Wedding Wednesday: Roy and Viola (Runyan) Keller

Married November 28, 1945

Lula Viola Runyan  1922 - 2005
Roy Alvin Keller  1917 - 2004

Viola was the daughter of Jesse Claude and Lena (Hudelson) Runyan. She was my mother's first cousin.

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Wedding Wednesday: Murder and Marriage

~Not your average shotgun wedding~

I suppose it's stories like this that gave my Indiana grandmother her disdain for Kentucky folk but, if she were alive today, I might have to challenge her on that as I have unearthed some pretty shocking stuff in her neck of the woods too.

William A. McKinney, was the son of William Logan McKinney. They are neither one related to me. I have them in my database because of William Logan's wife, Mary Ann Collier, the sister of William Green Collier who was the father of  Willie Frances Collier who was married to Andrew Jackson Wallen who was the son of Isaac Newton Wallen who was the brother of my great, great grandfather, William M. Wallen. Some of you know how that works. Sort of like connecting the dots and trying to make some kind of picture out of it.

Anyway...I found other tidbits leading up to this story and while the murder itself was certainly tragic, the time and place of the marriage will likely be considered somewhat humorous to those of us with good imaginations. I love scrounging through old newspapers. The stories they tell help to fill in bits of white space so the connected dots can form a more colorful panorama!

Interior Journal, May 14, 1880, pg. 2 under the Rockcastle Co., KY section.

"--Our Circuit Court did not close without a bit of a sensation. About eighteen months ago W. A. McKinney, a young son of W. L. McKinney, began paying his addresses to Nannie Smith, a daughter of Alfred Smith. Willie and Nannie soon became too intimate, and the intimacy resulted in Nannie's giving birth to a little stranger. The advent of the baby made old man Smith look with disfavor on William's visits. There grew up a bad feeling between them, and last Christmas day, while they were under the influence of liquor, McKinney shot Smith and killed him. The killing was done at Smith's house. McKinney was arrested and held to answer by the Examining Court. He was indicted by the grand Jury at the last term and tried for murder. His trial resulted in an acquittal. Immediately after the verdict William and Nannie (the latter had been an important witness for her seducer) marched arm in arm into the Court House, and, standing just outside the bar, Judge McClure went through the usual legal ceremony, and pronounced them man and wife. The marriage took place in the presence of Judge Randall, the attorneys and the jury which had tried McKinney. It was regarded as a fitting denouement to the tragic history of their love. I hope McKinney will avoid trouble in the future."

My great grandfather, Oliver Morton Wallen, was 10 years old when this happened and since my family lived just a short distance away from both parties, they were likely acquainted with all involved and certainly aware of the murder trial and all the sordid details. Some of them may have even been on the jury.


Oh..and McKinney's murder weapon was a pistol, not a shotgun, and McKinney only discharged it on Smith after Smith gave him a nasty wound in the back with a knife. (See Interior Journal, January 2, 1880, image 2). William and Nannie had at least 3 more children after they married. Nannie died in 1915 and William died in 1937. Both are buried in the Blue Springs/McKinney Cemetery in Rockcastle Co., Kentucky.

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Wedding Wednesday: Newby-Trowbridge

CHARLES LEE NEWBY to IDA MAY TROWBRIDGE 

May 25, 1892

Charles and Ida Newby were my maternal great grandparents. The witnesses, Milla and Henry McMullen, were Ida's sister and brother-in-law. This beautiful certificate is a page from Ida May's 1891/92 Bible which was likely a wedding gift to Ida and Charles from her parents.

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Wedding Wednesday: Oliver & Sarah - May 23, 1900

OLIVER MORTON WALLEN to SARAH FRANCES DAVIS

May 23, 1900 - Wabd, Rockcastle Co., Kentucky

clipart courtesy "The Graphics Fairy"

Below is the Marriage announcement of my paternal great grandparents, another recent discovery from the Mount Vernon Signal newspaper dated June 1, 1900 (pg. 4). Until finding this somewhat lengthy and descriptive announcement, I had only a copy of the marriage license and short excerpts from Oliver's diary covering his courtship, engagement and marriage to Sarah. This was a pleasant and welcome addition to my gleanings!

Courtship, Engagement and Marriage 
Excerpts from Oliver's Diary:

1898:  "Miss Sarah Davis of Level Green attended my school. I began waiting on her before my school was out and Easter Sunday April 10, 1898 - we were engaged to be married."

May 12 1900 "Took out lisence to solemize the rites of matrimony." 

May 18, 1900: "...got a letter the 15 from Miss Sarah Davis. She said she would be redy to get married the 23." 

May 22 1900 "... from there to Mt. Vernon and got my marriage lisence, from there to Rev. B. S. Duvalt's and got him to officiate, and home.

May 23, 1900  "Went to Rev. Nelie Burnette's, near Level Green, and got Miss Sarah Davis and went to the Rev. B. S. Duvalt's and we were made one, or husband and wife, at 1/2 past 4 P.M. Mr. J. J. Towery and Miss May Sowder went with us."

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Wedding Wednesday: The Gold Earring

Lawrence Everett Runyan to Mary Fern Newby

December 16, 1917 - Knightstown, Indiana

Lawrence and Fern Runyan - Wedding Day
My maternal grandparents

I love this picture of my grandparents because it's really the best picture I have of my grandmother when she was young. I also love it because of the pendant she is wearing. 

My mother told me that this pendant was once an earring and that the set of earrings had belonged to her mother's great grandmother, Martha (Brown) Cook. Martha died in 1841 when her children were very young so it is my guess that their father, Giles Cook, saved the earrings and eventually gave one earring to each of his daughters, Phoebe and Eliza Jane, likely as wedding gifts when they got married. He may have had them made into a new piece of jewelry himself. One of them is seen as a brooch in a photo of my great, great grandmother Phoebe Cook Trowbridge. 

Phoebe Cook Trowbridge

Phoebe passed the brooch down to her daughter, Ida May Trowbridge Newby and Ida May then passed it on to her daughter Mary Fern, my grandmother, and by this time the earring was removed from the brooch pin and added to a chain to become a pendant. It was given to my mother when she was a young woman and, as her only daughter, it was promised to me. 

Although I never saw my mother wear it I remember seeing this piece of jewelry often in her jewelry box and I remember handling it many times. Unfortunately, in the late 1970s or early 1980s, my parent's home was robbed and this was one of the items that was stolen! This was devastating to me! I still find myself looking for it anytime I am in a pawn shop or antique jewelry shop. 

 I am so thankful that I have a picture of my grandmother and her grandmother wearing the same piece of jewelry and that I have the story that went with it. 

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