Marriages (March 17)

Hunter - Church

Utica Saturday Globe, February 15, 1902

 

 

Charles Hunter and Miss Marion A. Church, of Oxford,

who were united in Marriage Recently at Greene

Oxford [Chenango Co., NY]:  Miss Marion A. Church, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Erwin Church, and Charles Hunter, both of whom are popular and well known in this village, were married Wednesday, at 2:30 P.M., at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. R.E. Harrington in Greene, Rev. Henry E. Hubbard, rector of the Episcopal Church, performed the ceremony.  As Bernice Harrington played the wedding march from Mendelssohn the bridal party entered the parlor where the nuptial knot was tied.  Following the ceremony an elaborate wedding dinner was served.  Mr. and Mrs. hunter are now receiving the congratulations of many friends.

Hitchman - Seeley

Chenango Union, March 24, 1892

 

A quiet but very pleasant event took place at the residence of Mr. Adelbert Seeley in Norwich [Chenango Co., NY], March 16th, it being the marriage of his oldest daughter, Minnie B., to John R. Hitchman.  After the marriage ceremony, which was very impressively performed, under an evergreen arch, by the Rev. L.C. Hayes, a bountiful repast was spread, and all present did justice to the eatables prepared by Mrs. Seeley.  After passing a short time in social chat the company dispersed, leaving behind them many costly tokens of remembrance.  Mr. and Mrs. Hitchman soon leave for little Brighton, in the south eastern past of the State, their future home, taking with them the best wishes of their many friends.

 

McVittie - Eccleston

Albany Times, June 19, 1891

A few weeks ago Flora A. Eccleston, the fifteen years old daughter of Dello Eccleston, a farmer of Guilford [Chenango Co., NY], eloped with Warren McVittie, one of her father's farm hands, and a midnight marriage followed at Norwich [Chenango Co., NY], Judge Nash officiating.  The father pursued the elopers and caused the arrest of the bridegroom for the alleged crime of abducting a child under marriageable age.  The young man was poor, and was unable to furnish bail, so he was separated from his weeping bride and committed to the Chenango county jail at Norwich, to await trial.  The father re-claimed his daughter and took her back home, where she has since remained in seclusion.  The bridegroom of a few hours, who is himself under age, took the disappointment of his fond hopes and the ignominy of his imprisonment keenly to heart.  He grew moody, despondent and restless.  All at once, on Monday last, he became insane, gesticulating wildly and filling the jail with his frantic cries.  He imagined somebody was killing his bride and he shouted and raved in wild agony over her fate.  He was examined by Drs. Hand and Harris, who pronounced him to be suffering with acute mania, and recommended that he be taken to the Binghamton state hospital for the insane for treatment.  He was taken there in irons, a pitiable wreck of the hearty and good looking man who had so recently figured in the elopement.

 

Elmira Daily Gazette & Free Press, September 30, 1891

A story from Norwich N.Y., says:  The story of the elopement and marriage of Warren McVittie, aged 20, and Flora Eccleston, aged 15, develops such that would give stirring interest to authors of a novel.  The bride, it will be remembered, is the pretty daughter of Dellos Eccleston, a well-to-do farmer of the neighboring town of Guilford, and the groom is respectable and good looking, but poor.  In June last they were deeply in love, and wanted to get married, but the girl's parents wouldn't hear of such a foolish thing.  So, after the old folks had got to bed one night, they stole out of the house and drove post haste to this town [Norwich, Chenango Co., NY], and called Justice Nash from his midnight slumbers and were married.  Next morning the girl's angry father appeared here and had the bridegroom arrested and lodged in jail on a charge of abduction, and took the weeping bride back home.  The young hero of the romance was not content to lie in prison away from his bride and awaiting the slow process of justice.  He suddenly got crazy, raved and shrieked and tore up his clothes and broke furniture and otherwise comported himself as a violent and dangerous lunatic.  He played the madman so well that he appears to have thoroughly deceived the officers of the jail and the physicians who were called in to examine his mental condition.  He was adjudged insane, and was taken from his cell to the State lunatic Asylum at Binghamton in fetters.  Now news comes from Binghamton that the supposed lunatic has recovered his senses sufficiently to outwit the asylum keepers and escape.  He was sick, or pretended to be, and had the liberty of the hospital ward.  The other night he broke the fastenings of a window, crawled out and lowered himself to the ground with sheets tied together, and fled under cover of darkness. The asylum keepers and the jailers are searching far and wide for the fugitive, while Farmer Eccleston is keeping close watch over his daughter lest her enterprising and ingenious lover find some way of spiriting her away.

 

New York Herald, February 4, 1892

Norwich, N.Y.:  The trial of Warren McVittie, charged with the abduction of a young woman whom he married, ended yesterday with a verdict of not guilty, and the prisoner returned to the welcoming arms of his young wife. The case is the most romantic ever recorded in the annals of this county.  McVittie is about twenty years of age.  He worked on the farm of Devillo Eggleston, in the town of Guilford.  Eggleston had a daughter, Flora, sixteen years old, and she loved the young farm hand.  McVittie, though respectable, was poor, and the girl's father opposed their marriage.  When the old folks were in bed and asleep one night last June the couple stole out of the house and drove to Norwich, where justice Nash married them.  The opposition from the young woman's parents was not overcome by the marriage and they secured McVittie's arrest on the charge of abduction.  He feigned insanity and was finally confined in the State Hospital at Binghamton.  He escaped and returned to the Eggleston farmhouse.  Still unrelenting the father-in-law had him placed in the Norwich Jail, whence he was subsequently again removed to the asylum.  His uncle interfered in his behalf and a commission adjudged him sane, whereupon he was returned to the jail at Norwich.  He has been in jail all summer and all winter.  During his confinement he once attempted suicide, and when his wife learned of it she sent him a message that under all circumstances she would remain true to him.  Since then he has been more cheerful and his cup of joy was filled by his prompt acquittal by the jury.



Chenango Union, February 11, 1892

 McVITTIE - ECCLESTON:  In this village [Norwich, Chenango Co., NY], February 9, 1892, by Rev. Hubbard Fox, Mr. Warren H. McVittie and miss Flora Eccleston.
 

A quiet marriage occurred today in town at the residence of the officiating clergyman, Rev. Hubbard Fox. The contracting parties were Warren McVittie and Miss Eccleston, formerly Mrs. McVittie, who obtained a good deal of notoriety by eloping some time ago with McVittie and marrying at midnight.  The arrest of McVittie for abduction followed.  His checkered experience since has been fully reported.  Since the last marriage McVittie was seen by your correspondent and he seems very happy in the possession of the object of his affection, and the same feeling seemed to be shared by Mrs. McVittie.  Correspondent of Binghamton Republican.