Tag Archives: five husbands

Three Husbands at Breakfast: 1853

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Singular Wedding Party.

A correspondent of the Placer Herald, is responsible for the following: ” “A marriage took place on the night of the 15th Dec., at the Nevada Hotel–a lady not unknown to the California public, to a gentleman from Kentucky now a citizen of this State, he being the fifth upon whom she had conferred Hymenal honors, and the third whose heads are yet above the sod. By a strange concatenation of circumstances, her two last husbands, between whom and herself all marital duties had ceased to exist by the operation of the divorce law, had put up at the Nevada House on the same evening, ignorant of the fact that their former cara sposa had rested under the same roof with themselves, and also that they had both, in former years, been wedded to the same lady.

“Next morning they occupied seats at the breakfast table opposite the bridal party. Their eyes met with mute, but expressive astonishment. The lady bride did not faint, but bravely informed her newly acquired lord of her singular situation, and who their guests were. Influenced by the nobleness of his nature and the happy impulses of his heart, he summoned his predecessors to his bridal chamber, and the warmest greetings and congratulations were interchanged between the four in the most unreserved and friendly manner. The two ex-lords frankly declared that they ever found in the lady an excellent and faithful companion, and that they were the authors of the difficulties which produced their separation the cause being traceable to a too frequent use of intoxicating drinks.

“The legal lord and master declared that his affection for his bride was strengthened by the coincidence, and that his happiness was increased, if possible, by what had occurred. After a few presents of specimens from their well-filled purses, the parties separated—the two ex-husbands for the Atlantic States, with the kindest regards of the lady for the future welfare of her former husbands.

“Not the least singular circumstance attending the above is, that the three were all married on the 15th of December.”

Plain Dealer [Cleveland OH] 15 June 1853: p. 2

Mrs Daffodil’s Aide-memoire:  No doubt the lady had a sentimental attachment to that date and, of course, she would not have to struggle to remember her anniversary.

Mrs Daffodil wonders if she also returned to the same clergyman:

Got Used to Him.

Happy Man (to widow of three husbands): “Whom shall I ask to perform the ceremony, darling? That matter, of course, I shall leave to you.”

Widow (hesitatingly): “Well, dear, I haven’t any very particular preference, although I’ve always had the Rev. Mr. Goodman.”

The Stevens Point [IL] Journal 21 January 1888: p. 3

 

Mrs Daffodil invites you to join her on the curiously named “Face-book,” where you will find a feast of fashion hints, fads and fancies, and historical anecdote

You may read about a sentimental succubus, a vengeful seamstress’s ghost, Victorian mourning gone horribly wrong, and, of course, Mrs Daffodil’s efficient tidying up after a distasteful decapitation in A Spot of Bother: Four Macabre Tales.