A TRAIL OR A DEATH SENTENCE? by Marisa Masterson

Troubles. What's a plot without them? 

Jack Poston's troubles comes in pairs. He needs to make more than simply $3 a piece for his cattle. His mail-order bride is late arriving.

He must travel through war-torn states to push his cattle northward when no one else is willing to brave the trip from Texas to Missouri in 1865. His late arriving bride insists she come with him. Thus, The Bride on the Shawnee Trail is born. From the book:

“Can’t spend more time on this, Caroline. The boys and I need to drive the animals closer to the river today. We only stopped so I could meet up with you and get the marrying done.”

“Well, it’s done.”

She looked at her boots as she talked. Not a good sign, he was discovering. She always insisted on having her own way when she did that.

Her voice lowered and took on a submissive note. “I’m ready to help Stubby with the
meals.”

Jack took off his Stetson and slapped the new-fangled hat against his leg. The maker had started selling them last year. Already he and two of his men wore their Stetsons daily. No keeping this hat only for good, not when it was such a help against heat and rain.

“Caroline, you need to go to my ranch.”

Before she could argue, the old cook piped into the conversation. “I qu—”

He did not allow Stubby to finish. The man would not go on the cattle drive if he did. With Stubby quitting, Caroline would be forced to learn everything on her own. Jack could not foist that burden onto his new bride. Bad enough she had to start on another trip right after finishing the long ordeal of getting to Texas.

“Alright, Stubby. I surrender.” Jack beat the hat against his thigh once more. 

https://www.truewestmagazine.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/01/
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And what a trail the Shawnee was! The American Civil War all but closed what was also called the Texas Road or the Kansas Trail. In reality, no one drove herds north from Texas in 1865. The cattle drives resumed in 1866, though not peacefully.

While the war had stopped, the battles with unhappy settlers continued. The Texas longhorns brought what was called the Spanish Fever, killing farmers' livestock. Actually from a tick, the longhorns were immune while cows grazing on that same land they crossed were not.

Jayhawkers

Often, vigilantes tried to block herds from entering their land. Drovers learned to skirt those settlers. 

One of the first to resume the drives was a young cowhand named James Daugherty. He joined a cattle drive in the spring of 1866. After more than a thousand miles, he neared the Kansas line with the herd. Anti-slavery vigilantes known as Jayhawkers ambushed in the night, stampeding the longhorns and killing one of the trail hands. Daugherty managed to recover 350 steers and sell them at Fort Scott rather than his original destination. (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/shawnee-trail)

Six states passed legislation to block the cattle drives in 1867. Because of unrest as well as the risk to the settlers' livestock, the Shawnee trail became obsolete. A new and well-known route resulted--The Chisholm Trail.

Jack Poston longs for more than beans to eat. In need of a wife to cook for him and to tend the chickens, he sends for a mail-order bride. When she arrives later than he expected, it throws his plans into disarray. He must leave for a cattle drive, while she heads to his ranch.

Having lost two grooms, Caroline refuses to lose sight of her new husband. She determines to keep him safe from the unknown danger that lurks on the Shawnee Trail. But, as they face the hardships of the trail, Caroline realizes another real threat follows her.

Will they find a love strong enough to survive the treacherous journey and bring them together, or will danger ultimately tear them apart?

For fans of western romance and suspense, The Bride on the Shawnee Trail is a must-read. Don't miss out on this thrilling tale of love, danger, and survival. Buy now before the price changes!

DID THEY HEAR WHAT I HEAR? by Marisa Masterson

 Bonk! Now, don't think about the modern use for that word. Nothing dirty is meant here.

https://tattoobird.tumblr.com/post/651562898279235584

I simply wanted bonk to describe a hit on a character's head in my latest writing project. Then I began to reconsider. Did someone in 1880 use that onomatopoeia?

https://collections.theworldwar.org/argus/final/Portal/Default.aspx

Strange to realize it, but even our words used to represent sounds can reflect the time period when we live. And no, bonk would not have been used in the 1880s. It originated during World War I. Then it meant to fire artillery. To be bonked meant being hit by a shell. In the 1920s, the word changed. It described hitting someone or something.

What words were commonly used onomatopoeia in the 1800s? What could I use and stay true to my historical time period?

https://www.audible.com/pd
/The-Bells-Audiobook/B0854966F4

I only have to look at a favorite poem of mine, one I loved to teach when I was in the classroom. Edgar Allen Poe gives us a wonderful list of used sound words in The Bells.

Taken from the poem:

 Yet the ear it fully knows,
            By the twanging,
            And the clanging,
         How the danger ebbs and flows;
       Yet the ear distinctly tells,
            In the jangling,
            And the wrangling.
       How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells—
             Of the bells—
     Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
            Bells, bells, bells—
 In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

(https://poets.org/poem/bells)

 

Would I, in 2025, use wrangling as a sound word? Probably not. Clangor? No, that's not a common one in my vocabulary. Was it common at Poe's time in the nineteenth century? I'm not sure, but it does make me wonder.

 By studying nineteenth-century literature, we get an impression of some of the more common sound words used. A Google search suggested this list:

• Tinkle: Imitating the light, high-pitched ringing sound of bells.
• Clang: Representing a loud, ringing metallic sound.
• Clash: Similar to clang, depicting the sound of two objects striking forcefully.
• Crackle: The sound of something dry breaking apart or a fire burning.
• Thump: A dull, heavy sound of impact.
• Whir: The humming or buzzing sound of a spinning object or machine.
• Knock: Imitating the sound of someone tapping on a door.
• Click/Clack: Representing short, sharp sounds, often mechanical, like a door latch or high heels.
• Splish-splash: The sound of liquids hitting a surface, typically water.
• Tick-tock: The sound of a clock. 

The last one is definitely something from the past. So few people use anything other than an electronic device for time nowadays. Clash is another seldom-used word, at least as an adjective. It has become a verb.

What does this all mean? The dialogue in my books definitely needs to reflect a time that is different from my own. 

Maybe I'll thump my character on the head rather than give him a bonk. To my modern ears, that sounds so much more wholesome.

Raising a Glass - Irish Women in America by Jo-Ann Roberts

 

Happy March! Happy Spring!  As we speak, I'm in the middle of writing my upcoming release, Olivia's Odyssey (July 2024). This is my first mail-order bride book, and admittedly, it's been a bit of a challenge to plot. Since I've never written one before, so the research on who, why, where, and when these women chose to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to marry a man sight unseen was a bit daunting.

When I finally decided on the heroine's 4w's (who, why, where, when) Olivia Glennon, an Irish American shoe factory worker from South Boston, Massachusetts emerged. With the loss of her mother, she was raised by her father, spending most of her formative years sleeping in saloons while her father lost money playing cards. The plot is still in the formative stages, so I'll stop there!

The Irish, like many, many ethnicities, had a tremendous impact on American history and culture. It is estimated that 36.9 million Americans claim Irish roots. The Irish are the second-largest heritage group after the Germans. However, the Irish were unique among all immigrant groups...

...they sent more daughters than sons to America!

Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish constituted over one-third of all immigrants to the U.S., and by the 1840s--at the height of the Potato Famine--they comprised nearly half. Even after the crisis, Irish women continued to migrate in increasing numbers. By the end of the 19th century, single women accounted for 53% of Irish immigrants.

These girls and women moved to America for the same reason as men: opportunity and freedom. They left behind hard scrabble farms where they worked as long and as hard as men to bring in a crop while maintaining homes and taking care of children. Poor as church mice, the women--many of them widows or orphans--had few employment opportunities and diminished marriage prospects as the Famine had driven many men to leave the Emerald Isle...so they, too, left for America. Determined not to work in the fields, they settled in cities where many took jobs as servants, domestic workers, or seamstresses. 

More than 60% worked as maids, cooks, nannies, or housekeepers. Living with wealthy or middle-class American families came with advantages. They exposed the Irish women to American culture speeding up their assimilation to their environment. However, the greatest advantage was financial. Not only were the wages higher than those for factory workers, but as live-in help domestics, they had no housing expenses, enabling them to save money.

Women sent money back home to support families and also paid the passage for their female sisters, nieces, cousins, and friends. They were young, most under the age of 24, unmarried, and had a desire for independence. (Think of all the mail-order bride books you've read with Irish heroines!)

These girls were literate as well, having been educated in Catholic schools in Ireland. Building on their success in Ireland, Irish-Catholic nuns and priests established scores of schools and colleges in America, adding social and economic mobility for successive generations.

Education also helped pave the way for Irish American women's entrance into the workforce. Second-generation women became teachers, bookkeepers, typists, journalists, and nurses, turning their back on servitude, preferring regular hours found in government and business.

Once in the workplace, these second-generation Irish American women protested discrimination and were among the first to organize and join labor unions, rising through the ranks in union leadership, and introducing unions to service and professional fields. They organized teacher unions to eliminate male and female pay discrepancies.

Irish American women also made their mark through literature and journalism, their choice of subject matter revealing abuse of the mentally ill, and addressing subjects like body images, alcoholism, and difficulties in marriage.

Irish women found the adventure of a lifetime in America as compelling as the economic opportunities, firmly establishing themselves as a force with which to be reckoned. Their strong bonds, formed by immigration and shared membership in the Catholic Church, nurtured a culture and pride among Irish American women that continues to this day.

Pictures Courtesy of Library of Congress

Raising a Glass to Irish American Women | National Women's History Museum (womenshistory.org)