Mary Seacole. Also known as Mother Seacole and the Black Florence Nightingale

                   

                                (1805-1881)  

      Mary was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to a Scottish military father and a free Black Jamaican mother. Her mother was a renowned healer known as "The Doctress," who passed down traditional Caribbean and African herbal medicine practices. 

  Mrs. Seacole established her reputation as a healer during a yellow fever outbreak in 1853, and, when, the Crimean War broke out later that year, she wished to do her share to aid the wounded.       Traveling all the way to London, she applied to the British Secretary at War and one of Nightingale’s colleagues to be included in the country's nursing corps.

    They turned her down! 

    Here is a quote from her 1857 autobiography, THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF MRS. SEACOLE IN MANY LANDS: “Did these ladies shrink from accepting my aid because my blood flowed beneath a somewhat duskier skin than theirs?”

   Undaunted, she independently funded her own way to the Crimean War to care for wounded soldiers on the front lines.

   Near Balaclava, she established the "British Hotel," which served as a store, restaurant, and safe resting place for officers and enlisted men. In my book Lady Gallant, when my heroine Nurse Josephine Posey is injured and lost, Mary Seacole rescues her too. 

   Mother Seacole was known for bravely riding out to the active battlefields with medical supplies and food, tending to wounded and dying soldiers under cannon fire. The soldiers affectionately called her "Mother Seacole"

     Post-war found her bankrupt, but she published her autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, the first memoir by a Black woman in Britain. 

Today, Seacole's legacy is celebrated with a statue outside St. Thomas' Hospital in London—believed to be the first monument to a named Black woman in the UK.

 Lady Gallant has a lot of history sprinkled in, and Mrs. Seacole has a cameo, but there is also intrigue, and of course Romance! 

  Smack in the middle of the Crimean war, Josephine Posey, a Florence Nightingale nurse, meets Garrick Allen, the Times first war correspondent. With intrigue afoot and bombs bursting in air, they share the secrets of their past and dream of a future together.

  Blurb:  Disowned by her father and still mourning the death of her fiancé, Josephine  Posey joins Florence Nightingale’s brigade of nurses bound for the Black Sea. Thousands of British soldiers desperately await these angels of mercy and a new life awaits Josie. Amidst the chaos of death and despair, she finds a spark of hope, lighting the flame once more inside her soul.

     In search of the truth, Garrick Allen, one of Britain’s first war correspondents also journeys to the Crimean Peninsula. To him the soldiers seem all but abandoned by Queen and country, and as he smokes his cheroots and makes friends with a bottle, he writes his bold but honest dispatches for The Times.  Not wanting anything more than to finish his job and go home, Garrick is blind-sided by a nurse with attitude who offers him a new slant on life and a reason to love.

                     

My Stories: 

Western Romance: Break Heart Canyon * Undercover Outlaw * Cowboys, Cattle and Cutthroats * A Cowboy’s Fate*Special Delivery. 

Contemporary Romantic Thriller: Fatal Recall

Medieval Romance: The Dragon and The Rose * Iron Heart        *Promise Me Christmas. 

Victorian Romance: Lady Gallant * Victorian Dream 

Romantasy: The Fae Warriors Trilogy: Solace * Bliss * Portence 

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Mail-Order Bride Stories

 

Photo by Dalyn Weller. 

(Real wedding day photos)

So, about those Mail Order Brides...

Or How the West was Built.

We're all familiar with the men who went West to seek their fortunes, escape, or maybe they were just young and craved a bit of adventure. But what about the women who went West? I don't mean the wives and daughters who endured the rugged trail and all the hardships to build something with their husbands or fathers. I mean women who went West on their own.

You have heard about arranged marriages, but have you heard about mail-order brides? See, the West was full of lonely men. There just happened to be a shortage of men back East after the Civil War, and many of those left went West. Some were facing the loss of everything dear, some needed a change after the terrible toll war had taken on them and theirs, but whatever the reason, the West was full of men, riches, hardships, and potential. But had very few women.

Many men sought wives from the abundance of single and widowed women in the East. They faced their own hardships: poverty, loneliness, and a lack of suitors, dads, and brothers. The West might have seemed pretty good for a poor woman working in a factory or selling matches, fruit, coal, or doing mending, barely earning enough to survive. Many women placed advertisements for a husband to escape poverty.

I have read many of the reprinted advertisements. They can be good for a laugh, but they also offer great insight into how people of that era lived and thought. Their worldview was different from our modern views. 

Can you imagine the bravery it took to agree to leave everything familiar and marry a stranger? What a risk! But if you have nothing to lose, it might be the best option. 

It was common to put in an advertisement-or answer one-in a marriage broker's magazine or even the newspapers. Why not if your options are few or even none? Women wanted their own home and family away from the crime and filth of the cities. Men were lonely for the nurturing company of women and home-cooked meals. Many of them missed mothers and sisters and wanted their own families. They craved a home, not just a house...music, art, literature, and all the things women bring to make a place a community and not just a camp.

Why do we still like to read these stories?

• There's instant tension. Two people who don't know each other are thrown together. We want to know if they will regret their choice.
• We love a fresh start.
• We like to read about danger. The West was not safe.
• There's something satisfying about a hero who chooses a wife for practical reasons, or a heroine who chooses a man for practicality. When, at the end, they choose each other, we sigh.
• Some of us were perhaps descended from a mail-order bride and are curious.
• Some of us like stories of brave, hopeful women. 

Little House on the Prairie and other pioneer shows are still popular today because we love stories about people who overcome hardship, choose to love and hope for it after the commitment has already been made. 

I loved writing my mail-order bride story. Last year, one of my writing groups decided to explore mail-order bride stories and had so much fun writing them that we have decided to continue the series. The Wild Rose Ridge Historicals are fun novellas in Kindle Unlimited and available in Print and some in Audio. Check them out HERE

 

You can read my book, which was recently a finalist in The Women Writing the West WILLA Literary Award, 2026 romance category. I'm over the moon about that.

You can find Elinore HERE

A frontier town in need of taming.
A threadbare socialite with everything to prove.
And a lonely bachelor who’s never been kissed.

When Elinore Cantrell’s reckless father gambles away their fortune, society slams its doors, and danger opens a darker one. Her only escape from paying back her father’s debt to a “gentleman’s club” is the Wild West, as a mail-order bride. If a husband in Wild Rose Ridge can restore her good name, she’ll face the unknown in Washington Territory and stake her last hope on a stranger.

Robert Cameron is a wealthy farmer with plenty of land and no one to share it with. His mother’s scandalous past has ensured that. Thirty-five years ago, she arrived tattered and bruised, with a baby and a bag of gold. The whispers never stopped, and the handful of women on the Ridge shun her still.

Robert’s one chance for happiness rests in a bride who knows nothing of his family’s shadowed reputation. But when Elinore steps off the boat expecting wealth and status, she finds a modest man and a truth she’s not sure she can accept.
She’s traded one scandal for another.

Sometimes, what begins in desperation can grow into a love stronger than any dare to dream. On the rugged frontier, hearts aren’t easily tamed… but miracles bloom where the soil is hardest.

What Cowboys Read on the Trail

 

For a cowboy riding the open range in the  late nineteenth century, reading material was often as scarce as shade beneath a prairie sun. Still, when a man had a few quiet moments beside the chuck wagon or around a campfire, he might reach for a well-worn dime novel, a newspaper, or a small pocket Bible. Dime novels were especially popular, offering tales of gunfighters, scouts, outlaws, Indians, and larger-than-life frontier heroes. Some were wildly exaggerated, but they provided a welcome escape after long days spent in the saddle. Newspapers, when available, brought news from distant towns and cities--politics, cattle prices, railroad developments, crime and stories from the ever-expanding American West.

Not every cowboy was a devoted reader, and literacy varied considerably among working cowboys. those who did read might also carry  popular adventure stories, poetry, almanacs, or religious pamphlets. The Bible was a particularly practical companion, small enough to tuck into a saddlebag and meaningful to a man living a hard and sometimes dangerous life. Cowboys could also encounter Shakespeare, Robert Burns, Edgar Allan Poe, or popular American poets in inexpensive editions or through recitations around the fire. In fact, storytelling and reading often went hand in hand on the trail A cowboy who could remember a good poem, song, or story might entertain an entire crew during a quiet evening.

The picture of the cowboy as a rough, uneducated loner is therefore only part of the story. Many were young men with ordinary interests--curious about the world beyond the ranch, eager for news, and fond of a good adventure. When a book or newspaper made its way into camp, it might be passed from hand to hand until the pages were grimy and worn. For a few minutes beneath the vast Western sky, a tired rider could leave the cattle behind and travel somewhere else entirely--into a dime-novel adventure, a newspaper from back East, or the pages of a well-thumbed Bible. 

 

Sandra

Available at Amazon  

 

 

Miss Unsinkable

  

  When we hear the phrase "Unsinkable Woman" we think of Molly Brown. She survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and had an amazing life.

   Violet Jessop was in every way the Unsinkable Woman. Violet survived the sinking of two of the White Star Line ships and one collision. The Titanic, the Britannic, and the Olympic. And she didn't know how to swim!

   Violet was born in 1887 to an Irish couple living in Argentina. At a young age, she contracted tuberculosis and was given only a few months to live. However, she recovered and lived a long life. She moved to England at the age of 16 after her father's death. Her mother worked as a stewardess. When Violets mother became too ill to work, she followed in her footsteps.

   At the age of 21 Violet took a job with the White Star Line and her first post was aboard the Majestic before switching to the Olympic, the largest civilian luxury ship of its time. During its fifth journey across the Atlantic Ocean 1911, The Olympic collided with the HMS Hawke near the Isle of Wight. Though the ship was badly damaged, the captain steered the Olympic back to port. He would later captain the Titanic and go down with her.

  In 1912 Violet was working as a stewardess on the Titanic on its maiden voyage. Larger than the Olympic, the Titanic was filled with Luxurious amenities. Violet was a stewardess in first class and met many famous and wealthy people. The night of April 14, 1912, Violet retired for the night and the Titanic stuck an iceberg and began to sink.

  Violet went from room to room, helping with lifejackets, and making sure the passengers had warm clothes. She was instructed to get into a lifeboat to prove to the women passengers it was safe and was handed a baby to look after. She was in Lifeboat 16 and watched the Titanic snap in two and go down. The Carpathia rescued the survivors. Once on board, a woman took the baby and Violet never saw her again.

  Despite the tragedy, Violet continued to work as a stewardess.

  During World War 1, Violet worked as a stewardess with nursing duties. she was assigned to the Britannic, the Titanic's sister ship. It had been converted from a luxury line into a hospital ship. It set sail for Mudros, Greece to pick up patients to take to Great Britain. There were about a thousand people on board when the ship hit a German mine two days later. Only 30 died. After the Titanic tragedy, more lifeboats were added to the Britannic.

  Violet escaped the ship in a lifeboat. The lifeboat was being pulled toward the ships spinning propellers. Violet managed to leap into the water and managed to make her way to a nearby lifeboat.

  She watched the Britannic sink.

  Violet continued working as a stewardess until 1950, when she retired at age 63. The Unsinkable Woman passed away in 1971 at the age of 84. In her memoirs she tells of receiving a call from a woman claiming to be the baby she saved on the Titanic. She knew it wasn't a prank call because she had never told the story to anyone.

  Violet was tougher than I could have been. After the Olympic I never would have worked on a ship again. Plus, I get seasick so probably wouldn't be my line of work anyway. I'll stick to solid ground.

History or Myth: The Gunfight at Hide Park ~ D. K. Deters

I recently came across an interesting story about an infamous gunfight in Newton, Kansas, and the historical myths surrounding it. The location immediately drew my attention, as I am from Kansas.

On August 11, 1871, Newton assistant marshal Billy Bailey and former special policeman Mike McCluskie got into an argument over local politics at the Red Front Saloon. When the argument became a fight, McCluskie shot Bailey twice. Bailey died the following day.

McCluskie left Newton but returned on Saturday, August 19, apparently believing he would not be prosecuted because the shooting would be considered self-defense.

In the early morning of Sunday, August 20, at Perry Tuttle’s dance hall in Hide Park’s red-light district, Hugh Anderson, a friend of Bailey’s, confronted McCluskie. After a bitter exchange, Anderson shot McCluskie. McCluskie attempted to shoot, but his pistol misfired.

Hugh Anderson

Born: 1851

Died: 1873 or 1914 

A general gunfight began, and a young man, later identified as Riley, a friend of McCluskie, entered the fray. One local historian described him as about eighteen years old and dying of consumption. According to the later account of Judge R. W. P. Muse, Riley coolly locked the door and opened fire, emptying his revolvers. The accounts differ about what happened next, but after the chaos, Riley walked out of the dance hall and disappeared.

The Harvey County Historical Society emphasizes that the evidence isn’t as solid as the traditional Old West story makes it sound. The historical society concluded eight men were shot and five ultimately died. One of the three survivors, Hugh Anderson, was severely wounded and not expected to live.

Early newspaper accounts did not identify the shooter. Local historians have called him James Riley, but his first name hasn’t been confirmed by contemporary evidence. His identity is a mystery, but he may have changed his name, moved, or died elsewhere. It’s questionable whether Riley actually locked the door, as one of the wounded men made it to the street.

Anderson recovered from his wounds and in 1873 became a bartender in Medicine Lodge, Kansas. McCluskie’s brother, Arthur McCluskie, located Anderson and challenged him to a duel. Both men suffered gunshot and knife wounds. McCluskie died the following day, and it was said that Anderson passed soon after.

But the story of Anderson’s death appears to have been a newspaper fabrication. There were also reports that he survived and returned to live with his family. In fact, census records show Anderson alive and living in Texas. The 1880 Federal Census lists twenty-eight-year-old Hugh Anderson in McCulloch County, Texas, living with his young son and working as a stock raiser. In 1884, he married again and moved to New Mexico Territory. The 1900 U.S. Census listed him as a widower.

The Harvey County Historical Society’s research places Anderson’s death on June 9, 1914, at age sixty-two, in Lincoln County, New Mexico. He was herding cattle and was struck by lightning.

This story gave me pause because it reminds us that even in 1871, newspaper reports and later eyewitness recollections weren’t always reliable. Over time, facts became embellished, memories faded, and legends grew. As with so many stories from the Old West, you’ll have to decide for yourself what is history and what is myth.

Resources:

The Wild West by Bill O'Neal, James A. Crutchfield, and Dale L. Walker

Newton's Wild West Past by Joe Stumpe

Wikipedia

 

 More Than a Cowboy and a Horse 

Hi everyone! Brandi Creek here.

If you've read any of my books, you've probably noticed one thing pretty quickly. I love horses.

I'm also an avid reader of Western romance, and over the years, I found myself wishing for something I wasn't always getting enough of in the books I read: more horses.

Of course, I'm reading romance because I want the romance. Give me the chemistry, the tension, the falling in love, and that happily ever after. But as a lifelong horse lover, I also wanted to see the characters actually interacting with their horses. I wanted the riding, the training, the barn work, and all those everyday moments that come with having horses in your life.

When I started writing my own books, that became really important to me.

I didn't want horses to simply be part of the scenery because the story happened to take place on a ranch. I wanted them to be an integral part of my characters' lives and the worlds I created.

My characters don't just own horses. They work with them, ride them, train them, care for them, and occasionally argue with them. Because anyone who has ever owned a horse knows they have plenty of opinions of their own.

I figured if I was searching for Western romances with more horses in them, there had to be other horse-loving readers looking for the same thing.

There's another side to writing horse-heavy stories, though.

Horse people know horses.

We've all watched a movie or television show where something happens with a horse and immediately thought. That's not how that works.

And once you notice it, it's really hard to ignore.

That's something I never wanted my readers to experience with my books. I spend a lot of time making sure the horse scenes are as realistic as possible. Whether my characters are working cattle, training a horse, competing, dealing with an injury, or simply saddling up for a ride, I want the details to feel authentic.

It takes more research and sometimes a lot more time to write those scenes, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Because for me, writing Western romance isn't only about putting a cowboy in a hat and giving him a horse.

It's about bringing readers into the entire world that surrounds them.

And if you're anything like me, there's always room for a little more romance, and a lot more horses.

Happy reading,

Brandi

Hannibal, Missouri - Clemens, Sharpe, Tobin

Post by Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Image (C) Doris McCraw

About seventy miles from where I grew up is the town of Hannibal, Missouri. Most may remember it as the place that Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, grew up. Born in Florida, Missouri, in 1835, Clemens moved with his family to Hannibal when he was four. His time here, along the Mississippi River, informed his life and career.

Samuel Clemens
from Wikipedia

But he wasn't the only person of 'fame' that came from that town.

William Thomas Sharp
from Wikipedia

 In 1838, William Thomas Sharp was born in this town. So, who was Tom Sharp? If you were in southern Colorado, you would know this name. Sharp served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He was in the Pikes Peak Region in 1859, had a trading post in Huerfano County in the 1870s, and later was a horse and cattle breeder.  

Margaret Bown
from Wikipedia

And of course, the last is Margaret Tobin. Born in 1867 in Hannibal, she moved to Leadville, Colorado at age eighteen with her brother Daniel. She met and married James Joseph, J. J., Brown in Leadville in 1886. At the time, there was not much money. However, by 1893 their fortune changed, and in 1894 they moved to Denver. In 1912, she booked passage on the Titanic and survived the sinking of the ill-fated ship.

These are just overviews of three amazing people who came from Hannibal, Missouri. All three have lives well worth looking into. You may be surprised. All I can say is there must have been something in the water. 

Until Next Time:

Stay safe - Doris

Angela Raines - Amazon

Doris A. McCraw - Amazon