An elopement
Every now and then, while doing some genealogy research, I come across an item that I find very interesting, or that simply tickles my funny bone. The following article is a good example of the latter.
Source: The Kappa Alpha Journal: Dedicated to the Interests of the Kappa Alpha Fraternity, Vol. XI, Mid-summer 1894, No. 5, John Bell Keeble, Editor, Nashville, TN, p. 502.
"The Louisville Times of August I5th contained the following account of the marriage of Lucien Beckner, Omega '93: 'Last evening, at the parsonage of the Centenary M. E. Church, on East Elm street, in New Albany, Lucien Beckner, of Winchester, Ky., and Miss Marie Davis Warren, of Danville, were married by the Rev. W. B. Collins. The affair was a genuine elopement, there having been parental objections on account of the youth of the bride, who is but eighteen years of age.' A special from Danville in the same issue gave this account of the affair: 'Great surprise was created here this morning by the receipt of a telegram from Louisville announcing the marriage of Miss M. Warren, the handsome daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Warren, of this city, to Lucien Beckner, son of Judge Wm. M. Beckner, of Winchester. Miss Warren took advantage of her mother's absence from the city yesterday and went to Louisville, where she met young Beckner. He was a student here two years ago, but no one suspected that there was a love affair.'"
Marie Daviess Warren was the daughter of Jean Hamilton Daviess and William Warren, and descended from the pioneer Samuel and Hannah (McCormick) McAfee.
Despite their youth (he was 21, she was 19), the marriage appears to have been successful. They had three (known) children, and are buried in adjacent graves at Winchester Cemetery in Winchester, Clark Co., Kentucky.