In Search Of Love: The Story of A Mail Order Bride (Mail Order Bride Series)
Page 1
Susan Leigh Carlton about 30,000 words
Tomball, TX77377
susan@susanleighcarlton.com
In Search of Love
The Story of A Mail Order Bride
by
Susan Leigh Carlton
Description
In Search of Love: The Story Of A Mail Order Bride, is a story of a young couple looking for love. Katerina Hauser, the daughter of German immigrants, lives in Columbus, Ohio. Katerina is pushed hard by her mother to study for the teaching profession. She finishes Columbus Teaching College, which will later be absorbed into the Ohio State University system, with the highest grades in the history of the school. She accepted a teaching position in the Ciolumbus Public School System.
Katerina’s mother is a domineering woman who continues to press her, not allowing boy friends, who eventually drives Katerina to place an ad for a mail order husband, even though it means leaving her beloved Papa, Karl.
Patrick Murphy is the youngest of five children of Michael and Margaret Murphy, who fled Ireland to escape the ravages of the potato famine in 1849. After a tornado wiped out their home in Indiana, Michael and his family traveled the Oregon Trail, a five month trek to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, claiming a homestead outside Oregon City, then capitol of Oregon. In Irish culture, the oldest son inherits family holdings. Since Patrick was the youngest, he moved out and claimed his on homestead, gaining 640 acres of his own.
After the exchange of several letters, they agree to meet, but Katerina’s father thinks it is too dangerous for a young lady to travel unescorted across the country.
Read about this young couple and the way they meet these challenges, and the warm welcome offered Katerina by a large and caring family.
Table of Contents
In Search of Love
The Story of A Mail Order Bride
by
Susan Leigh Carlton
Copyright
From the author
Prologue
Chapter 1: Katerina Hauser
Chapter 2: Patrick Murphy
Chapter 3: Katerina’s Ad
Chapter 4: A Correspondence Begins
Chapter 5: The Correspondence Intensifies
Chapter 6: A Counter Proposal
Chapter 7: Problems To Resolve
Chapter 8: Mama, I Have Something To Tell You
Chapter 9: A Train To Columbus
Chapter 10: Katerina Meets Patrick
Chapter 11: We’re Getting Married
Chapter 12: Getting Ready To Travel
Chapter 13: The Train Journey Westward
Chapter 14: Meeting the Murphy Family
Chapter 15: Home
Chapter 16: Settling In
Chapter 17: School Days
Chapter 18: Staying With The Murphys
Chapter 19: The Road To Recovery
Chapter 20: News From Columbus
Chapter 21: An Uneventful Pregnancy
Chapter 22: A Growing Family
Epilogue
About Susan Leigh Carlton
Susan’s Other Books
Copyright
Susan Leigh Carlton 2014
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
This book contains Material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book May be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.
From the author
As always, I listen to those of you who have emailed me. In this book, you will see that I have made a change in style. I have put thoughts and internal conversation in italic instead of quotes. This to make it easier to determine what was said to oneself instead of being said aloud.
Another change I’ve made involves the use of quotes (“). I have changed to the more accepted standard of opening each paragraph of dialog with a quote. There will be no closing quote as long as the same speaker continues talking in the next paragraph.
Karl Hauser is an immigrant from Germany, and his language is sprinkled with German words. Some of the German words I learned are, “enkelkinder”, for grandchildren; Liebchen for dear one; dotter for daughter, and danke for thank you.
Lastly, I am making the love scenes less explicit. The feelings will remain as intense, just minus some of the intimate details. This may change back if you readers recommend it.
My thanks to all of you for your support, and especially your emails. It truly makes my day when a reader takes the time to ask a question or make a suggestion. Keep them coming!
Sincerely,
Susan
Prologue
Printed throughout the 1870’s, 80’s and 90’s, the Matrimonial News was an early American form of today's electronic matchmaking websites. It was written and published each week in San Francisco, California, and Kansas City, Missouri, with ads from both men and women searching for marriage.
A person would write an advertisement showing his or her qualifications and wishes. Each ad would be given a reference number. Any person who wanted to answer the advertisement would do so with the newspaper office, putting their reference number on all communications, thus refraining from posting names and locations. Names and addresses would not be released until permission was given to the editor.
Gentlemen would pay $.25 for forty word ads. Ladies would get forty words free of cost. Any advertisements greater than forty words were billed at the rate of a penny per word.
I purchased a book called Hearts West.. The Story of Mail Order Brides on The Frontier by Chris Enss. A large portion of the book are photos and actual ads that appeared in The Matrimonial News. After I read a couple of of the ads, a couple of trends appeared. Most of the ads listed age and height, while a few of them listed a weight, or just said weight proportional. Most listed their occupations. Some ads were quite frank regarding their finances, even to the stage of claiming "poor", while some were equally open with the fact they were searching for an affluent spouse.
It led me to wonder about the loneliness, and the desperation that may have driven anyone to this kind of search. Based on the newspaper’s records, an estimate was given that over a 30 year run of the paper, more than 2500 couples met and married their mate as a result of an ad with the Matrimonial News.
* * *
The revolutionary uprising in the German states renewed itself in the spring of 1849. The uprisings started in Elberfeld in the Rhineland on May 6, 1848. However, the uprisings soon spread to the state of Baden, when a riot broke out in Karlsruhe. The states of Baden and the Palatinate bordered each other, separated only by the Rhine. The uprising in Baden and the Palatinate took place, largely, in the Rhine Valley along the border between Baden and the Palatinate.
As the unrest intensified, many German families fled to America. Among those fleeing was Pieter Hauser, his wife Bette and son Karl. Along with hundreds of other refugees, they entered the United States in Philadelphia.
Pieter Hauser was a shoemaker in Germany and this would be his trade in his new country. His son, Karl had apprenticed under his father and would also ply the trade of shoemaker.
Karl met and married Marta Dietrich, a daughter of a German immigrant. In 1851, Marta gave birth to Katerina Elisabet.
In 1853, Karl moved his family to Columbus, Ohio and opened a shoe store in that city, offering new shoes as well as repair. The fam
ily lived above the shop in a two bedroom apartment
Chapter 1: Katerina Hauser
“Katerina!” Marta called her daughter. “Katerina! It’s time for you to study.” There was no answer. Marta went downstairs to the shop. “Katerina Elisabet Hauser, did you hear me calling you?”
“Yes, Mama,” the blond haired, blue eyed girl answered. “I heard you.”
“Then why did you not answer me?” her mother asked.
“I’m helping Papa make a pair of shoes,” replied her daughter.
“Karl, why do you not make our daughter obey me?” she asked her husband.
“I didn’t hear you call her, Liebchen,” he said.
“You know she has to pay attention to her studies, Karl, we’ve talked about it so many times.,” Marta said. If she’s going to go to the teaching college, she’s going to have to work for it.”
“Marta, she’s only fifteen years old. She’s a child. Let her enjoy it.” Her exasperated husband said.
“There’ll be time enough for fun after she’s a teacher,” his wife countered.
“Mama, Papa, please don’t argue. Mama, I’ll study. I promise.”
“She’s a good girl. Her teacher told me she’s the smartest person in the class,” Karl said.
“And when did you talk to her teacher?” his wife asked suspiciously.
“When she brought these shoes in for repair,” he said, and held up a pair of high button top shoes.
“Yes, well come along, Katerina.”
“Yes, Mama, I’m coming. Bye, Papa.”
Katerina and her mother sat at the kitchen table, with her mother firing questions at her from one of her school books. She didn’t miss a single question. “Very good, Katerina. You did well.”
* * *
As early as fourteen, Katerina was a striking beauty. The boys in school clamored for any opportunity to talk to her and to show off their talents.
Shortly after her sixteenth birthday, Hans Furstenfeld asked if he could walk her home and carry her books. He was the best looking boy in her class and she saw no harm in having a friend for company. When they stopped at the outside stairway that led to their apartment, the door opened and her mother stepped out. “Young lady, what do you think you are doing?” her mother demanded.
“Mama, this is Hans. He’s a friend from class and he comes this way from school so we walked together,” Katerina said.
“You have no time for boys. Katerina. There is much to do, now you get on upstairs this minute.”
“But Mama…”
“So now it’s backtalk, is it? What comes next?”
“Mrs. Hauser, we’re just friends from school. Katerina did nothing wrong,” Hans said.
“Young man, you go back where you belong and don’t let me see you around here again.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Under her mother’s watchful eye, most of Katerina’s day was spent studying. Occasionally she was permitted to spend time in the shoe shop.
Much later…
“Papa, why does Mama not allow me to have friends?” Katerina asked her father.
“She remembers how it was in the old country, where only the educated had a chance for a future. She want’s only the best for you,” her father replied.
“Grandpa has some pleasant memories of the old country, Papa.”
Your mother remembers the life her family had, and it was not good. She has few good memories of her younger years.”
“Well, as soon as I possibly can, I am going to get out from under her thumb. I’m not allowed to have any friends visit, and away from school, nothing. As soon as I get my teacher’s credentials, I will move away,” Katerina said.
“Ah, Liebchen, it pains me to hear you say things like that. To think of losing you from our lives brings me great sorrow,” Karl said. “I will speak to your mother about this, but I fear she will not listen.
“It bothers me too Papa, but controlling my life has become an obsession with Mama. I agree it will do no good. I don’t like to be the cause of trouble between you, so I will continue to do as she wishes, but only until my schooling is complete.”
Graduation from the public schools came early for Katerina. Her hard work had taken her far beyond where the rest of her class was. Through the efforts of the superintendent, she was allowed to graduate ahead of her class and to enter the teaching college a full year early.
Marta said, “The recognition by the authorities proves the worth of all of your hard work, as I told you would be the acknowledgment of your success. You must not let up now. You must redouble your efforts.”
Chapter 2: Patrick Murphy
Patrick Murphy was born June 9, 1850, in Greenfield, Indiana. He was the youngest of five children, consisting of three boys and two girls. He was the son of Michael and Margaret Murphy, who immigrated from Ireland in 1848.
During the period from 1845 to 1852, Ireland was plagued with a potato crop failure. Because one-third of the population was then solely relying on this cheap crop, the failure brought on a period of famine and starvation among the masses. The population of Ireland dropped by 20 to 25% during this period, with most of those leaving for the United States. Michael and Margaret and their three children were among those fleeing their homeland to settle in Greenfield, Indiana.
Through a family friend, Michael seized the opportunity to work the land as a share cropper with one of the gentry of Greenfield. It was a meager existence at best, their resources were further depleted by the arrival of two more children, with Patrick the youngest and last child in 1850.
In April of 1855, a tornado ripped through central Indiana, flattening everything in its path for a 125 mile path, at times becoming one mile wide. The home and outbuildings being used by the Murphy were completely demolished. The family cringed in a root cellar while the storm tore the buildings above them to splinters, leaving them homeless.
Michael determined it was time for safer environs. Having heard tales of the fertile grounds of Wyoming, Montana and Nebraska, he hired on to drive one of two wagons for one of the migrating families. There were stories told of free land being available as homesteads. All a person had to do was live on the land for five years and make improvements indicating the intent of living there permanently. This was called “proving up”. Michael filed a claim for 600 acres under the act. After five years, the land was yours, free and clear.
Under provisions of the Donation Land Act of 1850, the Murphys were able to claim 600 acres of land. When any of their male children reached eighteen, they would be able to claim 320 acres of their own. The Murphys were now owners of 600 acres of prime farm land. With timber plentiful, they built a log house large enough to accommodate their family. The Irish are a people to whom land ownership is a sign of making it and Michael and Margaret were now making it.
Under Irish customs, the eldest sons inherit family lands, Patrick realized he must seek his fortune outside the family lines, and he filed a claim of his own for 640 acres. (The set amount for a claim had been raised from 600 acres, and then later reduced to 160 acres by the Homestead Act.)
With the assistance of his family and neighbors, Patrick had harvested lumber from the plentiful forests of Oregon and built a cabin and barn. By his twentieth birthday, Michael was a farmer, and a property owner. By his twenty-fifth birthday his farm was prospering. In the spring of 1875, a grasshopper plague wiped out his wheat crop along with the crops of his neighbors.
An oppressing loneliness came over Patrick. Since he had finished school, there had been no female companions. He discovered no prospects for marriage. There was a dearth of women his age. On the few times he attended services at St Mary’s Catholic Church, he saw few unattached girls. Born out of desperation, he found The Matrimonial News and placed an ad for a bride in hopes of finding someone interested in marriage.
The Ad:
Poor but honest and lonely farmer, homesteading 640 acres, age 25, 5’10”, weight 150 lbs seeking correspondence
with a female of same approximate age. Object: Matrimony if compatible. Reference #1892
This is a pathetic description of a desperate man, he thought. Why would any woman of sound mind respond to such a description?
Patrick found his ad in the newspaper. Three weeks later, he had received no responses. I’m not surprised. There was nothing there to interest anyone. I’m going to give it two more weeks. His two week deadline passed with no success. Placement of an ad was for one edition of the paper only. Patrick decided to spend the money to run the ad one more time. Allowing one week for his request to be displayed, he began his mail watch again.
The third week following the appearance of his second ad, he received a letter from the newspaper. He had received one answer! At last. Included with the letter was a reminder of the way the paper operated. His address would not be revealed to the responder until he chose to do do. In turn, he would not get the identity of his correspondent until she gave permission to the editor. Also included was a caution. He should beware of the possibility of fraudulent information. The paper did not vet the subscribers, so it was caveat emptor, Latin for “let the buyer beware.”