A group of women seeking a better life make the arduous trip from Lowell to Seattle. Among them are Dovey, only 16 years old and running away from her father's intention to force her into marriage. Sophronia, who feels strongly that a woman's only hope in life is to marry and raise children, though she has never been able to find a man who can meet her strict and stringent expectations, and Josephine, who has no intention of marrying and has a secret reason for wanting to run off to Seattle. The women face a long journey on carts, a train and ships, they deal with sea sickness and illness, and at last arrive to an unwelcoming committee who considers them to be women of low moral character. As they set out to prove themselves they each take very different paths but manage to stay friends.
I love historical fiction and this was an engaging read, and a fantastic glimpse of what life was like in the earliest days of women's suffrage, when it was unsafe and unheard of for a woman to be out alone after dark and the excitement of going to hear Susan B Anthony speak.

I received an advance copy for review ( )

Fun history

I liked the characters and the history. I feel like the author wanted to include too much about the history of Seattle. It made the story difficult to finish. ( )

In 1864, in the midst of the Civil War, Asa Mercer traveled from Seattle in the Washington Territory to the mill city of Lowell, Massachusetts. His project is to recruit single women of good character to return to Seattle with him, to become wives to the loggers and and other hardworking men there.

He hoped to recruit 200 potential brides. He returns to Seattle with just thirteen. Among them are Dovey Mason, just sixteen, and fleeing her father's efforts to marry her off to a repellent man in an attempt to restore his business fortunes; Josephine Carey, 35 years old and fleeing a secret she shares with no one; and Sophronia Brandt, a minister's daughter in her twenties, with no more marriage prospects and a strong desire to spread the Lord's Good Word.

They are unlikely friends, but each being in her own way a bit of a misfit among the rest of the group, they find themselves bound together in the face of repeated challenges even before they reach Seattle. When they do reach Seattle, they find a rough, frontier town, and they each have to find their footing, in the face of a welcome that is sometimes not very welcoming, though they also find new friends.

Jo just wants to teach, not find a husband, for reasons she's not inclined to explain, though along the way Dovey and Sophronia have learned the truth. Sophronia, in addition to wanting to spread the Lord's Word, wants to find a good, Christian man who meets her high standards, so that she can marry. Dovey, more than anything, is determined to earn her own living and not lose her control of her own life in marriage.

It's a frontier town, and has its own unexpected opportunities. This is also the era when the suffragist movement is starting to gain steam, and the unlikely and sometimes contentious friends meet Susan B. Anthony and become involved in the movement themselves. It's an absorbing story of women on the American frontier, and the critical role they played in building the American West.

Jo, Sophronia, and Dovey are fictional individuals, but the Mercer Girls were quite real, and a vital part of the history of Seattle.

A very good story. Recommended.

I bought this audiobook. ( )

I listened to this book in the car while running errands. This is historical fiction based on truth of a young man, Asa Mercer who travels from the Seattle territory to Lowell, Massachusetts to bring back upstanding young ladies to marry and tame the men of this wild territory. The story is mainly about three of these women who are completely different from each other but cling together as they travel and settle down in Seattle. They have nothing to lose since the Civil War has made Lowell, Mass. a town with mostly closed mills and the men off to fight and die in the war. An interesting glimpse as well into the women's suffrage movement which was starting up as well in the western territories. Excellent and very interesting book, especially to listen to! ( )

This novel centers around three unique women who venture west from Lowell, Massachusetts, for Seattle in the 1860s. Expected to become brides for the men of Seattle, Josephine, Dovey, and Sophronia instead make their own path, each in her own way. Sophronia, with her rigid outlook and devout faith, creates a home to reform prostitutes, Josephine is determined to become a teacher, and Dovey takes up collecting taxes for the Revenue Service in order to save up to start her own business. They also get involved in women's suffrage and help to shape the city they've adopted. I really appreciated this book for highlighting a lesser-known piece of history and also for telling a story of women on the western frontier making their own way in the world. ( )