earned them a certain degree of autonomy within the home,

By adopting new standards of marital choice and demandingsomewhat more egalitarian relationships within marriage,

Middle-class Americans embraced new expectations for romance during the mid-nineteenth century.

These young women negotiated with their husbands about financial priorities

second-generation Oregon women chose to marry for loveas well as practical concerns

Marriage was an economic, social, and sexual partnership in nineteenth-centuryAmerica.

movedto a different part of their house and refused to cohabit with Rebecca

the court gave custody of the child to the wife, in keeping with a new easternmiddle-class emphasis on the maternal role. The court restored Nancy’s maiden name,

In 1880, the circuit court for Marion Countyheard a divorce complaint against Nancy Parker, who had deserted her husband because“[she] [did] not wish to live with any man[.

Local courts began to reflect the second generation’s beliefs that marriage shouldbe entered into thoughtfully,

owever, “[a]s to whetherthe Def[endan]t is guilty of cruel & in human treatment towards the Pl[ainti]ff ren-dering his life burdensome in refusing to have sexual intercourse with him

Verbal Cruelty

AdulteryFraud

They increasingly rejected frontier beliefs in men’s rightto sexual intercourse with their wife whenever they wished,

Oregon women thus heldtheir husbands to an increasingly high standard of gentlemanly behavior.

At the same time, however,complaints of verbal cruelty increased dramatically

in the 1850s and 1860s, after 1870 complaints of cruelty becameincreasingly common.

companionability eclipsed financial contracts at the heart of marital relationship

A majority of those seeking divorces on the basis of fraudcomplained that their husbands had knowingly abandoned their families and movedto new frontier areas,

Husbands and wives who failed to compromise on household decisions sometimesfound themselves embroiled in divorce suits.

Florence garrison chose to “punish” her husband by purchasing a sewing machine,

as She herself afterwardsadmitted,: [sic] Saying, she did it to punish [him], for that [he] would haveto pay whether [he] wanted to or not.

and many struggled tojustify purchasing a machine to their more land-oriented husbands.5

women’s work was sufficiently valuable to warrant asignificant financial investment.

there are two things she w[ould] never allowanybody to meddle with—her husband and her sewing machine.

in contrast, sewing machines represented not only increased productivity, butalso independence and freedom from drudgery

mechanicalequipment became increasingly available to assist with women’s domestic work,

ven if they permitted their wives to manage certain minor expenses, second-generation men generally continued to control major purchases.

At least a few second-generation wives sued for divorce after their husbands appro-priated their separate property.

Some women gained a greater degree of influence over householdmatters by explicitly maintaining separate domestic accounts.

Control over household finances became a primary fault line betweenhusbands and wives.

second-generation Oregonwomen took a more active role in negotiating the decision-making authority withintheir families.

Newspaper articles in local publications suggest that second-generation womensometimes resorted to indirect influence over their husbands

Within a decade, however,Welborn was complaining to his diary that “Kate is of but little value,” continuallyspending “mony [sic] as fast as I can make it.”

The frontier generation’s acceptance ofmale authority eroded over time in the Jory household.

Ella ignored Oliver’s requestthat she wait until his business enabled him to travel with her and their son to visither relatives. Having told him they would be gone three to four weeks, Oliver’s wifeand son stayed away for a year.

second-generation men’s authority was as much a topic of criticism as it was an admired displayof manhood.

Second-generation women expected a degree of control over domestic issues rarelyenjoyed by their mothers

Yet heanticipated that his fiancee would be uncomfortable with his assigning such authorityto a young husband,

“I suppose now that he has become if I maybe [sic] excused for using the termthe head of a family, will be a very staid and steady boy[,] leastwise I hope so.”

“No man has a right to marry until he is reasonably certain of furnishinga decent support for himself and some one else.”

Like their fathers, second-generation menwere responsible for providing for their wives.

Most second-generation Oregonians hoped to develop both economically suc-cessful partnerships and close emotional ties with their marital partners.

They cheerfully braved the label “old maid,” and removed much of

Second-generation women expected their potential suitors not only to have goodeconomic prospects, but also to demonstrate kindness and genteel behavior.

Harry Denlinger ignored his father’s wish for him to marry formore than six years, throughout the better part of his twenties.

Many second-generation Oregonians embraced advice in local periodicals empha-sizing romantic love and companionship rather than practical concerns

Second-generation Oregoniansincreasingly sought spouses who left them breathless, choosing to marry individualswith whom they shared passion rather than a practical partnership.

young Oregonians to seek romantic love, warningthat “married people who are not lovers, are bound by red-hot chains.

These articles encouraged second-generation Willamette Valley women to prioritizetheir own happiness above parental obedience

hey agreed with an 1875 articlein the local weekly Willamette Farmer that “the maiden [is rich] whose horizon is notbounded by the coming man, but who has a purpose in life, whether she meets himor not.”

believed that marriage could change young men and women, and that second-genera-tion Oregonians could decide whether or not to marry.

Second-generation Oregonians recorded a broader range of attitudes towardmarriage than had their parents

they modeledtheir lives and gender ideology after eastern middle-class standards.

Once married, women expected a greatervoice in household decision-making than their mothers had enjoyed.

Young men’s prolonged dependence coincided with young women’s increas-ing independence,

Working for pay prior to marriage supportedOregon women’s fashionable lifestyle and earned them a greater voice in when and whomto marry.

s Willamette Valley communities grew, sodid demand for female school teachers and Oregon’s fledgling service industry. Inspiredby fashion magazines and mail order catalogs, many young women sought to join thedeveloping rural middle class

Decreased land availability reversed the downward pressure on marital age thatcharacterized the frontier era,

Shifts in marital relationshipsamong second-generation settlers reflect these profound societal changes.

regon became economically and culturally integrated into the United States inthe late-nineteeth century.

First-generation Oregonians married at relatively young ages, forming economicpartnerships that were crucial to survival on the frontier.

In contrast, it wasnot acceptable for a woman to strike her husband,

Compared to later decades, 1850s Oregon society andits courts were accepting of men who physically dominated their wives.

Both men and women could seek a divorce if their spousecrossed the boundaries of acceptable behavior in attempting to control them.

Habitual physical control was ok formen, so long as they didn’t cause permanent physical damage.

Locey frequently expressed frustration with men who were overly controlling towardtheir wives

woman revealed the limits of first-generation wives’ authority within their households.

As Maria grew more financially independent late inthe nineteenth century, she became more candid with her husband,

. Nonetheless, once in Oregon she convinced Albertto provide her with the expensive refined white flour she craved while her neighborsmade do with home-ground wheat.

Willamette Valley women resisted their husbands’ patriarchal authority in a vari-ety of ways

Oregon women gradually gained a degree of influence over their domestic products, butthey failed to significantly challenge their husbands’ role as household head.

their relative controlover the household’s finances came to reflect more accurately the labor provided byeach husband or wife.

As farms became better established and women were able to concentrate ondomestic production, women began to exert more influence over the sale of their goodsand the ways that the proceeds were spent,

omen’s eggs, milk,and butter were sold as part of their family’s larger financial strategy.

Changes in dairy and poultry production highlight shifts in frontier women’s workand their growing influence over household finances.

women on thefar western frontier controlled a domestic economy that remained largely invisible totheir husbands

As women produced goods for this network, they increased theirfamilies’ dependence on their own work and their female neighbors’.

Furthermore, frontier women appear to have developed an informalrural exchange network, t

Women controlled the schedule, pace, quantity and quality ofdomestic work.

Women gained the greatest influence over so-called “women’s” work. Settlers’ ac-count books indicate that men typically were responsible for maintaining their families’accounts at the local general store.

Frontier marriages were based on economic reciprocity, but pecuniary partnershipsdid not necessarily lead to equal power relations

Such relationships enhanced men’s domestic authority at theexpense of their young brides

Anecdotal evidence also reveals that young women who migrated to Oregonwith their families during their teenage years were sometimes pressured to marry sig-nificantly older men,

young men began wondering why a girl wasn’t married if she was still single when shewas 16.

Memoirs suggest that fifteen was a typical age for women to marry during the earlyyears on the Willamette Valley frontier

In fact, the terms of the DLCA, which permitted married couplesto claim twice as much land as could single men, appears to have encouraged teenagegirls to marry at even younger ages

Willamette Valley settlers enjoyed particularly generous grants of rich farmland.Yet practical labor needs on their large farms prevented even these relatively fortunatesettlers from patterning their marriages after the romantic ideal

Across rural America in the mid-nineteenth century, men and women marriedat relatively young ages to secure land and a partner in labor.

In addition to domestic work, women bore and raised children whoalso contributed to the household economy by assisting with field- and housework.

While men performed most of the fieldwork, they relied on their wivesto provide labor and domestic expertise on their farms.

Rural families throughout the United States relied primarily on the labor of fam-ily members

regon women gradually gained a degree of influence over their domestic products, butthey failed to significantly challenge their husbands’ role as household head.

Changes in dairy and poultry production highlight shifts in frontier women’s workand their growing influence over household finances.

As women produced goods for this network, they increased theirfamilies’ dependence on their own work and their female neighbors’.

Furthermore, frontier women appear to have developed an informalrural exchange network,

Women controlled the schedule, pace, quantity and quality ofdomestic work

Women gained the greatest influence over so-called “women’s” work.

Frontier marriages were based on economic reciprocity, but pecuniary partnershipsdid not necessarily lead to equal power relations.

Such relationships enhanced men’s domestic authority at theexpense of their young brides.

heir teenage years were sometimes pressured to marry sig-nificantly older men, and at least a few young women married men

young men began wondering why a girl wasn’t married if she was still single when shewas 16.

Memoirs suggest that fifteen was a typical age for women to marry during the earlyyears on the Willamette Valley frontier

In fact, the terms of the DLCA, which permitted married couplesto claim twice as much land as could single men, appears to have encouraged teenagegirls to marry at even younger age

Willamette Valley settlers enjoyed particularly generous grants of rich farmland.Yet practical labor needs on their large farms prevented even these relatively fortunatesettlers from patterning their marriages after the romantic ideal

Romantic love may have characterized eastern middle-class courtship in the nineteenthcentury, but it remained inaccessible for men and women on the frontier.

men and women marriedat relatively young ages to secure land and a partner in labor.

Forall of these reasons, marriage was a necessity, and frontier men and women lacked theluxury of searching for romantic love.

In addition to domestic work, women bore and raised children whoalso contributed to the household economy by assisting with field- and housework.

While men performed most of the fieldwork, they relied on their wivesto provide labor and domestic expertise on their farms.

Rural families throughout the United States relied primarily on the labor of fam-ily members

Oregon women gradually gained a degree of influence over their domestic products, butthey failed to significantly challenge their husbands’ role as household head.

Immediate labor requirements forced men and women to marry at relatively youngages, and to remain flexible about their gender-based division of labor

Comparing these early Oregon settlers totheir children—who benefitted from generous grants of productive farmland and theWest’s economic incorporation into the American nation—reveals how fleeting thesefrontier conditions were in Oregon’s vast Willamette Valley.

For Oregon settlers, though, like farmingfamilies throughout rural America, the financial necessity of a partner in labor super-ceded their desire for a romantic companion.

AlthoughJohn Mack Faragher identified mid-nineteenth-century midwestern courtship ritualssimilar to those described by Lystra and Rothman, he argued that romance was notaccessible to men and women raised on the Ohio Valley frontier.

Although they disagreed about when romance first becamea central element of American courtship, Lystra and Rothman concurred that by thelate-nineteenth century, “ideal love” was the only chance for a happy marriage

Economic prosperity shifted power relations between husbands and wives andhelped to transform the meaning of marriage in Oregon and throughout the nineteenth-century United States.

Changing marital relationshipshighlight the expansion of middle-class culture in the nineteenth-centuryAmerican West

As it took root, this middle-class culture pruned patriarchal

As these differing perspectives on marriage suggest,expectations for marriage in the Far West changed from the need for shared labor todemands for companionate relationships at the close of the frontier era.

“[I]f you do not love, then do not marry.

Frontier marriages were practical unions characterized by strong patriarchalauthority.