#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 23 Wedding: Three Generations of Southern Maryland Weddings

Most of the time, any family historian would count herself lucky to have found a wedding photo of her grandparents.  And I am fortunate to have a charming wedding photo of my maternal grandparents, Paul Francis Summers and Theresa Evalina Sasscer from 1924.  In addition, thanks to my grandmother's tendency to collect clippings, I also have the detailed account of the wedding from the local paper. And further, I also have the photo and newspaper account of the wedding of my great-grandparents, Thomas Reverdy Sasscer and Theresa Evalina Wallis in 1894. (Yes, she was a collector too.)  And, of course, I have the photo and newspaper description of my own parents' wedding in 1947, Frank Philip Scrivener and Anne Theresa Summers.  (At least I know I came by that hoarding gene honestly.)

So, since I have these treasures, I thought it would be interesting to compare the three Southern Maryland weddings and look at how things changed, or didn't over the course of the 50 years that separated these nuptials.

Theresa Evalina Wallis (Eva) was 20 years old when she married Rev Sasscer,  a Prince George's County tobacco farmer who was 23 years her senior. Eva had come to Prince George's County from Kent County on the Eastern Shore to teach in the one-room school house located on the Sasscer property.  She boarded with Mr. Sasscer and his sister and soon the wedding bells were ringing.

The Wallis-Sasscer wedding took place at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Chestertown, Kent County, the bride's home town on November 14, 1894. The bride wore a handsome gown of "tan henrietta cloth ( a type of fine wool) with gloves and hat to match." She was escorted to the altar by her brother, Francis Wallis, and two other brothers were mentioned as ushers.

The church, according to the newspaper, was beautifully decorated, the altars banked with white and yellow chrysanthemums and the chandeliers festooned with trailing vines.  "Numerous candles shed a mellow light over the scene."

Music for the service included both Mendelsohn's and Lohengrin's Wedding Marches, as well as  Ave Maria, Veni Jesu, and God Be Praised in All His Works, sung in solos and choruses.

After the ceremony, the bridal couple were given a marriage breakfast by Rev. George Ott, the officiating minister.

The bride's parents--Francis Adolphus Wallis and Georgiana Willson--signed the marriage certificate as witnesses.

My grandparents' wedding took place at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County, on the 26th of April 1924. (As an aside, my paternal grandparents, Frank Scrivener and Elizabeth Dent, were married in the same church just a few weeks later.)  Paul and Evalina had attended school together at Baden Agricultural High School and also attended the same church, St. Mary's. Paul Summers (28) had served in the US Navy during WWI and then returned to the family farm.  Evalina (25) had worked for the War Department in Washington DC and then taught school before her marriage.

The bridge wore a gown of ivory Canton crepe draped with Venetian lace and a tulle veil held in place by a bandeau of orange blossoms. Her sister, Eunice Sasscer Turner, was her matron of honor, wearing pale blue satin duchesse with a white picture hat.  The flower girl was Paul's niece, Dorothy Perrie in a shell pink frock. Since her father had died several years earlier, Evalina was escorted to the altar by her brother, Francis Wallis Sasscer. The groom's best man was his brother Joseph M. Summers.

Jerome Summers (Paul's brother), Clarence Sasscer (Evalina's brother), Charles Turner (Evalina's brother-in-law), and Francis Summers (cousin) were the ushers.

There was music, of course, but the specific musical selections were not named in the account.  The paper did identify the organist, Georgia Wilson, a cousin of the bride and two soloists, Josephine O'Connor and Nellie Ronan.

A wedding breakfast at the home of the bride followed the ceremony.  The paper includes a long list of the guests, a virtual catalog of the siblings and cousins of the bridal couple. The paper noted in particular "the presence of a charming group of children who were nieces and nephews, added another attractive feature to the interesting wedding."

The couple took a "northern trip" (Baltimore, perhaps?) before returning home to settle in at the home of Evalina's mother, Eva Sasscer.

My parents, Frank Scrivener and Anne Summers, were married at the same church, St. Mary's in Upper Marlboro on August 2, 1947.  Frank, 22, had just returned from service in Europe during WWII and was a student at Loyola College in Baltimore.  Anne, also 22, had graduated from George Washington University and was working for the federal government in Washington DC. They had met as youngsters when Frank came down to Upper Marlboro to stay with his Scrivener grandparents.

Their wedding was described by the Marlboro Gazette as "one of the outstanding weddings of Southern Maryland this year."

In addition to the pastor, Fr. McLaughlin, Monsignor Andrew Gwynn of South Carolina, Dad's great-uncle, also officiated at the ceremony.  There were more than 600 guests at the church.

The bride, who was given in marriage by her father, Paul Summers, wore a white gown with a lace bodice and white chiffon skirt with lace panels.  Her fingertip veil was held in place by a lace headdress.  She carried American Beauty Roses.

Wedding music was furnished by Mrs. Roland Ripple, Fred Wyville, Mrs. Arthur Gilman and Olivia Raphel (who was soon to marry Frank's brother Keene).

Evalina Summers was her sister's maid of honor and the other attendants were cousins Brooke Stiefel and Effie Melchior, sister-in-law, Carmelite Scrivener, and friend Jeanne Sauerwein. The attendants wore  frocks in a rainbow of silky faille with matching picture hats. Mary Brooke Kelly was the flower girl and the bride's brother, eight-year old Robert Summers, was the ring-bearer.

Jack Scrivener was his brother's best man, and Paul Summers Jr. (Anne's brother), Jack Fish, Jerry Laroque, and Tom Ostendorf (college buddies and tennis partners of Frank) served as the ushers.

 The reception was held at Maplehurst, the Summers farm, where the large outdoor area could accommodate the hundreds of guests (and the scene of many future weddings, some of which I can remember attending as my mother's younger sisters married.)

The couple left on a "Northern Honeymoon." (As my mother tells this story, Dad planned to take her to a resort where there was a tennis tournament he wanted to play in.  But that is a story for another time.) On returning, they planned to live in Baltimore.

So, here we have three Southern Maryland wedding stories.  All the couples were Catholic and married in a Catholic Church.  The weddings seem to get progressively more elaborate.  Great-grandmother got a nice new dress that she could wear many times after the wedding, while her daughter and granddaughter had specific wedding dresses that probably were not worn again. (Do you notice that none of the wedding articles bother to comment on what the groom was wearing? That didn't change in 50 years.)

On the matter of attendants, all of the wedding parties emphasized family.  Great-grandmother had no female attendants, just ushers, all family members.  Grandmother had a matron of honor and a flower girl as well as ushers, again all family members.  Mother had a full panoply of attendants, male and female including friends as well as family members. 

The celebrations progressed from a simple wedding breakfast at the rectory to a more elaborate breakfast at the bride's home, to a huge celebration with a catered dinner for hundreds of guests.  

What strikes me as the unifying note of all these ceremonies, though, is the degree to which they were family celebrations. The families went all in to start these new couples off in the right spirit.

What do you notice?