Even the ferry from Maysville,Ky to Aberdeen,Ohio was named "Gretna Green" for all the Ky couples boated across the Ohio River to marry in Aberdeen,Oh . Only 'most" of the records of Thomas Shelton J.P. have been found,and none of MASSIE BEASLEY J.P. who followed. Some of the young couples did record their marriages in their home counties. Many thanks to June Jacobs Jordon. the Marrying Kind - (1 of 2) Date: 4/9/99 10:12:48 AM Eastern Daylight Time From: jordanaj@gte.net (June Jacobs Jordan) Reply-to: jordanaj@gte.net (June Jacobs Jordan) To: HFAGLEY@aol.com Pat Donaldson,pro genealogist of Georgetown,Oh,found,and published many of Thomas Shelton,J.P's 4000 MARRIAGES-at least she left a copy in the Mason Co Ky Hist Soc Library,Sutton St,Maysville,Ky. Pat has a G EORGETOWN OH P.O.Box .Maybe somebody at a distance will find some of Massie Beasley's 10,000-30,000. We had a discussion on this subject on KYNICHOL-L@rootsweb.com a few months ago. We thank JUNE JORDAN. 1 place I have seen mention of the marriages was the Paris,Ky newspaper- AS REPORTED IN "KY ANSCESTORS" The Marrying Kind by Randy McNutt A hundred years ago, little Aberdeen, Ohio, was a mecca of matrimony, presided over by two squires who would do anything to accommodate the flocks of eager couples, even row out into the middle of the Ohio river and perform the ceremony in a boat. The village of two thousand people is known for one thing: the Simon Kenton Bridge, built over the Ohio in 1931. It seems a one-way route: Ohioans cross the river to shop, work and entertain themselves. A century ago, however, generations of Maysville people came to little Aberdeen just to say, "I do." Ever since, genealogists on both sides of the river have been trying to untangle their conjugal roots. Aberdeen, Ohio, and Maysville, Kentucky, are linked by a steel bridge and a shaky family tree. The smaller Aberdeen, on U.s. Route 52 in Brown County, never culminated in a typical nineteenth-century business district, as did Maysville and neighboring Ripley, home of Ohio's burley tobacco market. Maysville and Ripley are red brick and Southern in appearance, but Aberdeen is more informal, all white and sprawling, as if its founders had to keep their options open. Aberdeen, meanwhile, has spent the last century trying to live down-or live up to, depending on your family's perspective-past of shotgun marriages and twenty-dollar brides. Some flowed across the river in yellow velvet gowns; others sneaked across at night in homespun dresses. They al sought temporary relief on Aberdeen's muddy shore, where anybody could be hitched for the right price.> Because marriage itself is a gamble, Aberdeen became a rural Las Vegas, and Ohio's number one marriage market. So many couples were married there in the nineteenth century, in fact, that the states lost count. Aberdeenians exploited their town's strategic location on the river by bringing in boatloads of couples and offering low-cost witness service. Brides were Aberdeen's cash crop. In Margaret's Kitchen, a little white restaurant on Route 52, the old counter and knotty pine seats look comfortable enough on a quiet early afternoon. I ask where a guy can marry quickly in this town, and people stare as though I were an undercover cop. One of the waitresses says, "Aberdeen was the home of the marryin' squires." People stop in here all the time to ask about the old boys, who must have hitched everybody's ancestors. We hear about the stuff all the time from genealogist. Yeah, Squire Beasley-oh, gracious, he> married a lot of couples. An old man seated at the counter looks up from his serving of pie and says, "Uh, thousands". "Tens of thousands," his friend adds. And he is not exaggerating. In the 1800's Aberdeen was called "America's Gretna Green," referring to a village in Dumphries, Scotland, once known as a runaway lovers' haven. The nickname came honestly enough, for Thomas Shelton, a Huntington Township justice of the peace elevated the holy bonds to cottage industry status. His successor, Massie Beasley, too the tradition to new heights. If a couple wanted to elope, all they had to do was go to Aberdeen. No other town entered their minds. After all, in Aberdeen nobody worried about<BR> marriage's minute details-license included. Steamboat companies and, later, railroads, made Aberdeen a regular stop on the Cincinnati-to-Pittsburgh route. Shelton's pockets bulged. Keeping his work at a minimum, he stood before each couple and said loudly: "Marriage is a solemn ordinance, instituted by an all-wise Jehovah. Jine yer right hands. Do you take this woman to nourish and cherish, to keep her in sickness and health? I hope you live long and do well together. Take your seats." In the squires' time, townships were powerful local governments that controlled the schools, taxed, built roads and kept the peace. There were no real "squires", but local people used the term endearingly to refer to their justices of the peace-influential country magistrates elected by the townships. They not only married people, but also served as court officials and worked with township constables to prevent breaches of the law. (continued in next e-mail)< for <HFAGLEY@aol.com>; id JAA02671 Fri, 9 Apr 1999 09:12:44 -0500 (CDT) Reply-To: "June Jacobs Jordan" <jordanaj@gte.net From: "June Jacobs Jordan" <jordanaj@gte.net> To: <HFAGLEY@aol.com> Subject: the Marrying Kind - (1 of 2) Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 10:12:20 -0400 The Marrying Kind - (2 of 2) Date: 4/9/99 10:13:46 AM Eastern Daylight Time From: jordanaj@gte.net (June Jacobs Jordan) Reply-to: jordanaj@gte.net (June Jacobs Jordan) To: HFAGLEY@aol.com (continued) Shelton did all these things-and more. Shortly after his appointment in 1822, he determined that marrying couples could be a lucrative sideline to politics. From then on, the good squire concentrated on matrimony. He'd marry anybody who could pay-and do it with or without a license. Beasly was worse. He falsely told grooms he could face a long prison sentence for marrying couples without a license, but, for a fee commensurate to the risk, he'd cooperate. The squire invested his considerable earnings in gold and bank notes. As word of easy marriage spread in the 1820's, Shelton married couples from all over the South, and from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, New York and other states. Thousands flocked to Aberdeen. Each morning, Shelton followed a ritual: He's walk down to the wharf to watch for steamboats bringing more happy-and sometimes desperate-couples. Shelton used to say, "The early squire gets the wedding." He preferred payment in cash, of course, usually twenty dollars, but, if that wasn't possible, he'd take a pocketknife or anything he considered valuable. Twenty dollars was a large fee in the 1800's, but Shelton knew his customers had few options. If they were poor, he'd accept payment in pork, potatoes, apples, turnips and other vegetables to stock a large produce house that he operated as another<BR> sideline. He was an entrepreneurial wedding machine. He even married slaves escaping through the Underground Railroad. He accepted whatever payment they could offer. "In thousands of cases, the squires didn't bother to record the marriages," says Dorothy Helton, s member of Brown County's genealogical and historical societies. "They married couples under the table, you might say. Other times, the squires intended to file marriage certificates in the courthouse, but they didn't go over to Georgetown, the county seat, too often. When they finally went the forgot to take the certificates. Most of the 'lost marriages' involved Kentuckians, who came to Aberdeen to avoid an 1800's Kentucky law requiring couples to produce a bondsman-usually a family member with cattle or some other form of security-to assure that the<BR> marriage would hold together. The funny thing is Ohio in the early part of this century made couples wait three days before they could marry. That's why during World War Two a lot of Ohioans went to Kentucky to be married> fast." The squires' casual attitude has caused much trouble across the river ever since the 1800's. "Some families wonder if their ancestors eve did bother to marry," says Molly Kendall of the Mason County Museum in Maysville. "In my own family, the squires married a number of people, so I can tell you from experience that this is a tough genealogical pursuit. Shelton turned in some of his marriages to the courthouse, but Beasley didn't bother much. He was so eager to marry people, though, that he'd row out into the middle of the river if necessary and marry them right there in rowboats." Years of<BR> ignoring the law finally caused trouble, however, when the Civil War ended in 1865. Seeking pensions for themselves and their children, widows of veterans applied to the state of Kentucky, only to be told that their<BR> marriages were invalid and their children illegitimate. After thousands of widows complained, Molly Kendall says, the Kentucky legislature was forced to recognize marriages performed in Aberdeen before the war. Despite the criticism, Shelton did not slow down. In fact after the controversy his marriage business increase. More eager couples arrived in Aberdeen, many wearing fancy clothes and riding in carriages. Some were married on horseback, for quick escape. By the time Shelton died in 1870, it was apparent that Aberdeen's business of matrimony had become too big-and necessary-to stop cold. Shelton estimated, conservatively, that he had married ten to fifteen thousand couples in 47 years. The question naturally arises as to why these men were never prosecuted and why the people of the town stood by and suffered their laws to be ignored. The apparently perplexing query is readily explained by the old adage, 'A kind heart covers a multitude of sins.' A more popular man than either of these rollicking, careless old squires never trod the earth, and if they made money easily and in a questionable way, they in turn spent it just as freely among their neighbors. for <HFAGLEY@aol.com>; id JAA03222 Fri, 9 Apr 1999 09:13:43 -0500 (CDT) Reply-To: "June Jacobs Jordan" <jordanaj@gte.net>> From: "June Jacobs Jordan" <jordanaj@gte.net> To: <HFAGLEY@aol.com> Subject: The Marrying Kind - (2 of 2) Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 10:13:20 -0400 ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. 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