Modern Lovers Have New Ways: Twentieth Century System is Bizarre and Usually Hurries Matters (1902)

by USA Today Bestselling Author Kristin Holt

I love hearing about how couples met, the unique stories about their dating, and what brought them together. Must be the romance writer in me. But maybe not. I think I'm just a hopeless romantic. I found this treasure when searching my favorite vintage (Victorian-era) newspaper repository for "Correspondence Courtship" (as revealed by the yellow highlighter I forgot to turn off when saving the images). Such means of courting was considered quite proper...as long as it took long enough. Victorians liked to be certain.

Oh--and don't forget. Victorians used the term "lovers" in the most G-rated way possible.

This newspaper article, originally published in Chicago Daily Tribune on September 7, 1902, caught my attention. I find the more things change the more they stay the same. Two years into the Twentieth Century, folks thought young couples went about courtship and marriage the wrong way. I suspect that early in the twenty-first century, people thought young folks still went about courtship (dating? hanging out? living together?) the wrong way.

This article shares several short stories about how young couples met and married--and therein reveals unique slices of life at the Turn of the Century (as in 1900). I hope you enjoy these tales as much as I did!

Chicago Daily Tribune, September 7, 1902. Part 1 of 5.

Chicago Daily Tribune, September 7, 1902. Part 2 of 5.

Chicago Daily Tribune, September 7, 1902. Part 3 of 5.

Chicago Daily Tribune, September 7, 1902. Part 4 of 5.

Chicago Daily Tribune, September 7, 1902. Part 5 of 5.

Interesting, isn't it? Coney Island, an undertakers, divorce (gasp!) and immediate remarriage, a "newspaper bride" as a result of a correspondence courtship, and childhood sweethearts reunited. Even a bride-swap. Sigh. The stuff of dreams. Or romance novels.

What is the craziest wedding you ever heard of? Or the most unusual (perhaps rapid) courtship / dating story? Perhaps one that occurred "back in the day", such as your grandparents' (even if it's not crazy or rapid)? I LOVE the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the courtships and commitments made by grandmas and grandpas. Please share! We hopeless romantics would love to know the juicy details.

www.KristinHolt.com

 

 Copyright © 2017 Kristin Holt LC

Wheat Harvest

by Shanna Hatfield

Due to spring arriving about a month early this year, wheat harvest has begun in our area. Just the other day, we noticed the number of fields that had already been harvested. Soon, smoke will fill the sky as the farmers burn off the stubble and prepare the fields for another year.

In my Pendleton Petticoats series is set in Pendleton, Oregon, in the early 1900s, several of the stories include scenes of wheat harvest.

Back in the early years of the twentieth century, Umatilla County (where Pendleton is located) produced approximately one percent of the nation’s wheat crop. Wheat harvest brought workers to town, provided income for families, and was quite an event.

It was also a lot of hot, sweaty, backbreaking work. Growing up on a farm, I write from experience about the dusty, itchy chaff that makes the air thick and hard to breathe.

When I looked for visual inspiration, I found several photos taken in the general area.

This photo was taken in 1903 in Sherman County, Oregon. (If you’ve read the Grass Valley series, it is set in Sherman County.)
Although I had a general idea of what each piece of equipment on the machine did, I had no idea how to describe it.

 

This was another photo that provided a great visual of exactly how I pictured wheat harvest at Nash’s Folly, the main ranch in the Pendleton Petticoats series. Taken in 1902 in Walla Walla, WA, this photo shows not only the machine, but also the rolling, hilly fields prevalent in the area.

This photo, also from the oldoregonphotos.com website, shows the team of 32 pulling a hillside harvester in 1900. Because of the rolling hills, the farmers needed a machine that wouldn’t tip over on the steep inclines.

 

And here’s a crew in the early 1900s sitting with bags of golden kernels  near Arlington, OR. The woman on the end doesn’t look particularly excited to be there- but if I had to cook for a threshing crew in the unbearable summer heat dressed in layers of petticoats and long sleeves, I’d probably look really, really grumpy.

 

I also found this awesome photo that shows walls created with 100,000 sacks of wheat near Pendleton. Mission is on the Umatilla Reservation.

After gathering the historic photos and studying them, I still had no idea how to describe the equipment, so I contacted my dad and asked his sage advice. I emailed him a couple of the photos. He called me and told me what all the parts and pieces were as well as giving me the names of the different jobs of each man on the equipment.

The jigger sewed the sacks shut once they were filled. The tender made sure the cutter was going where it was supposed to while the skinner drove the team. I had no idea!

My dad, who comes from a long line of farmers, also spent several years after he and my mother first wed working in Pendleton in the early 1950s. He had first-hand experience with the terrain, the hillside harvesters, and even told me why so many of the farmers preferred mules to horses (because the mules could go all day without a problem and the horses often got sores or sick.)

As I watch the modern equipment bring in this year's crop, it makes me think of those long ago days when  a legion of four-legged and human workers were needed to harvest the wheat.

~*~ 

  

Convinced everyone deserves a happy ending, USA Today best-selling author Shanna Hatfield is out to make it happen, one story at a time. Her sweet historical and contemporary romances combine humor and heart-pumping moments with relatable characters.

   When this hopeless romantic isn’t writing or indulging in rich, decadent chocolate, Shanna hangs out with her husband, lovingly known as Captain Cavedweller.

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Songs of Yesteryear

by Shanna Hatfield

I had such fun reading Kathryn Albright's post about cowboy music yesterday, I thought I'd continue down a musical road today.

From the time I was five until the end of my junior year of high school, my mother carted me into town once a week for a piano lesson.

Not a particularly eager student, I begrudgingly went each week mostly because it meant I'd get some sort of treat on the way home.

By the time I hit high school, I could play fairly well, although there were no hopes on my horizon for being the next great concert pianist. In fact, I much preferred to accompany members of the choir than perform solo.

One afternoon, while my mother perused summer-weight material for a new dress at the fabric shop in town, I wandered to the music store next door to browse through the latest sheet music arrivals.

As though I could hear the tinny rag-time music calling my name, a thick book of sheet music jumped out at me.

Favorite Songs of the Nineties (Dover Publications, Inc.) offered the complete original sheet music for 89 songs popular around the turn of the 20th century.

As I flipped through the array of fascinating tunes, I wondered why my music teacher had been holding back on me so long. Forget about Beethoven and Mozart — here was the music that sang to my heart.

The staggering price of the book (when you're fifteen and still on an allowance) did little to deter my enthusiasm. I had to have it. Scraping every bit of change from the bottom of my purse, I excitedly purchased the book.

Broke but determined, I went home and spent several hours that evening acquainting myself with songs such as After the Ball, The Bird on Nellie's Hat, In the Good Old Summertime, and Waltz me Around Again Willie.

Where had these wonderful songs been all my life? I probably drove my family nuts that summer, playing those old tunes over and over again until I had the notes and lyrics memorized. (At least I was practicing the piano of my own free will — a huge change from past summers in my childhood!)

I still have that book of sheet music and it has served me well as I write sweet historical romances set in the 1890s and 1900s.

It's fun to incorporate some of these songs that have become so familiar to me into the stories of characters who have become my friends.

In my new release Bertie, I included one of my favorite songs because the lyrics are so fun and flirty and fit so well into the story.

If you've never heard Coax Me, here's a peek at the opening lyrics:
"A night in June,
A lovely moon,
Beneath the trees two dusky lovers wooing,
He softly sighs,
She rolls her eyes..."

Some other tunes from the book of sheet music you might recognize include:

Bicycle Built for Two

I Love You Truly 

In My Merry Oldsmobile

Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage 

Sweet Rosie O'Grady

Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Ay!

The Band Played On 

The Fountain in the Park

Waltz Me Around Again, Willie

While Strolling Through the Park One Day

 

~*~

USA Today Bestselling Author Shanna Hatfield writes character-driven romances with relatable heroes and heroines. Her historical westerns have been described as “reminiscent of the era captured by Bonanza and The Virginian” while her contemporary works have been called “laugh-out-loud funny, and a little heart-pumping sexy without being explicit in any way.”

Convinced everyone deserves a happy ending, this hopeless romantic  is out to make it happen, one story at a time. When she isn’t writing or indulging in chocolate (dark and decadent, please), Shanna hangs out with her husband, lovingly known as Captain Cavedweller.

 Find Shanna’s books at:

Amazon | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | Apple

 Shanna loves to hear from readers. Follow her online at:

ShannaHatfield | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads | You Tube | Twitter