Another possibility was that the sensibilities of the times may have prevented a single woman/girl from living in a house where she was for all intents hired to take care of the elderly gentleman, especially if she needed to perform personal care and hygiene type services. So to meet the social mores of the community & at the same time allow him to be cared for by the young woman who most likely was present practically 24/7 they had to be married. I have run into this in small towns in the plains states where a man outlives his wife[s] and sometimes children, of else they live far afield, so a young women is brought in, often a new immigrant or indentured servant or a work/poor house girl to take care of him and as part of the deal has to marry him or be considered a "fallen woman" by the community since there is no other woman living in the home to chaperone her behavior with this male in the house [remember in most of history women were not believed if they were molested by a man, with the assumption being that she caused him to force his affections on her not matter how undesirable]. So the community controls the situation and appearances by making it legal for them to be living together, with or without a sex life. Mr. Bird and Mr. Vreeland may have been exceptions to this and in fact desirable catches but personally I'd look into the other social pressure as well. Gail