Dallas County Vital Records

1848

The First Marriage

The Stump cabin was also the home of the first white woman who lived in Dallas county. Early in the year 1846, perhaps in February, Miss Mary Stump came and kept house in it for her three brothers, until their father, Henry Stump, and the rest of his family came on soon afterward.

She has the honor, also, of being the first white woman married in the county, and hers was the first marriage ceremony performed within the county limits.

She was united in marriage with George Haworth, on the second day of September, 1847, by J. C. Corbell, Esq., who was the first justice of the peace to perform such a ceremony in the county, and this was his first experience in that line.

Whether this marriage occurred in the Stump cabin, or in the new hewed log house of the bride's father, we have not been able to ascertain definitely.

The bride and groom were of even ages, each twenty-four years, and were nearly of like dates as early settlers of the county, as Mr. Haworth also came early in 1846, and settled within the limits of Van Meter township, where he and his affianced bride lived in prosperity and comfort and then moved to a new home, about two miles north of Adel.

source - The History of Dallas County, Iowa 1879; Publisher:  Union Historical Company