I have written about many ancestor weddings. You can see all of the posts with the label "Wedding Wednesday" by clicking here.
As I have noted, my new favorite website to explore is Newspapers.com. I did a search for "Ashby" in location "Kentucky" with date "1890", and sure enough, one of the top results was for my great-grandparents, Charles Chapin Adsit and Mary Bowman Ashby, who was known as Bowmie. Previously, I had known that they married in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 30, 1890, but I didn't know anything about their wedding.
The following is from the Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), Friday, October 31, 1890, page 6 (Newspapers.com/image/33851479). My comments are in [brackets].
BRIDES AND GROOMS.
Miss Bowmie Ashby Married To
Mr. Charles Adsit, of
Chicago.
One of the prettiest home weddings of the season was that of Miss Bowmie Ashby to Mr. Charles C. Adsit at the home of the bride's aunt, Mrs. Henry C. Murrell [Emma Gorin Murrell, a sister of Bowmie's mother], on Second street, near Breckinridge, yesterday afternoon at 5 o'clock.
The bride, a beautiful blonde [I wish there was a wedding picture!], has been one of the greatest favorites in the society of this city for several seasons.
The wedding was a quiet one on account of a recent death in the family [I don't know who], and only the friends and relatives were present. The parlors were simply, but tastefully decorated, and the ceremony was performed in the front room under a panoply of green. The bride wore a handsome gown of heavy white faille with train. Her cousin, Miss Florence Murrell [daughter of Henry and Emma Murrell], acted as Maid of Honor and Mr. James M. Adsit [this could be his older bachelor brother or his father] as best man. The ceremony was conducted by the Rev. Mr. Minnegerode. Immediately after the wedding supper, which followed the ceremony, Mr. and Mrs. Adsit left for Chicago, the home of the groom.
I love this wedding announcement because it gives me a much better sense of what their wedding was like! This newspaper report tells me that my great-grandmother was known as "Bowmie" from an early age. (Her mother was also named Mary, so this was likely a nickname to differentiate the Marys.) She was blonde, and she had a relatively modest wedding due to a recent death in the family.
I'm still trying to figure out who the "recent death in the family" is. It's not readily apparant to me, so it's not an immediate family member.
A photograph of Bowmie taken, I believe, in the 1890s is below:
The back of this image has "Mary B. Adsit" in what looks my grandmother's handwriting. The photographer is M. J. Steffens at 57 22nd Street in Chicago.
Although most records list her birth date as 9 April 1866 (and one in 1867), I believe she was born in 1863, based on the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Census, making her 27 years old when she married, not 24 years old. You can read more about Mary Bowman Ashby's life here, including my analysis of her birth date.
One more thing...
Below is more of the page of The Courier Journal showing that to the right of the wedding announcement is an advertisement for James Pyle's Pearline Washing Compound! In 1919, the daughter of Bowmie and Charles Adsit (Elizabeth Adsit) married Charles McAlpin Pyle, the grandson of James Pyle!
I descend from "Bowmie" as follows:
Mary Bowman Ashby
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Elizabeth Adsit
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Charles McAlpin Pyle, Jr.
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Me
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