Wayback Wednesday: 1875

Wayback Wednesday: 1875

Pixabay/Flash Alexander

I’m thrilled to be releasing another story in the Westward Home & Hearts Mail Order Brides series. Beryl’s Bounty Hunter will be out on the 15th of this month. The story is set in the fictional town of Rocky Mountain Springs, Wyoming in 1875. I thought it would be fun to explore what life was like during that year.

Only ten years had passed since the end of the American Civil War. The Reconstruction Era was in full swing and would come to an uneasy conclusion with the Compromise of 1877. Despite the passing of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments race relations remained strained, and America continued to treat the Native Americans poorly. An incident in February of that year involved the marching of the Yavapai and Tonto Apache tribes being forced to march at gunpoint from Arizona’s Verde Valley to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. The following month saw the passage of the Page Act which restricted the immigration of Chinese women to the US.

Out west, farmers and ranchers were dealing with “Albert’s Swarm,” a cloud of Rocky Mountain

Pixabay/
Dominic Alberts

locusts estimated to be 198,000 square miles (1/3 of the size of Alaska) in size. Named for meteorologist Albert Child who calculated the size of the horde, the locusts struck western Missouri devastating everything in its path as it headed for Nebraska. I remember when the 17-year locusts hit Maryland {shudder,} and it was a fraction of the experience for those poor settlers.

On a brighter note, the thoroughbred Aristides won the first Kentucky Derby, Harvard and Tufts played what is considered the first college football game, and Boston was privy to Tchaikovsky’s first performance of his Piano Concerto No. 1.

Pixabay/
Aleksejs Ivanovs

Technology was moving the world ahead with the invention of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone (he received the patent in 1876), the mimeograph machine by Thomas Edison, albeit as a mistake while trying to improve telegraphy tape, and the electronic dental drill by little-remembered George F. Green. In Europe, German inventor Siegfried Marcus received a patent for an internal combustion engine.

The transcontinental railroad had been completed in 1869, and people took the ease of crossing the nation for granted, much like we take air travel for granted today. Thirty-seven states existed, and Colorado would join the Union the following year. The nation was headed for its Centennial, and spirits were high as the country entered the Gilded Age which lasted more than thirty years.

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Beryl’s Bounty Hunter

Can a thief and a lawman find happiness?

Orphaned as a child, Beryl Atherton has lived on the streets of London as long as she can remember. Reduced to stealing for survival, she is arrested. During her incarceration one of her cellmates shows her a newspaper ad for an American mail-order bride agency. But all is not as it seems, and moments after landing in Boston, she must run for her life. Will things be no different for her in the New World?

Working as a bounty hunter since The War Between the States, Lucas Wolf just needs a few more cases before he can hang up his gun, purchase a ranch out West, and apply for a mail-order bride from the Westward Home & Hearts Mail-Order Bride Agency. While staking out the docks in Boston, he sees a woman fleeing from the man he’s been tailing. Saving her risks his job. Not saving her risks his heart.

Pre-order Link: https://amzn.to/3KqprHW