On Valentine's Day, Owen Nelson married Caroline Sapper, the daughter of Charles and Minnie Sapper of Hobart.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Marilyn (Caroline's granddaughter).
Owen was just 21, Caroline 20. (A relative of theirs remembers Owen as tall and quiet, while Caroline was a petite woman who talked a mile a minute.) At least Lovisa did not have to host the reception afterwards; that was held at the home of the bride's parents. "Their many friends will wish them a prosperous and happy life," said the Gazette. "They will reside on a farm near Ainsworth." But by 1920, according to the census, they were farming in Hobart.
On Sunday, April 4, Glen Nelson married Elsie Henning, daughter of the widowed Henrietta Henning, who farmed near Ainsworth. I believe that Glen and Elsie would eventually take over Lovisa's farm, on the west side of State Road 51 north of Ainsworth; the 1920 census finds them running a dairy farm in that vicinity.
Lovisa had come through exactly nine years of widowhood: it had been March 15, 1906 when Charles Nelson was killed in an streetcar accident and Lovisa had suddenly found herself the sole support of five young children, the oldest of whom was only 14. But she had brought her family through those difficult years. Now two sons were launched on their adult lives and would soon be presenting her with grandchildren. Her oldest daughter, Myrtle, would enter her senior year of high school in the fall. The two youngest, Grace and Wayne, were still schoolchildren, presumably happy and healthy. When Lovisa considered her family's situation in 1915 compared to nine years earlier, she must have felt much satisfaction — tinged with sadness that Charles wasn't there to share in these happy events.
Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 19 Feb. 1915.
♦ "Nelson-Henning." Hobart Gazette 9 Apr. 1915.
♦ "Nelson-Sapper." Hobart News 18 Feb. 1915.
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