Sweet Americana Sweethearts Blog is Five Years Old

I'm really bad about remembering birthdays and anniversaries. Remembering the five year milestone of the start of the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog is no exception. Although two months late, I still wish celebrate and say thank you to all the authors who have blogged for us over the years. Just as important, thank you to all of you readers who signed up to follow the blog and read our posts.

To celebrate, I wish to introduce the blog’s founding authors and their first posts on the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog. Please click on the title to see the first post for each author.

 

     The first authors who posted in July 2015:

Zina Abbott – The Sultana Disaster

Shanna Hatfield – The Teutonic

Angela Raines-Doris McCraw – The Woman in History Everyone Should Know

Linda Carroll-Bradd – Not Only a Place to Sit

 

     Added in August 2015:

Penny Estelle – Timothy Hershey and the Beginning of Abilene, Kansas

Kristin Holt – Five Things I Learned from THE MENACE TAKES A BRIDE

Kathryn Albright – Romancing San Diego’s Amazing Past

Amelia Adams – Writing History, Whenever It May Be

Times and needs change, but I’m pleased to note that four of those authors besides myself are still blogging. 

Thank you to all of you readers who read our posts and buy our books. You are why we write.

Victorian-American Wedding Anniversary Parties by Kristin Holt

by USA Today Bestselling Author Kristin Holt

As readers of sweet romance set in the American Old West, we’re familiar with weddings in this favored setting. We know all about home weddings, preachers or justices of the peace, and recording important dates (like marriages) in the family Bible. Have you noticed that wedding anniversaries are seldom mentioned in historical romance fiction? (Or is this sense of something [accurate] missing bothering only me?)

Wedding anniversary to-do’s were HUGE in the nineteenth century United States. Couples everywhere celebrated their wedding anniversaries in a variety of ways and means, inviting friends and family to celebrate—and in some cases, when a party wasn’t held, the guests held the party for the guests of honor—Surprise! (Can you even imagine?)

 

Do you recall something about a paper wedding, a tin wedding, and a golden wedding? Victorian-Americans took that stuff seriously. Though vintage sources disagree (and they knew it), they generally held to a generally held “ten years equals tin wedding” and “fifty years equals golden wedding.” To learn much more about these additional weddings, and all the to-do about them, don’t miss out on my post about Victorian-American Wedding Anniversaries in general... it’s also live today!

Other than find themselves (un-)pleasantly surprised with a surprise party thrown in their own home, what did folks do to acknowledge the anniversary of their marriage?

The Topeka Daily Capital of Topeka, Kansas on November 11, 1888.

The couple often threw their own anniversary party, inviting friends, family, the husband’s business associates, neighbors and the like. Festivities were often held in their home, involving music and food. Newspaper notices about such social gatherings typically listed the number of years celebrated by the couple, the names of guests in attendance, and in many cases, gifts given by various friends enumerated.

Oh boy.

But such was quality etiquette regarding wedding anniversaries.

When not enjoying music (such as a musicale), dancing, or supping at the dining room table, wedding anniversary party guests were often treated to other performances (phrenology, for example), or in the case of Mr. and Mrs. C. S. Houghton, were treated to the new game Newcastle, and many winners took home lovely prizes.

The size of a man’s bank account (and perhaps the size of his circle of friends) dictated the extravagance and expense of a wedding anniversary party. New York City newspapers mention parties held at home by couples married from one to sixty years, with the same type of gatherings and celebrations as their western counterparts.

Some celebrations held in ritzy neighborhoods of San Francisco cost far more than a working man could earn in half his lifetime. Descriptions of opulence make me wonder how the happy groom could continue to afford his own party year after year after year. Maybe once one hit the teens (thirteen years of marital bliss, fourteen, fifteen) they needn’t host a get-together until the big numbers, say, like their Silver Wedding.

This next example of a humble Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary Party speaks of posterity gathering and marking the Golden Wedding of their parents and grandparents.

Sometimes Wedding Anniversary Parties were more commemorative and delightful to the aging bride and groom than anything else. Can’t you see the smiles upon the faces of elderly Mr. and Mrs. Mather? Who said sleigh rides were entertainment for the young?

Golden Wedding Anniversaries were rare in Victorian America, as a normal  and expected lifespan of men and women were strikingly shorter then than now. Considering the Mather’s sleighing on their sixtieth wedding anniversary, in their early 80s, was something remarkable and special... and not only because they were still together. Folks were considered “old” if they reached fifty... and that was a BIG if.

Notice this next couple were doubly-blessed. Not only did they celebrate fifty years of marital bliss, but they outlived virtually all of their contemporaries.

This last Victorian-American Wedding Anniversary Party notice from an 1896 newspaper reminds us all that food and drink in the late Victorian era, despite Victorian refrigerators and plenty of ice, food poisoning still happened.

NOTEWORTHY

Sometimes, people live a shockingly long time. And sometimes, marriage seems to agree with those old codgers. A newspaper syndicate shared the surprising story of Joaquin Marreiro (age 103) and his wife (97) (Cabaceiras City, Brazil), married eighty years. “Of the twenty-three children born to this aged pair fourteen still survive. One hundred and twenty-six grandchildren and ninety-seven great-grandchildren will attend the wedding anniversary.” [Source: The Bloomfield Vindicator of Bloomfield, Missouri on February 26, 1881.]

Related Articles

 

 

 

Two Invitations:

You're invited to browse my many blog articles about life and love in the Victorian American West~

Both here on Sweet Americana Sweethearts (Kristin Holt's page):

and on my own website: KristinHolt.com/articles:

You're also invited to scroll down and reply!

What do you think of these vintage newspaper articles about Wedding Anniversary Parties held in the 19th century U.S.A.?

Did anything within this article surprise you?

Thanks so much for reading!

Warmest Regards,

Kristin Holt

 Copyright © 2020 Kristin Holt LC

Teamwork

I'm sure you have many examples of how teamwork makes your life easier. Maybe helping people in your circle is the way you all make it through the week. It makes sense. We're busy and we have many responsibilities. Most of us can't get everything done alone - at least not and remain sane.

Back in the old west, teamwork was necessary. Without help, a small farm might not survive. Communities banded together in times of trouble to rebuild storm damage or plant crops after a tragedy.

In one of my Cutter's Creek stories, Becoming a Family, the town pulls together to find two children who are lost in the woods. The men spend all night out in the dark and the cold and the brother and his sister are brought safely home. If not for the care provided by the community, the story would have had a much different ending.

Families shared food and hand-me-down clothes. They looked out for each other in most all areas of life. If anything was about to go to waste, they'd find someone who needed it to keep precious supplies from being lost.

It's uplifting to read about all the ways the brave and hearty people of the west cared for each other. They had trials and troubles of their own, but they still made room for others in need. Perhaps they knew that at some point everyone needs a helping hand and it was likely they'd need the same thing at some point. Possibly, these people just had big hearts who loved their fellow man.

No matter what their motivation, the hard life of the west was made a little easier when friends and countrymen gave aid to others. Can you imagine making your way to the west in a wagon train but only relying on yourself to survive the journey? Of course not!

I find today that we need help in many ways. Carpools, elder care, career support. The list is endless for ways we can reach out to others to get physical help and moral support. In our neighborhoods, in our families, and even online - help is available in so many ways. Teamwork makes life work better.

Teamwork is the thread that binds a multi-author series together. We all work together for a common goal and to support each other as we travel the road to create something we hope readers will love. The Sweet Americana Sweethearts authors have recently done that with their Grandma's Wedding Quilts series. (Another awesome series is on the way, too!  😄)

The Cutter's Creek series is another very close to my heart. The women I work with in that group have become like sisters to me in the last year or so. We started working together in February, 2016 and our first four books were published on May 15, 2016. It's been a year already! Wow! We've worked together to create an ongoing beloved series. Where one of us was lacking the others picked up the slack. We each had a chance to help each other out - no doubt about that.

And now, with one year and twenty books under our belts, I'm pleased to celebrate this milestone with my dear sisters! Kit Morgan, Vivi Holt, Kari Trumbo, and I would like to invite you to join us on May 18, 2017 at 8PM EDT to celebrate the one year anniversary of Cutter's Creek. We're planning a ton of fun with prizes and gifts for all. Be sure to RSVP on Facebook.

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Annie Boone writes sweet western historical romance with a happy ending guaranteed in every single story. Take a look at Annie's latest contribution to the beloved Cutter's Creek series - Perfect Timing.

Be sure to RSVP for the Cutter's Creek Anniversary Celebration.

To connect with Annie, find her on Facebook, Twitter, or her website.

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