[LMB] Age at first marriage

[Raye Johnsen]

--- Jason Long <sturmvogel_66 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I'm really not so sure that frontier women married
> as early as seems to be believed.

My basis has always been the Little House books, which
as we know were fictionalised autobiography.  However,
I think the 1870s of Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood
is an appropriate tech level to compare to WGW. 

In an incident in 'Little House on the Prairie', Laura
and her family encounter some of Laura's cousins while
travelling.  Laura's cousin Lizzie is fourteen, and
getting married in a few weeks, to the son of the
family that are moving out to the claim next to her
(Lizzie's) family.  Laura is shocked, but Lizzie is
sanguine; the boy is a year older than she is and
she's known him for years.  Laura herself marries at
eighteen, and while she is one of the first in her
group of friends to marry, it is implied that it is
'the right age' and she beat the other girls to the
punch by weeks rather than months or years.

So I'd say frontier women married in their mid- to
late-teens, with girls marrying earlier to cement land
claims and/or keep them out of trouble (incidentally,
IIRC, Lizzie claims the second reason for herself). 

Raye

raye_j at yahoo.com
http://windtear.livejournal.com
http://www.thejohnsens.com/index.html

I believe in dragons, unicorns, good men
and other mythical creatures.


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