I have an 1874 issue of Annals of Iowa, and thought I'd share this interesting story about early marriage practices along the Des Moines river: "For many years in the early days of Iowa, Squire Bedell, who lived a few miles above St. Francisville on the Des Moines river, was the Gretna Green for all southern Iowa. No license was then required in Missouri to authorize a justice of the peace to solemnize matrimony. All that was required was for the justice to make a return to the county court of the fact. This was sometimes done, but often neglected. Bedell was a rough, early settler, and did a large business in the marrying line. Some went to him to save expense, others for the fun of it, and others again to escape parental wrath. Bedell was always on the look-out, and the moment that he saw a couple approaching on the other side of the river, he would man his boat and cross the river to meet them. On one occasion the river was full of floating ice, on the Missouri side, but the ice bore the matrimonially inclined couple from the Iowa side to the middle of the river. Bedell said that would do, and married them, standing on shore and they on the middle of the river on the ice, the squire loosing his fee, and the pair loosing the usual treat always provided by the squire. Bedell said that there was not much pay in the thing, but a great deal of fun." I can't imagine getting married standing on the ice flow in the middle of the Des Moines River! mk