[Genealib] Gretna Green: Chicago residents take steamer to St. Joseph Mich for weddings

[Levy, Suzanne S.]

I can't remember who put together the list of potential Gretna Greens
and don't recognize the name from the archive. But I wanted to share
this article on St. Joseph Michigan with the group. I believed I had
passed on something from the Berrien County Mich. list serve to the
group but this recent article confirms that there were a large number of
out of state marriages in Berrien County. For some reason when emailing
an article that goes to a second page in the newspaper you have to do
that page separately and I failed to include it. If you want me to track
the rest of the article down, please contact me off line.
 
Suzanne S. Levy, Virginia Room Librarian
Fairfax City Regional Library
3915 Chain Bridge Road
Fairfax VA 22030
703-293-6383
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/
suzanne.levy at fairfaxcounty.gov
 
 
 
The Herald-Palladium 01/28/2007, Page A01 	
ST. JOSEPH 
Marriage capital of the Midwest 
In the early part of the 20th century, couples from Chicago took
steamers across Lake Michigan to get married in St. Joseph.
On a good day, the Berrien County clerk performed a marriage every 4
minutes.

By DENNIS COGSWELL 
H-PRegion Editor 
ST. JOSEPH - Las Vegas has a reputation as the nation's quick marriage
capital, but there was a time when St. Joseph - at least in the Midwest
- held the title.
>From about 1900 to 1925, thousands of couples from the Chicago area took
steamers across Lake Michigan for fast marriages, taking advantage of a
Michigan law that required no waiting period, according to Lansing
author Le Roy Barnett.
"The county clerk would even meet people at trains and marry them in two
minutes," said Barnett, who details the phenomenon in an article in the
January-February issue of Michigan History Magazine.
Wisconsin, which had very liberal marriage laws, had held the same
status, but lost it in 1899 when lawmakers decided to impose a waiting
period. That opened the door for Michigan, which not only had no waiting
period, but no residency requirement, no need for witnesses (other than
those performing the ceremony), and a legal age of 18.
"Plus, 

	
upon request (of the bride) the marriage could be kept confidential,"
Barnett said.
Couples could board a steamer in Chicago in the morning, take the
four-hour trip to St. Joseph, be married, and return home in the same
day, though some chose to stay overnight.
"The act of turning single people into mates in Berrien County soon
became so popular that ' a new south Lake Michigan squadron had to be
added to the (regular) flotilla (of steamboats), and before (long) there
was a continuous sooty streak reaching through the air from Chicago to
St. Joe marking the route of the rapid matrimonial transit,'" Barnett
writes, quoting a local source.
Some steamship companies, such as Graham and Morton, which was based in
Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, even offered discounts to couples who planned
to be married 
Please see MARRIAGE, page 7A 

________________________________



H-Pfile photo 
SHIPS ARRIVING from Chicago after the turn of the century regularly
brought couples to St. Joseph to be married. It was not unusual for
large numbers of people to meet the boats.
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