151 St. Louisians Wed on Thanksgiving

El récord de Missouri para la expedición de licencias de matrimonio en un día se rompió el miércoles, Noviembre 23, 1904 por 151 parejas en St. Louis, que quería casarse en el Día de Acción de Gracias 1904. El récord anterior era cada día 117 parejas establecidas en St. Louis antes de Acción de Gracias 1903.

The Justice of the Peace, R.J. Carroll, set up shop in an adjoining room. He married couples almost as soon as the marriage license had been issued. The Reverend Doctor Pierce, an African-American minister, also joined Judge Carroll to help with the unusually large number of brides and grooms. Four clerks from the Recorder of Deed’s Office assisted with the unusually heavy workload.

Some couples came with their whole families, while others came by themselves. One of the grooms came from Evansville, Indiana but most of the couples were from St. Louis City and County.

Several couples shared the same address. Sin embargo, the city did have a number of rooming houses and hotels at this time, so we should not make too much of an inference from such arrangements.

The article in the November 24, 1904 edición de la St. Louis República stated many couples wanted to be married on Thanksgiving but that the same increase was not seen on Christmas Day. I don’t find that as surprising as the author of the article. The couple would be risking their anniversary being overshadowed by Christmas every year.

It is nice that so many couples decided to tie the knot on Thanksgiving during the 1904 Feria Mundial. While newspapers both then and now are normally filled with the tawdry, violent and criminal, stories such as this article are a nice uplifting read on the holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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