Friday, July 7, 2017

Rapid Wooing: Courted and Married All Inside of Twenty-four Hours (1891)


by USA Today Bestselling Author Kristin Holt

I'm genuinely fascinated by the "Love at First Sight" phenomenon. Must be the romance writer in me, or perhaps the experience of thirty years of marriage... but I wonder what can make people so sure they've found the love of their life.


Last month, I shared an article with you called Modern Lovers Have New Ways (published in the Chicago Daily Tribune, 1902). The subtitle: Twentieth Century System Is Bizarre and Usually Hurries Matters.

https://sweetamericanasweethearts.blogspot.com/2017/06/modern-lovers-have-new-ways-twentieth.html

The newspaper clipping I have to share with you today takes that "hurrying matters" into warp speed. This couple, purportedly, first noticed each other, sort-of courted, and married before twenty-four hours were up. This article was published in The San Francisco Morning Call on June 16, 1891. Mr. Lee Anderson, of Philadelphia, discovered a woman he could not ignore on the train from St. Louis to to Fort Worth, Texas. 


That woman was Miss Sadie Michael, of Saint Louis, Missouri, on her way to Muskogee, I.T. (Indian Territory) to take a position in a hotel. Mr. Anderson offered her something better; he offered marriage.
 

The San Francisco Morning Call of San Francisco, California, on June 16, 1891.


I wonder what became of Mr. and Mrs. Lee Anderson. I'm a bit (admittedly, far more than a bit) of a believer in happily-ever-after. I want to believe Lee and Sadie lived into their eighties, celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary, and spent as few nights apart as Lee's business (and Sadie's travels to help their daughters with new babies) allowed. They might have fallen for each other quickly, but neither regretted (not seriously, anyway) the fateful and glorious decision that June day in Denton, Texas.

Why did Sadie say yes to Mr. Anderson's heart-felt proposal? I'll leave that little detail of our fictional story completion up to you. Please, scroll down and reply. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Copyright © 2017 Kristin Holt LC

4 comments:

  1. Well, I knew a couple that met and married within a week of meeting and that marriage thrived very well. Knowing of those two would give me hope. *Smile* Doris

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  2. Thanks, Doris! It's so rare, isn't it? To make a lifelong commitment (hopefully) before knowing one another well... through a first fight, first crisis, first time meeting the parents, first money issue, etc. I love the idea that this couple in the 1891 newspaper lived happily, ever after (and did not do a search for divorce records as I don't want to know {wink!}).
    Thanks for commenting!
    Kristin

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  3. I can happen. I did know my husband during high school, but not well. We remet after 7 years and only briefly saw each other twice when out to dinner with others. When we saw each other it was an instant "this person could be THE ONE." We were on opposite sides of the world for most of the following year and rarely dated during that year before we got married. We just celebrated our 45th anniversary so it does work.

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    1. What a beautiful love-story, and forty-five years of marriage! Congratulations to you and your dear husband. I love success stories like yours. Wishing you many more!
      Kristin

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