die, this farm will be yours.  You have a place and a livelihood.  You need to find yourself a nice girl and learn farming.  If you farm, you'll always have something to eat."

"Mr. Sheckler was in the store today buying beans, nails and fencing material.  His hogs got out and into his corn last night.  He said they ruined more than an acre of corn. I don't want to be a farmer.  I don't want to be worried about a bunch of hogs ruining months of work.  I just don't want to be a farmer."

"This farm fed my father and his family and now it's feeding my family.  You have to respect that.  I've worked damn hard all of my life for you and now you don't want any part of it."

"I do respect it and I appreciate it.  I also see what it has done to you.  It has made you an old man before your time and I want more from life than that.  I appreciate all you and Ma have done for me and I do respect you for it.  It just isn't for me."

With those words, Jed broke his father's heart.  Had he looked at his mother closely, he would have seen the tears in her eyes.  His father sat there, shoulders more slumped than before.  His head hung down as if shamed by the dismissal of his life's work.  He pushed back his chair and said, "I'm going to see to the livestock."  He stood and walked out the back door.

"Jedadiah Elias Barnette, you see what you just did?  You just told him he has not accomplished anything you deem worthy and he has worked all of his life building this farm up so you would have something.  You get out there right now and make this right.  Now get!"  She stood, and began cleaning away the dinner dishes.  It would be bedtime by the time she finished.

Not
knowing what else to do, and realizing what he had just done, he hurried out the back door.  “Pa?  Pa, wait up and I'll help you with the stock." 

The dream of fabulous riches did not die that night.  It stayed in the back of Jed's mind, surfacing several times a day.  He had this feeling all of the gold would be gone before he had a chance of turning over one of the shovels of gold.  While the niggling thought continued to play in the back of his mind, he continued to work and save.  He had not given up.

A vague plan was beginning to take shape. The plan required that Jed continue to work and extend his savings. He had decided any good plan would require a year to fairly execute.  A major part of his plan was to earn as much as possible, before leaving, so there was money to support the year in mining.

Satisfied when he had enough to live on until he became rich, he bade his parents goodbye, and boarded the train on a journey to the place of dreams. He arrived in Laramie, Wyoming along with a trainload of dreamers in the early summer of 1880.  After some investigation of the process, he decided to try placer mining.  He saw many fights over claims but he participated in none of them.

With his trusty pan, Jed headed down towards Wood's Landing, winding up in Cummins City, the latest boom town.  A kindly old man who lived with his mule tried to help him learn the process.  Jed had found the prime spots had all been claimed prior to his arrival.

He wandered around and watched the endeavor, finally collecting a few flakes in the bottom of his pan.  He carried his ore in a small sack tied to his waistband.  Wandering along the stream bed, he panned, finding a few flakes here and there.  Where were the shovels of gold he had heard about?  He certainly hadn't found any.

After
a particularly hard day, all he had was a few flakes and an aching back.  He stood and gathered his meager possessions and his dust.  He headed for the assayers office and had it weighed and evaluated and was paid. The next morning, he rolled his tent up and headed to Laramie, his dreams of wealth dead and his days as a miner over.

His first act was to go to the Bureau of Land Management where he filed claims for land on a stream that fed the Laramie River.  All he had to do was meet the Homestead Act's few qualifying requirements A homesteader had to be the head of the household or at least twenty-one years old. He had to live on the designated land, build a home, make improvements, and farm it for a minimum of five years. The filing fee was eighteen dollars (or ten to temporarily hold a claim to the land.  Using the Timber Act, he laid claim to another 160 acres.  In addition, using the Donation Act, as a single male, he laid claim to an additional 320 acres.  Assuming he proved up, his holdings were now 640 acres.

* * *

Until he got a makeshift cabin built, he lived in the same tent he had used while mining.  His diet consisted entirely of beans and jerky.  Like it or not, he was now dependent upon the land for his livelihood, just as his father and grandfather had been.  He was a farmer.  Jed had haggled with the livery in Laramie and acquired a horse and wagon.  Using the wagon, he hauled the necessities of food and other supplies from Laramie.  He began hauling stones from the area around his homestead with the intent of using them to build his house.  He hitched the horse to the timber he had felled and dragged them to what would be the cabin site.  He chopped the limbs with the intent of using them for heat during the coming winter.

Jed had met Grace and John Carruthers from the church in Laramie.  He was introduced to the congregation during services.  Several of the men in the group volunteered to help him put up his cabin.  Among those that volunteered was Luke Hastings, who owned a large ranch a few miles from his place.  Luke was a little older than Jed, but they bonded. 

When they began work on Jed's cabin, Luke brought several of his ranch hands to help.  His wife, Clara had fixed a lunch as had several of the wives of the group. Before they left that night, he had a roof over his head for the first time since he had left Lebanon.  The following week, Luke and his ranch hands came back and helped finish the barn where he and his horse would sleep until he was able to get a cabin built.

Jed's first priority was to get seeds into the ground to grow the vegetables he needed for his meals.  He was now truly a farmer.  Farming in Wyoming was a hard task at best.  According to Luke Hastings, raising and selling cattle was the best way to make a living.  Luke sold most of his cattle to the US Army at Fort Laramie.  He urged Jed to get into the cattle business as soon as possible.

Looking at all of the work ahead of him, Jed knew he would be better off returning to Lebanon and working in the store and helping his father run the farm.  His pride would not allow him to return, tail tucked between his legs and the "I told you sos" from his father.  Of course, his mother would have loved for him to come home.  Jed and his mother communicated via the mail, a slow process.

Jed tended his vegetable garden and his horse.  He continued working on a cabin, slowly erecting walls using the rock he had accumulated.  He added to his project list the building of a corral.  He intended to follow Luke's advice and run some cattle.  Luke had told him he would add any cattle Jed acquired to his herd when they drove them to market, thus easing what would have been another problem.  Luke was proving to be a very good friend. 

Jed was invited to dinner with Luke, Clara and their young son, Billy.  It was during one of the visits, Jed learned Luke was a twin, his brother Will having been murdered by a drunken cowboy.  He also learned Clara was a mail order bride.  Jed had not thought of women since he left Lebanon.  He was not one to visit the fancy ladies that worked out of the saloon.  Besides, he couldn't think of a wife until he had a house.  He certainly couldn't ask one to sleep in the barn as he did.  A wife was something that would have to be put on his future lists.

With the money he had saved from his store job and the selling of the gold dust from his prospecting days dwindling, Jed began worrying about how he was going to get by.  Luke had told him he could work on his ranch, but Jed thanked him and told Luke he would hold off on that.  In the meantime, with an abundance of rain, his garden flourished.  He found he had a talent for farming and took pleasure in his success.

Jed was in the general store in Laramie to purchase some needed supplies when he overheard two women bemoaning the lack of fresh vegetables. He thought of the abundance beyond his needs back home on his place.  Since he now had a cabin and a barn, he had come to think of it as his ranch.  He mentioned this to the owner of the store.  "Why don't you sell them?" the grocer asked.  "I'll take all you have, anytime."

Visiting John and Grace Carruthers in their home behind the church, he told them about what the storekeeper had said.  Grace said, "He doesn't have fresh vegetables very often since everyone around here is all cattle.  When he does have any, they are expensive."

"You could sell them yourself, and probably get a higher price than he will offer you, but that would require you to be here selling them.  I think you should take him up on his offer."

"I could certainly use the cash.  I would really like to buy some cattle now that I have the fencing up.  I believe I'll go back and talk to him again.  Thanks for the advice.  I appreciate it."