110 Couples Wed on Thanksgiving 1902
On Wednesday, November 26, 1902, 110 couples arrived at the St. Louis Marriage License Bureau to be officially married on Thanksgiving. The 110 couples broke the previous record set in 1901. This record would also only stand for one year until 1903.
Drawing from the November 27 1902 edition of the St. Louis Republic
Beginning at 9 a.m. and continuing until 5 p.m., Recorder Hahn issued license after license as three ministers performed the ceremonies for those wanting to marry at the courthouse. Many couples intended to marry in private ceremonies on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1902.
One of the more interesting ceremonies was performed in the house of Robert Hamilton in the 4400 block of Arco Avenue. Mr. Hamilton’s daughters Matilda and Irene were wedding Edward T. Card and H. A. Seward of Chicago, IL in a double wedding. After the ceremony, it appears Mr. and Mrs. Seward settled in Chicago.
The Cards stayed in St. Louis though. On August 12, 1906, Edward and Matilda Card welcomed Robert Edward Card into the world. Sometime after it was built in 1908, the family moved into a house in the 5300 block of Wabada Avenue on the North Side of St. Louis. The Cards may have had more children.
Card House on Wabada Avenue – Courtesy of Google Earth
Matilda J. Card was a housewife who passed away on January 18, 1933. Matilda had been born in St. Louis on November 30, 1873. She was 28 years old when she married Edward T. Card and they were married just over 30 years. Back then and today, breast cancer is a deadly killer. It would take Mrs. Card’s life way too soon at the young age of 59.
Edward Trafford Card died from the results of a fall November 7, 1957. Born on July 13, 1872 in St. Louis, MO, Mr. Card was 85 years old. He survived his wife by 24 years and never remarried. Mr. Card retired from Carter Carburator, a major St. Louis employer by the old Sportsman Park at N. Grand and Dodier Street. Mr. Card lived in the Wabada home at the time of his death.
All 110 couples who wed on Thanksgiving Day 1902 had a story also. A couple in my grandmother’s family married on Thanksgiving Day 1904. It is stories like these that give history meaning. Otherwise it is impersonal facts and figures.
What are your stories like this one? What makes history mean something to you? You can leave a comment or ask a question about this or any post on my Facebook page, Twitter profile and Google+ page.
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