Read Double Wedding: Sweet Historical Mail Order Brides of Lowell for Free Online

Nebraska Territory 1866
    CHAPTER ONE
    After four days of travel, Annie Singer felt almost comforted by the swaying of the train car. The rocking ease slightly. Were they getting close? Now that the moment of truth was fast approaching, could she really do it? Could she marry a man she’d only met through his letters?
    Annie reached for her straw hat with the pink ribbon rosette stitched to the band near the front. She had said she’d be wearing it so George and his sister, Molly, could recognize her. If she pulled the rosette off now, no one would know. She could walk around the station platform and get a look at the man before he saw her. Her hand hovered over the ruched ribbon.
    No.
    She firmly placed the hat on her head, adjusted the angle, and determinedly jammed the long hat pin into her dark brown hair. She had said she would be on the train arriving at 2pm today and that she’d be wearing this hat. She was a woman of her word and now was not the time to change that. With a nod to herself, she leaned over to watch out the window.
    It really was hard to believe she’d actually gotten on the train, let alone was almost at her destination. A few months ago, when Pastor Brown told the congregation of women, in a town of mainly women, about the opportunity for a select few to travel to the frontier town of Seattle to be teachers, it was all everyone talked about for days.
    Annie had thought to apply. Working in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts and living in dorms with so many other women was a mind numbing life. When her family had sent her there just after her fourteen birthday, she’d understood that they needed the extra income. But after eight years, her brothers and sisters had grown up and now had families of their own. After so many years apart, she was a stranger to them all. Her reason for living and working this factory life was no longer there. Thinking of her future and dreams, she considered going. It was common knowledge that the frontier had many single men and the women who went would find husbands easily. Regrettably, Annie had taken too long to make up her mind and all the positions for Seattle had filled.
    A few weeks later, she watched the wagon with Sarah and her roommates leave to start their new lives in the frontier town of Seattle. Their departure turned Annie’s thoughts to leaving Lowell herself. At two-and-twenty, she was an old maid in a factory town with few men. She wanted a life that didn’t require being cooped up in a dark room with noisy, dusty machinery all day. She wanted someone to love and someone who would love her. She wanted a life. And that wasn’t going to happen in Lowell.
    She’d come across the advertisement in the local newspaper that seemed the answer to her prayers.
    ‘Nebraska farmer needs wife.
    Must be honest, hardworking and God-fearing.
    Must be willing to travel immediately.’
     
    With both fear and hope, Annie worked on her letter for several days before she mailed her answer to the advertisement. Even if the farmer responded as soon as he got her letter, it would still be at least two weeks before his reply came. After a week, she couldn’t help herself and began checking daily with her landlady. When the response finally did arrive, Annie’s landlady brought the letter to her as soon as the postman dropped it off. That first letter from the Nebraska farmer, George Pulaski, was friendly and Annie liked him right away. Her answering letter was in the post the next day.
    Over the next several months, their letters became longer. Annie shared how she had come to live in Lowell and why she’d answered his advertisement. And George shared how he and his sister had lost their parents and how much he was looking forward to having a family of his own. With each exchange of letters they grew to know each other.
    Now, she had a one-way ticket to Tribilane in the Nebraska Territory. She had never done anything so impulsive in her entire life. She had