When Wyoming Men Outnumbered Women 10 to 1 They ‘Imported Wives’ by Mail

In the early 1900s, when Wyoming men outnumbered women ten to one, they formed matrimonial clubs to bring mail-order brides from back East. Historians say many fourth- and fifth-generation Wyoming families may trace their roots to these unions.

Robyn Cutter with the Park County Archives has studied the Grey Bull Club in Meeteetse, one of many such clubs that connected lonely Western men with Eastern women seeking a better life. “It made a lot of sense,” she said. “They ranched, raised livestock, and were lonely while they did it. They wanted to build towns and have families.”

The process was earnest and transparent. Men and women exchanged letters for months, describing their lives honestly. Neither wanted to lure the other across the country under false pretenses. If a connection formed, the man would send money for train fare. The woman would arrive—often a complete stranger—and they would marry, sometimes the same day.

One celebrated match involved Judge A.C. Swenson, 50, of Meeteetse, and Rose Hennessey, 27, a St. Louis dressmaker. Their courtship played out in letters facilitated by the Grey Bull Club. Swenson sold livestock and drained his bank account to meet Hennessey’s requests. When she finally agreed to come, he met every train for two weeks, embracing random women in his eagerness. Locals started betting on whether she would show. She did. They married immediately and reportedly lived happily ever after.

The clubs were not shameful secrets. Newspapers across Wyoming chronicled their successes. In 1904, the Wyoming Tribune announced the first wedding from the Grey Bull Club’s founding five bachelors. The Grand Encampment Herald was blunter, reporting on an “effort being made to import wives for Wyoming men.”

The clubs were swamped with letters from teachers, bookkeepers, and widows in the East seeking new lives. “A lot of the women wrote about strict parents, unhappy lives, or the feeling that there were no good men in their neck of the woods,” Cutter said. “They wanted something completely new and different.”

Many Wyoming families may unknowingly descend from these mail-order unions. Cutter herself wonders about her great aunt, Elizabeth, who left Illinois for Wyoming in 1895 and married a hunter the same day she stepped off the train in Billings. “We’ve always wondered if she was a mail-order bride,” Cutter said.

The clubs persisted longer than most realize. Evidence shows they functioned into the 1960s, and as late as 1998, a Wyoming newspaper still carried an ad for “Russian Mail Order Brides.”

What strikes Cutter most is not the method, but the endurance. “These people stayed married, raised families, and had good lives,” she said. “Wyoming was remote back then. It was a tough life, but they made it work.”

If fourth- and fifth-generation Wyomingites dig into their genealogies, they might find their families began with a lonely cowboy and a mail-order bride. “There are a lot more than people realize,” Cutter said.