Week 23, Wedding Bells: Emilie Wolf & Stanley Turner

The topic for Week 23 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge is “Wedding Bells.”

We’ll probably never know what prompted 29-year-old Stanley Turner to move to Boston from his rural farming town of Mt. Vernon Maine.  By 1905 he was working as a grocer in Beantown and had met his future wife.  Perhaps 32-year-old Emilie Wolf wandered into his shop after a busy day working as a clerk and the two started talking.  Maybe they had friends in common.  Though we know little about their courtship, we know a great deal about their wedding, reception, social organizations, friends, and family thanks to newspapers.

Stanley’s hometown paper, the Kennebec Journal, ran the following announcement on June 7, 1905:

The following marriage intention has been filed at the city clerk’s office in Boston: Mr. Stanley L. Turner to Miss Emilie Caroline Wolfe, both of Boston.  Mr. Turner is the son of Mr. and Mrs. E.H. Turner of Mt. Vernon, and is a member of Belgrade Grange, also Calanthe Lodge, Knights of Pythias, of Augusta, being well known in Pythian circles both in Boston and Augusta.  Miss Wolfe is a member of Trinity Congregational church and has a host of friends.  The wedding will occur Wednesday, June 14, at the home of Rev. Mr. Stevens of Brighton, who has solemnized over 400 marriages, and will be private.  The couple will be married in traveling costume, leaving immediately for Maine.  At the home of the groom’s parents a reception will be tendered the happy pair.  They will be at home to their friends after June 21.

After saying, “I do,” at their small, private wedding ceremony, the couple departed Boston’s North Station in their traveling clothes – practical, fashionable daywear suitable for traveling.  Small weddings such as theirs where traveling garments were worn reflected a growing trend among working-class people in the early part of the 20th century.   These colorized studio portraits were likely taken on the day of their wedding.  Emilie’s high-necked dress and lace collar and Stanley’s formal daywear with a stiff high-necked collar and cravat were appropriate clothing at the time for a wedding followed by immediate travel. 

Emilie Wolf and Stanley Turner, 1905

The Turners were bound for Stanley’s boyhood home – Mt. Vernon, Maine.  Maybe he was a bit nervous and excited to show his big-city bride the family farm where he and his father, Eugene were born.  The train trip to Readfield Depot, the closest station to Mt. Vernon, likely took eight to ten hours with stops and transfers along the way.  By late afternoon or early evening, they finally arrived at their destination. Stepping onto the wooden platform at the small depot, they were greeted by Stanley’s family – probably his father and younger brother Harry.  It was a lovely day for the 5-mile carriage ride to the farm.  Cotton candy clouds drifted lazily across blue skies, and the air was thick with the fresh scent of pine trees and tilled earth.  The rhythmic creak of the wheels over rutted dirt roads was drowned out by their chatter as Stanley shared the landmarks of his youth.  As they wound their way past rolling fields of farmland and forests of towering pine trees, they caught flashes of glimmering rivers and lakes through the trees.  Emilie, who had spent her entire life living in Boston or Brooklyn, probably found the picturesque landscape enchanting.  It was so different from anything she had ever known.

A colorized postcard of Mt. Vernon from 1910. Emilie likely saw some of these sights as she traveled to her new home.

The newlyweds spent two blissful weeks acclimating to married life before their big wedding reception.  It was a time of change for the family as the Turners became acquainted with their new daughter-in-law.  It was especially hectic for Stanley’s mother, Annie, but if anyone was up for the challenge, it was the tiny, hard-working farm woman.  Besides her regular daily tasks, she opened her home to out-of-town guests who poured in for the wedding reception.  The aunt and uncle who raised Emilie, Henry and Minnie Wagner, stayed at the farm for nearly a week, bookending the wedding reception.  The reception was a large affair with over 200 guests spanning 2 evenings.  In their tight-knit community, the Turners were a popular family, so Annie had many eager hands lightening her load. Emilie and her aunt Minnie weren’t strangers to hard work, and pitched in, taking direction from Annie.  Neighbors like the Cottles and the Tuckers took charge of the decorations and Annie’s half-sister, Maud, helped her prepare all the food.  The reception was a rousing success.  It took place on June 28th and June 29th, as reported in the July 3, 1905 Kennebec Journal:

The reception of friends by Mr. and Mrs. Stanley L. Turner at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Turner, Wednesday and Thursday evenings was a delightful affair.

At the reception hour, nine o'clock the couple were standing near a corner of the room which was beautifully decorated with ferns and wild flowers.  The decorators, Mrs. E. A. Cottle and Mrs. Henry Tucker deserve much credit for their artistic work.

After pleasant greetings and presentation of the gifts by Edward Cottle, which were duly noted and admired, the company retired to the dance hall, where excellent music by the Teague band awaited them and the merry dance was followed by refreshments of ice cream, lemonade, sandwiches, cake and other edibles served in an attractive manner.  Mrs. Eugene Turner and Mrs. Maud McLelland were caterers and the guests testified to the goodness of the dainties which were spread before them.

“The goodness of the dainties which were spread before them,” sounds simultaneously quaint and elegant!  The farm was the perfect place to host the reception because the Turners had built a dance hall on the property a few years prior. Annie was used to putting on large, catered dances and other events for the community. 

The article went on to describe the many gifts they received in great detail.

Among other valuable gifts were silver plate, silver dishes, gold-lined, a large quantity of table linen and blankets, etc. Donors were Mrs. Henry Wagner of Dorchester, Mass, bed and linen, silver plate from Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Wagner and Mr. Willis Wagner, and Bohemian glass bonbon dish from Mr. Henry Wagner of Dorchester, cousins of the bride; silver, gold-lined creamer and sugar bowl from the bride’s sister, Minnie Wagner of Riverside, Cal., also game set from Mrs. J.H. Barton of Las Vegas, New Mexico, another sister of the bride.  Many rich gifts were from Mr. and Mrs. Henry Karlander of Neponset, Mass.  Teaspoons and tablespoons were gifts of members of Mt. Vernon Grange; china dinner set in green and gold and parlor lamp and rocker from Readfield, Belgrade and Mt. Vernon Granges and other friends. Cut glass, silver mounted pepper and salt dishes from the Nickerson family.

Presents of silverware were from Miss Fannie Rice of Boston, Mary Greeley Foster and Nora Bartlett Greeley of Oakland, Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Shepherd of Oakland, and Mr. and Mrs. E.H. Turner, parents of the groom.  A volume of Tennyson’s poems was presented by Mrs. George Royal, a friend and boyhood teacher of the groom.  The guests of both evenings numbered over 200 and all wished the pair a long and happy life.

By the sound of it, the couple was set up well for married life thanks to the generosity of their friends and family.

Stanley and Emilie’s Boston wedding may have been a modest affair, but clearly their small-town reception was anything but!  For two nights, the Turner farm buzzed with laughter, music, and heartfelt celebration as neighbors and loved ones gathered to toast the couple’s future and welcome Emilie to their community.  Though the specifics of their courtship remain unknown, the story printed in the newspaper of their wedding and reception offers a window into their lives and the close-knit world that shaped them.

Sources:

Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory [Milton, MA], June climate normals, ca. 1900 (Boston, 1885–1905), temperatures averaging 60s–70s °F in early June; NCEI, Maine & Massachusetts historical climate data

Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine), 7 June 1905, p. 4, col. 5; Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/857016652/ :accessed 2 June 2025).

Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine), 3 July 1905, p. 5, col. 1; Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/857016940/ :accessed 2 June 2025).

Maine Central Railroad, Time Table No. 58: For the Government of Employes Only (Portland, ME: Maine Central Railroad Co., 25 June 1905), pp. 5, 11, 14; digital images, HathiTrust Digital Library (https://babel.hathitrust.org : accessed 2 June 2025).

Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1638–1927, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH7S-NYW : accessed 2 June 2025), entry for Stanley L. Turner and Emilie C. Wolf, marriage, 14 June 1905.