Behold the bridegroom cometh --- but a little late

Doris Christensen/Find a Grave

I stumbled onto this anecdote regarding the first marriage performed in Lucas County's Washington Township, our most southeasterly township and the location now of Russell as well as the pioneer settlement of Greenville. 

The date was Saturday, June 7, 1851, and the bride and bridegroom were Julia Craddock, 30, never previously married; and Joseph H. McReynolds, 55, whose first wife, Tabitha, had died. Julia was living in a pioneer log cabin on the Mormon Trail at Greenville with her brother-in-law and sister, Abner and Mary "Polly" (Craddock) McKinley.

I'm not going to write much about Joseph this time --- he is one of Lucas County's War of 1812 veterans and I'm tracking his record down at the moment. Suffice it to say, he was not necessarily --- despite the title he claimed --- a physician; instead, a healer and herbalist.

The narrator is Leander O. McKinley, a nephew of Abner, 7 years old when the wedding occurred and writing to Henry Gittinger from his home in Miller, South Dakota, about 1899. Leander died at Creston in Union County during January of 1905. His letter was published by Gittinger in The Leader of Oct. 28, 1909. And Leander, not surprisingly, got a couple of details wrong --- including the year of the marriage and his estimate of McReynolds' age.

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Everything related to its pioneer settlers, other than the landscape, was very new in 1851 --- Lucas County had just been organized two years earlier. The courthouse in Chariton, a log building on the east side of the square, was a couple of hours west on the Mormon Trail from Greenville --- by horseback. Here's Leander's account of the marriage.

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The first marriage in (Washington) township was in 1852 at the home of Abner McKinley. The contracting parties were Dr. J.H. McReynolds and Julia A. Cradock. Rev. Wm. Wallace performed the marriage ceremony.

The doctor started early to Chariton after his license; was to be back by 2 o'clock p..m., the time set for the ceremony. Rev. Wallace commenced to preach a sermon about 1 o'clock so as to conclude the services about the time the doctor arrived with his license so there would be no break in the service until after the marriage, and took for his text, "Behold the bridegroom cometh."

But the doctor did not seem to be in any hurry as the text would imply, so Rev. Wallace had to lengthen out his sermon so as to make it fit the tardiness of the bridegroom. Rev. Wallace did not take into consideration that the doctor was no spring chicken (being 40) and was not so impulsive as a younger man would very likely have been.

Rev. Wallace stood in the door and would look over the Mormon trace to the west to see if that cloud of dust would appear to indicate the coming of the doctor. Finally he saw it and concluded the sermon and hitched onto the ceremony. Then we had a good dinner which was appreciated by us boys more than anything else, even if we did have to wait until the big people got done.

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Joseph and Julia had 10 years together in the Greenville neighborhood --- until her death on March 9, 1861. She was buried in the Greenville Cemetery. The next year, on Sept. 27. 1862, Joseph married Esther Robinson in Wayne County and they lived together until his own death on 9 December 1875, age 80. He was buried beside Julia at Greenville.