Newspaper articles from years ago give us a good insight into the lives of the citizens of its reach.  Wedding anniversaries are always a favorite of mine since they generally give much family information along with the happy occasion.

This particular one does not give information on the couple that reached the milestone anniversary of fifty years.  With just a bit of research it was easy to turn up the information.

Nicholas McDowell and Elizabeth McElroy received their marriage bond from Washington County on May 1, 1860, and married that day or shortly afterwards.  They appear in the 1860 census of Boyle County, Nicholas aged 26 and Elizabeth, 19 (not quite the 25 at her marriage as listed in the article!).  The couple had five children.  Annie, Nicholas, Susan and Bessie are listed in the census records with their parents, and to my knowledge never married.  In the latter census records it was listed that Nicholas and Elizabeth had five children, five living.  Finally, in the obituary for Nicholas, this fifth child is listed as Mrs. Carl J. McKnight, a daughter.  The couple lived in Shanghai, China, at one time, as well as New Jersey and New York, as mentioned in other articles.  I did find that this daughter was named Sallie, more formally, Sarah McDowell.

After celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, Nicholas McDowell lived another three years, passing away March 7, 1913, at the age of 79.  He was born February 6, 1834, the son of Samuel McDowell and Martha Hawkins.

Elizabeth McElroy McDowell, lived on until January 6, 1922, dying at the age of 81.  She was born January 10, 1841, the daughter of Anthony McElroy and Ann Rice (not Sarah as listed in the article).

The Kentucky Advocate, Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky

Friday, May 27, 1910

Fiftieth Anniversary

Of the Marriage of Colonel and Mrs. Nicholas McDowell Fittingly Celebrated at Their Hospitable Home on Maple Avenue, This City, Yesterday Afternoon

Like the horizon that is gilded by the rays of the declining sun on the evening of some perfect Autumn day, when a holy calm pervades the atmosphere and the face of Nature is as peaceful as that of a sleeping infant, are the lives of those whom God hath joined together in the holy bonds of matrimony and who have journeyed the rugged road of life’s pathway peacefully and lovingly together until the fiftieth milestone of the highway is reached, blessed with the affection and adoration of loving and dutiful children and crowned with the respect and the esteem of true and devoted friends.

And such is the record of Col. and Mrs. Nicholas McDowell, who on yesterday afternoon, at their beautiful home on Maple Avenue, this city, surrounded by their children and kinspeople and friends from this and other states, fittingly celebrated their Golden Wedding.

Fifty years ago, in the county of Washington, a double ceremony was pronounced which united in marriage two brothers, Nicholas and Samuel McDowell, and two sisters, Elizabeth and Martha McElroy, the first named of the brothers passing into the great beyond more than twenty years ago.

No less a rare occurrence than a golden wedding anniversary is the fact that Mrs. Nicholas McDowell is one of a family of ten children, born to Anthony and Sarah McElroy, of Springfield, Kentucky, all of whom are now living.  Mrs. McDowell being the fifth child, now in her seventy-fifth year, and seven of them being present at the happy occasion of yesterday afternoon.  Mrs. Mary McElroy Hughes, of Bloomfield, is the oldest, eighty-five, and John T. McElroy the youngest, sixty-three.

This is the fourth golden wedding that has been celebrated in this family within the last ten years, namely:  Charles McElroy, of Springfield, and his wife, who was Miss Mary Shuck; Sarah McElroy Grundy, of Springfield, and her husband, Palmer Grundy; Anthony McElroy, of Springfield, and his wife, Margaret Irvine, who was a native of Boyle County.

Mr Hugh McElroy, of Kansas City, had manufactured to his order ten cut glass tumblers, and under each glass at the wedding yesterday afternoon he caused to be placed fifty dollars in gold, a present to each of the brothers and sisters with their names in letters of gold upon the tumblers.  This unique remembrance was one of the features of the anniversary.

At least one hundred and fifty guests assembled at the hospitable mansion to offer Colonel and Mrs. McDowell their congratulations and best wishes on this memorable occasion, and each and every one departed with the feeling that it was good to have been there and to have witnessed this anniversary of the blending of fifty years into two happy, well-spent and venerated lives, and with the sincere hope that their declining days may still be illumined with the sunshine of love and affection, knowing that their children and their children’s children will rise up and call them blessed, and that the divine plaudit awaits them when life’s fitful fever is o’er – ‘Well done, good and faithful servants, enter thou into the joys of they Lord.’