“Happily Wed in Athens”- Edith Roberts and Edward A. McMurray, November 1921
This headline is another prime example of not taking everything at face value in genealogy or historical research, and looking deeper. It is also a lesson to not stop after just the headline or first questionable piece of data- some sources may have multiple concerns, as does this article.
The November 29, 1921 Iowa City Press-Citizen, had the headline “Happily Wed in Athens” on a story on page 11 that day. When looking for the announcement of the Edith M. Roberts-Edward A. McMurray wedding, just scanning headlines might make one skip this article- “Athens”?? Is that Athens, Georgia? Athens, Ohio? Athens, Greece? It is unlikely that these two college students would have had a ‘destination wedding’ to a place 5,600 miles away across an ocean in 1921, however, so we can eliminate the truly Greek Athens, to start.
“Mr. Edward McMurray, of Newton, Iowa, and Miss Edith Roberts, of Prairie City, Iowa, a sophomore medical student, and a liberal arts junior, respectively, were happily wed last evening, at sunset, at the Congregational conference house.”
The details of the couple matched many that were already known, so that helped us make sure we had the correct individuals. Since their standings at school were noted, the Iowa City location was becoming a bit more promising. One interesting tidbit about the word “Athens”- it conjured up other articles previously found about Edith being a member of the “Athena Literary Society” at the University of Iowa. She had also created a very sweet scrapbook with treasures from Athena events, so looking into the history of the college and the town were the next steps. This research provided our answer- Iowa City, Iowa, was and still is known as “The Athens of the Midwest” due to its many educational and cultural opportunities and events. Skimming other newspaper articles and delving into their context revealed that “Athens” or “The Athens” was a regular replacement for the official name of the town. So now we had our first answer- Edith Roberts and Edward McMurray were married in Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa.
The date of the marriage was the next focus. The article was published in the November 29, 1921 issue, which was a Tuesday. It stated the couple was “happily wed last evening, at sunset” – how romantic! The ‘last evening’ mentioned would have been Monday, November 28. Browsing further through that newspaper issue, because the search software had picked up 2 instances of Edith’s name, was an article listing “Licenses to wed… issued by [the] County Clerk…” The names included “E. A. McMurray (21)” and “Edith M. Roberts (22),”- their ages were after the name. Definitely the correct people, as Edward was born in 1900 and Edith in 1899. No date was given in the paper for the license nor a date for the actual wedding, so Johnson County’s records were the next stop on this quest.
Finding the marriage record was actually quite easy as once the event with date had been put into Ancestry.com, the “Iowa, U.S., Marriage Records, 1880-1951” from the Iowa Department of Public Health appeared in a search. (You don’t have to wait for hints to pop up- just do a ‘Search’ using the button by ‘Tools’ and ‘Edit’ on the upper right of the Ancestry page for that person; Ancestry will use the facts already in your tree to help narrow the hits.) It provided the date of the license, 11/25/1921, and even the license number: 10059. The entry confirmed their names, ages (although it has Edith as 23, which is incorrect), residence (Newton for Edward, Prairie City for Edith), their parents’ names (the middle initial for George A. Roberts is noted as “M.” which is incorrect), and that both were students and it was the first marriage for each. The record lists that they were married 11/25/21 in Iowa City, Iowa- wait, that is different from the newspaper report! Hmm, what should we do now? Thinking about the date, it is obvious that it was around Thanksgiving of that year, so maybe they married over Thanksgiving break, as students might do so they can have a short honeymoon. A wonderful website called TimeAndDate.com will show us a calendar for that month so we can see that Thanksgiving holiday was celebrated on November 24th that year. So it seems that on Friday (11/25/1921) after Thanksgiving, Edith and Edward went to the County Clerk’s office and received their marriage license. They were married by Rev. Walter Schafer that evening, and the return of the actual marriage was filed by the minister on the following Monday, 11/28/1921.
So maybe Edith and Edward had returned home to celebrate Thanksgiving with family, and then returned to school the next day. Was the wedding planned in advance but they waited until the last minute to get the license because they were so busy with exams? Did they make a spur-of-the-moment decision to marry on Thanksgiving or when they got back up to school? Were their parents or siblings in attendance? Rev. Walter C. Schafer was a pastor for students in Iowa City. Seeing that the witnesses to the wedding were Brainerd Ullrich and Leon Wiggins, names totally unknown to this researcher, suggests that maybe the family did not attend, because a sibling is often the Maid of Honor or Best Man and officially witnesses the wedding. We will likely never know, however. Because Edith and Edward divorced in less than ten years, there are no wedding portraits and it was not talked about much within subsequent families. Finding these records after years of wondering about details fills in some answers, but leaves the rest to our imaginations.
The last line of the newspaper article was interesting, and does need some explanation but that too will have to be supplied by our imaginations:
“Friends will wish the joy questioning collegians long life and happiness.”
Notes, Sources, and References:
- Photos are treasures from the family archives.
- See references listed in above paragraphs.
- Rev Walter C. Schafer- a student pastor who attended a Chicago conference for religious workers in American colleges and universities. Iowa City Citizen, Jan. 9, 1919, page 8. Also listed as a 33 year old minister in the 1920 Iowa City Ward 2, Johnson County, Iowa, Federal Census.
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