Lou’s View – Feb. 13, 2014
The Four Way Wedding
By Lou Bernard
Valentine’s Day is coming. It’s a day for couples to be in love, assuming they’re still dating. If you’ve been married a decade or so and the honeymoon’s over, it’s a day to pass in the hallway on the way to your respective jobs. For me, it’s a day for my wife to momentarily forgive me for calling her at work to ask if it’s okay that I accidentally got tomato sauce in her houseplants or whatever.
But people expect me to write something for the holidays, and Valentine’s Day is no exception. So every year, I have to dig into the archives and come up with something that sounds like a romantic comedy. So, as you read this, imagine Hugh Jackman or Matthew McConaghey with Sandra Bullock or Reese Witherspoon….Let’s be real, your average romantic comedies are totally interchangeable. But the old newspapers have some great stories to tell. This one comes from 1909.
It was a Monday evening, August 16, 1909. It had been a long, hot summer, and then the rains came. A storm that was over a day long hit the area, giving farmers some relief, but keeping everyone else indoors. This affected the crowd at a wedding in Williamsport, presided over by Reverend John Costello.
Because of the rain, a lot of people didn’t attend the wedding of Charles C. Burrows and Anna Breen. Which was okay—They had their best man and bridesmaid there, and that was enough. Jesse C. Wolfe was the best man, and Isabella E. Staib was the bridesmaid. Given what’s coming up, you may want to pause here and write all this down.
The wedding was wonderful, with Charles and Anna exchanging their vows. Jesse held the ring, and Isabella did whatever it is a bridesmaid does—I’m a little fuzzy on that. And Reverend Costello pronounced them man and wife.
And immediately afterward, they went outside and got into their cars, and drove….To the reception? Nope. All four of them drove through the storm to Saint Boniface’s rectory, where there was another sparsely-attended wedding.
This one was presided over by Reverend John Steinkirchner. It was the wedding of Jesse Wolfe. He was marrying Isabella Staib. And Charles and Anna Burrows were the best man and bridesmaid.
Go back and read it again. I’ll wait.
Yeah. They just jumped in the car, rode to a new church, and switched places. The bridesmaid and best man from the first wedding became the bride and groom at the second one, and vice versa.
The Clinton Republican, two days later, made short work of this with the headline “Wedding Attendants Turn Principals.”
“After being bridesmaid and groomsman in one wedding,” the article read,”Miss Isabella E. Staib and Jesse C. Wolfe, of Williamsport, played a more important role in a wedding that followed a few minutes later at another rectory. After the Rev. John Costello Monday evening united in marriage Miss Anna Breen and Charles C. Burrows, Miss Staib and Mr. Wolf being the attendants, the quartet got into an automobile and were whirled to the St. Boniface rectory, where Miss Staib and Mr. Wolfe were united in marriage by the Rev. John Steinkirchner, with Mr. and Mrs. Burrows attending them.”
Which brings to mind some questions. Did they celebrate anniversaries together? Does Hallmark make a card for that? If they got divorced, did they coordinate that, as well? How do you get tomato sauce out of a houseplant, anyway?
The rainstorm stopped the next afternoon, and everyone went on with their lives. The couples settled down into their marriages, presumably with an interesting story that their grandchildren would pretend to be interested in.
Charles died in 1934, and Anna remarried—She’s not buried in the same cemetery with him. Charles is buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Loyalsock Township. I couldn’t find any record of the others—They’re not buried within the county. Evidently, this togetherness only goes just so far.
So, thanks for reading, folks. And if it’s Valentine’s Day, and you happen to be at home reading this alone, well…Better luck next year!
