Oh, Danny Boy, Really, Ya Gonna Get Married?

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

One of my little joys (side benefit of the formatting project from &^#$) is that I get to read some really neat ole news articles, and I never know what I will find.  I will confess that in my desire to be done with this project that sometimes I skip reading many of the pages.  However, now and then, there will be a short article that I read while cleaning the streaks, dots, marks  and messes.  I found one this AM. This was published in the December 1, 1897 issue of the Michigan Messenger, published at Adrian, Lenawee County, Michigan.

I thought it was rather, mmm, humorous.  Now, we have to consider that this IS a news report, and I am not sure that in 1897 the reporting was all serious, or factual, and well, we do sell papers with a bit of controversy, right??  I mean, Dan, really, making love to 42 women in 1897?  So, I decided to do just a bit of research, I did not want to spend a lot of time on it, but, ya, I was driven to go have a quick look.  So, over to FamilySearch.org I went and I found:

"Michigan, Marriages, 1822-1995"
groom's name: Daniel W. Whitman
groom's birth date:
groom's birthplace:
groom's age:
bride's name: Sophia Rich
bride's birth date:
bride's birthplace:
bride's age:
marriage date: 29 Nov 1897
marriage place: Lenawee, Michigan
groom's father's name: Daniel Whitman
groom's mother's name: Rebecca Butterfield
bride's father's name: Wm. Rich
bride's mother's name: Sarah
groom's race:
groom's marital status:
groom's previous wife's name:
bride's race:
bride's marital status:
bride's previous husband's name:
indexing project (batch) number: M01819-4
system origin: Michigan-ODM
source film number: 2342507

AND:

"Michigan, Marriages, 1868-1925"
groom's name: Daniel W. Whitman
groom's race:
groom's age: 68 years
groom's birth date: 1829
groom's birthplace: Pennsylvania
bride's name: Sophia Rich
bride's race:
bride's age: 19 years
bride's birth date: 1878
bride's birthplace: Michigan
marriage type: License
marriage date: 29 Nov 1897
marriage place: Lenawee, Michigan
groom's father: Daniel Whitman
groom's mother: Rebecca Butterfield
bride's father: Wm. Rich
bride's mother: Sarah
groom's marital status:
groom's previous wife:
bride's marital status:
bride's previous husband:
film number: 2342507
frame number:
digital folder number: 4207941
image number: 474
reference number: v 3 p 103 rn 396

Now, this second data base comes with images, and yes, I did open the image, despite the fact that I have been having serious connectivity issues, I clicked and then I walked away while it loaded.  And, when I came back, it was so worth the time spent.

(Note:  screen captures of only the specific portion of the page that applies, the full page of records can be viewed here.  I did overlap the captures a bit.)

License returned not used

Sophia, did you call off the wedding?   Or is this a case where the marriage took place and the recording procedure went amuck?

I did not discover Daniel on the 1900 census, I did find a possible on the 1910, noting 1910 said he was single and he was not living in Lenawee County.

I discovered Daniel's fate, at SeekingMichigan, note it says he is a widower:

Not being able to stop my research, I charged over to Find a Grave, and there is a very respectful memorial there with quite a bit of family information and a photo of his headstone.

I have done no further research on Sophia cause I have to get back to the formatting this book.  My break is over.

.