Love and honor but not "obey," you say?

Napoleon Bonaparte Branner (1843-1923) officiated at a good many Lucas County marriage ceremonies during his long career as Chariton attorney and justice of the peace --- but was not of the marrying kind himself. Or at least not until age 72, during December of 1915, when he tied the knot with the estimable Miss Cinda Hawk, then 57, who after caring for her mother to the end switched her attention to caring for N.B.

In marrying others, however, it was Judge Branner's practice to eliminate the word "obey" from the traditional wording of the ceremony, a move that during early May of 1908 was questioned by a bridegroom and reported upon in The Chariton Leader of May 7 under the headline, "Objected to ceremony."

+++

Justice N.B. Branner united a couple in matrimony, a few days since, and when he had pronounced the couple "man and wife," the groom, who was of no tender years, complained that he was not fully suited with the ceremony as the magistrate had failed to insert the word "obey" in that clause which usually says, "Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love, honor and obey him until death do you part?"

The judge informed the groom that he had purposely omitted the word "obey" as obsolete and suitable only to tyrants; that no man should pledge his wife to become his slave lest she might not then love and honor him, and surely if she loved and honored him she would considerately obey without an iron clad understanding forged by an officiating magistrate.

However, the groom left with a slight feeling that his authority as "ruler of the roost" was not absolute, but the Squire says he is not prescribing ordinances of servitude in his matrimonial ceremonies.

+++

The bride and bridegroom involved here are not identified, so we don't know how well that marriage endured. 

The Hawk-Branner marriage turned out well for both parties, however --- and I'm not suggesting here that the arrangement was entirely one of convenience, without affection. Cinda cared for N.B. until his death at age 80 during 1923 and was left well provided for as his widow. She died during 1936 and they share a rather grand granite tombstone in the Chariton Cemetery with their own places on the family lot marked by individual headstones.