Double Wedding 1886

DIRKS

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 3/29/2015 at 16:06:14

Double Wedding 40 Years Ago

On March 30th, 1886, that was forty years ago last Wednesday, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dirks and Mr. and Mrs. Con Dirks were married by Rev. VanderLas at what was then known as the VanderLas church. Winter stayed late that year also according to Henry Dirks, one of the happy grooms of forty years ago. The roads were full of snow and they were impassable. The two young couples and their attendants got to church by cutting down fences and going through the fields. Had the occasion been anything less important than a wedding the party probably could not have gotten to the church at all.

In referring to the happy occasion of forty years ago, Henry Dirks related a very interesting experience during the days of his courtship. Most of his courtship was done by correspondence. Henry lived in this country and in this county before his marriage and the woman of his choice lived in Germany. Henry went to Germany to get her and she and her father and mother accompanied him to this country. When two days out from New York, Mrs. Dirks' mother died quite suddenly and it was only through special dispensation on the part of the ship officers that the corpse was permitted to remain on board until the boat's arrival at its destination. The mother was buried in Brooklyn. It was on this trip that the passenger steamship Oregon was accidentally struck by a schooner while out at sea and it was disabled and later it went under. Signals of distress in the form of skyrockets were seen by the officers of the boat on which the Dirks party were returning. They hurried to the rescue and arrived in time to take 1230 passengers and crew from the Oregon. A few moments after the last installment of passengers was removed from the Oregon the boat went down. Every life was saved on the big liner, but the nine men on the schooner were lost.

After the funeral services over the remains of Mrs. Dirks' mother, the remaining party of three came to Grundy county and the wedding took place shortly after their arrival. Mrs. Dirks' widowed father made his home with his daughter and family until his death about ten years ago.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 8 April 1926, pg 3