~Newspaper extractions~



DECATUR DAILY DISPATCH
DECATUR, ILLINOIS
OCTOBER 5, 1889

  At Sedalia, MO., Friday, Albert Allen, aged 23, married Mrs. Sarah Ann Quinby, aged 52

[Widow of Wilson Quimby]

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SEDALIA DAILY DEMOCRAT
SEDALIA MISSOURI
28 OCT 1877

AN OLD MAN'S DARLING

A Man of Sixty Elopes With a Girl of Twenty

  Benton county is noted for its romantic marriages.   The old-fashioned way of "stepping off" is not in vogue there, and every couple adopts a plan peculiar to themselves.
  The little town of Duroc (??) has had a wedding that has set the tongues of all the gossips in that vicinity agoing.   The disparity in the ages of the lovers is one cause, and the forcible manner in which the ancient lover captured his bride is another.
  Old man Spratley is sixty years old, but the love currents have not entirely dried up his veins.   He laid siege to the heart of a bouncing Benton county beauty by the name of Miss Julia Quimby, aged about twenty.   The old man visited her at her house, and we are not advised whether the girl's father and mother objected to his attentions or not.   It is probable that they never regarded the courtship as at all serious.
  It may be that Mr. Spratley, like all youths of his tender years, was too bashful to ask Miss Jullia's Pa and Ma for her hand; at any rate he didn't give them any opportunity to say "no".   He couldn't afford at his age to take any chances, and having obtained the girl's consent, regarded that as sufficient.
  A few days ago while old Mr. Quimby and his wife were absent at Warsaw, old man Spratley rode up to the Quimby farm house, leading an extra horse, having on it a sidesaddle, and called his adorable Julia out.   She went, and so did Julia's six grown sisters, to see what old man Spratley had to say.   He informed Julia that he had come for her.   She announced her willingness to accompany him, but the six maiden Quimbys held a drum-head indignation meeting and resolved that their sister Julia should not go off with the "old summer coon," Spratley; it wasn't the proper thing to do, you know.
  But love knows no barriers, not even maiden sisters, although they number "half-dozen raw."   Julia said she would go, and made all arrangements to that effect.   When she attempted to mount old man Spratley's steed- the fun commenced.   Dozens of times was Miss Julia unhorsed and thwarted in her will, but she still persisted and wondered why her ancient suitor did not come to her rescue.   She may have intimated to him that it was his duty to take part in the unequal struggle, but his impetuous days had passed.   Finally when the struggle had grown monotonous, and Julia was pretty well "tuckered," old man Spratley concluded to draw the matter to a close.   He made a charge on the Quimby maidens and routed them, when he lifted his Julia into the saddle and they galloped off, striking a bee line for Squire Heart's house, where they had the gordian knot tied, and became flesh of one flesh.

[Miss Julia Ann Quimby, daughter of Wilson Quimby]

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