You know how much I enjoy sharing newspaper articles about golden weddings!  Something exceedingly rare today, but even rare in the earlier years due to death.  I can happily say dear friends Debbie and Dennis celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary this past August!  What an accomplishment!  Ritchey and I are at 44 years – six to go!

One newspaper article was written in February 1889, telling of the impending golden weddings of three brothers and their wives!  How fascinating that three in one family would reach that remarkable milestone – all three couples married the same year – 1839!  The celebration was held in May of 1889, at the old homestead where the brothers grew up, with over 150 people attending!

The Courier Journal, Louisville, Kentucky – February 11, 1889

An unusual event is to occur this year in Kentucky.

In 1839, three brothers, Samuel J., Edmund D. F. and Traverse Arthur Read, all then living in Allen County, this State, were married to three of Kentucky’s daughters.  All three of these brothers, who started on the matrimonial voyage in the same year, and their wives, are alive and well today, and the six old people propose to have a grand family gathering to celebrate together their golden weddings.  Although the snows of half a century have bleached the locks of their younger days, and their forms and faces bear the imprint of old Father Time, the feelings of these six estimable people are still as fresh as in the days when the brothers  a-courting went.  The grand event of this year is looked forward to by them with a pleasant anxiety, exceeded only by that preceding those other weddings of the long ago.

In 1810 Mr. Theophilus Read, a native of Fauquier County, Virginia, moved to Allen County, Kentucky, and settled there.  His family at that time consisted of four young sons and his wife, who was Miss Margaret Duncan, of Culpeper County, Virginia.  Mrs. Read, the mother of the subjects of this sketch, was the aunt of Hon. James G. Fields, a gallant Confederate leader and former Attorney General of Virginia.  He is now practicing law at Culpeper Courthouse, Virginia.

The experience of the elder Read was about the same as that of all early settlers of Kentucky.  There were many hardships to be endured, but they were bravely overcome.  In what was then, to the folks of the Eastern shore, the ‘Far West,’ Theophilus Read hewed the forest away, and, with a part of the fallen monarchs from the ‘clearing’ built himself an ample and substantial home.  The ravages of time have not impaired the usefulness of that structure, and, although it has been changed some in the course of all the years that followed, it is still the ‘old home’ of the family.  Four generations have found beneath its roof that haven which the praises were sung so immortally by John Howard Payne.

The children of Theophilus read, who were born in Virginia before removal to Kentucky, were: John C. Read, who died many years ago, at the age of forty-two years; Charles D. Read, who died a few years since in his eighty-fourth year; George G. Read, now living in Allen County, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years, and Samuel J. Read, one of those to celebrated the golden wedding this year.  Four sons of Charles D. Read are now prosperous farmers of Warren County.

Mr. Samuel J. Read was born in Virginia, April 24, 1808.  On November 5, 1839, he was married to Miss Jane Berry, a daughter of Thompson Berry, Esq., of Barren County.  They had seven children, of whom two are dead and five are still living in Allen County.  Mr. William H. Read, Clerk of the Allen County Court, is one of the sons.  The latter was a member of the Sixth Kentucky Regiment, C.S.A. Infantry, which was commanded by Col. Joe Lewis, afterward made a General.  Mr. Read was in eighty hard-fought battles and heavy skirmishes, yet his skin was never broken by either ball or blade.  Mr. Samuel J. Read is now about eighty-one years of age, and his estimable wife is about ninety.

Mr. Edmund D. F. Read lives nine miles from Franklin, in Simpson County, Kentucky.  He will be seventy-five years of age in August this year.  His wife was Miss Elizabeth Pulliam, daughter of William Pulliam, Sr., of Allen County.  They were married in May 1839 and have four living children.  ‘Uncle Edmund,’ as he is affectionately called by relatives and friends alike, is liked by everyone, and the good woman who has borne his name for fifty years is a favorite of all who know her. The celebration of the golden wedding is anticipated by them with pleasure, which is shared in by their children to an equal degree.  Mr. Read was born in the old homestead, where his brother Samuel and his family now reside.

The youngest of the brothers is Mr. T. A. Read, Sr., who resides at No. 504 Twenty-Sixth Street, in this city.  He, too, was born at the old home in Allen County, October 29, 1820, and is, therefore, in his sixty-ninth year.  On September 12, 1839, he was married to Miss Mary Frances Cockrill, a daughter of Johnson J. Cockrill, Esq., of Allen County.  Mrs. Read was born December 14, 1823, and is, consequently, now in her sixty-sixth year.  By reference to the dates, it will be seen that Mr. and Mrs. Read were a youthful couple when they started life’s path together, he being only eighteen and she but fifteen years of age.  In speaking of the very youthful age at which she gave her hand and heart to her young suitor, Mrs. Read said, with a smile, a blush such as might have surmounted her cheek when she plighted her troth, and glanced at the husband who sat opposite her, at the fireside: ‘If one of my children had offered to marry at the same age, I should have scolded fearfully, yet we have never for a moment regretted marrying so young.’

Mrs. Read’s youngest daughter, who was present, and is herself a counterpart of her mother when she was young, listened to this remark with an air of interest.

The exact time of the remarkable triple golden wedding has not been decided upon, but it will occur during the upcoming summer or fall and will probably take place at the old Read home in Allen County.

The Weekly Courier Journal, Louisville, Kentucky – May 27, 1889

No parallel is recorded in the history of America to the remarkable triple golden wedding of the venerable Read brothers and the estimable women who joined hands and hearts with them a half century ago, which occurred at the old Read homestead, about two and one-half miles northeast of Scottsville, Allen County, Thursday.

The principals in the unique event were Mr. and Mrs. Samuel J. Read, who reside at the old home, Mrs. and Mrs. Edmund D. R. Read, of Simpson County, and Mr. and Mrs. Traverse A. Read whose home is at Twenty-Sixth Street and Griffiths Avenue, this city.

At an early hour relatives and guests began to gather at the beautiful old homestead where, a half century ago three brothers dwelt together and breathed the invigorating air of Allen County.  They seemed to have imbibed from it a veritable elixir of life, that now preserves them to a hale and respected old age.  The frosts of the years have left unchilled the genial current of their lives and each guest was welcomed with an old-time, stately greeting that recalled the days of the harpsichord, the minuet, powdered hair, the court dress and polished manners of the Eighteenth Century.

Old men and old ladies, whose ruddy faces and silver locks preached volumes for their regular, honest, simple lives, lovingly grasped each other’s hands and talked of events which, to the stalwart grandsons and robust granddaughters presents, sounded like ancient history of days when carding, spinning and weaving were flourishing industries in every home.  Grizzled beards, wrinkled faces and dimmed eyes were forgotten, and harmless jokes restored fullness of laughter to the voices, vigor to the steps and sparkle to the eyes.  Just the influence of watching and hearing these renewals of love and friendship was as exhilarating as a draught of mellow old Madeira, and as pathetic as the minor strains drawn by a Paganini from a Cremona violin.

Shortly after the speeches, dinner was announced.  About 150 people gathered around the long tables that had been put up in the shady yard and loaded with substantials and sweets to the satisfaction of every guest.  The old people sat at the head of the tables, the five couples who had been married over fifty years occupying prominent places.  The dinner was all that the appetite could wish, and when all had eaten to repletion, as much more food was left in baskets and boxes that had not been opened.

Some time near the close of the last century, Charles Duncan and Theophilus Read lived in Fauquier County, Virginia.  The former had nine daughters and four sons, as follows:  Priscilla Bowman, who went to Texas; Margaret Read, Mary Dulalney, who died in Warren County, Kentucky, in 1853; Nancy Carter, Maria Field, mother of Judge James Field, late Attorney General of Virginia; Lucy, who married a Stark, and then Threlkeld, in Allen County, Kentucky; Elizabeth Stark, Allen County, Kentucky; Sallie Jeanette Threlkeld, Crittenden County, Kentucky; Edmund Duncan, Warren County, Kentucky; Gavin Duncan and Traverse Duncan, Eastern Kentucky; and Dillard Duncan, Logan County, Kentucky.

Theophilus Read, who married Margaret Duncan, had three brothers, Samuel, James and Robert, and four sisters Tabitha Chowning and Rebecca Corbin, both of whom married in Central Kentucky, Winnie Spillman, Mary Hoffman, both of whose husbands lived in Southern Kentucky.

Theophilus Read was a native of Fauquier County, and his wife, Margaret Duncan, a native of Culpeper County, Virginia.  They removed to Allen County in 1811.  At that time they had four children.

Edmund D. F. Read, Traverse A. Read, two of the celebrators:  Frances, wife of L. D. Porter and Betsy Stark, were children of Theophilus and Margaret Read, born at the old Allen County homestead.  Mr. and Mrs. Porter are both dead.  They had seven children, two of whom, Enc. Porter and Mrs. John Davidson, were at the reunion Thursday, Mrs. Stark resides in California. 

G. Dillard Read, the oldest of the four brothers now living, is eighty-seven years of age, has been married twice and is a widower.  By his first wife, Lucy Willis, he had two children, Charles W., who married America Allen who has seven children, and Mary, who married T. A. Long, and had one child.  By his second wife, Serena Duncan, his descendants are Lucinda, wife of J. P. Quisenberry, nine children; Fannie, who married J. B. Morgan, five children; R. A. Read, who married Mrs. Moore, two children; E. H. Read, who married Annie Woodcock, nine children; M. E. Read, who married M. A. Lyon, three children and E. J., wife of D. F. Riherd.

Samuel James Read, eldest of the three celebrating couples, is eighty-one and his wife seventy-one years of age.  He married Eliza Jane Berry, November 7, 1839, at the residence of her father, Thompson Berry, near Cave City in Barren County, Rev. Jacob Locke officiating.  To them have been born W. H. Read, now Clerk of our County Court, who married Mattie Porter and has three children; Kate, wife of W. W. Page, of this city, who has seven children; Eugenia Rogers, deceased, wife of Mr. Rogers, of Barren County, one child; Taylor Read, dead in infancy; Johnnie, Mary, wife of Anthony Welch, four children; J. A. Read, who married Martha Burton, one child and S. J. Read, Jr.

Col. F. D. Read, of Simpson County, is seventy-six year of age, and his wife sixty-eight.  He was married to Elizabeth Pulliam, May 23, 1839, at Esq. William Pulliam’s residence in Allen County, by Rev. Jesse L. Hickman.  They had six children.  One died in infancy, and the others were:  Mary W., deceased wife of P. B. Dunn, one child; C. B. Read, who married Belle Wade, five children; G. G. Read, who married Lou Simmons, four children; Virginia, wife of W. H. Bryant, one child; Fannie, wife of Daniel Ray, one child.

Traverse Arthur Read, of this city, the youngest brother, is sixty-nine, and his wife sixty-six years of age.  He was married to Mary  Frances Cockrill at the residence of her father, Johnson J. Cockrill, in Allen County, September 12, 1839, by Rev. Jesse L. Hickman.  To them have been born, besides three who died in infancy, Oscar E. Read, who died in the Confederate army at Atlanta; Alice, wife of John Saunders, one son; John C. Read, who married Miss Mollie Hopwood; Fannie, wife of W. N. Brown, one child; Mollie, who married J. F. Smith, of St. Louis, two weeks ago; T. A. Read and Miss Evalee Read, neither married.

NOTES

Nine-tenths of those present were kin to everybody else.

J. P. Pulliam, one of E. D. F. Read’s marriage witnesses, was at the reunion.

Mrs. T. A. Read’s father was a brother of Congressman Caruth’s grandmother.

Their original wedding coats were worn by all the brothers and are still preserved in good condition.

The aggregate ages of the three couples and the widowed brother are 518 years; average, seventy-four years.

Mrs. Fannie Ray, daughter of E. D. T. Read, contributed a thirty-pound turkey toward the magnificent dinner.

Three better looking old ladies can not probably be found in the world.  They are all sprightly, entertaining and none look over sixty years.  It is remarkable that they all have so few gray hairs.

Clerk W. H. Read, of Allen County, has a home-made rocking chair brought by Theophilus Read from Virginia in 1811.

S J., E. D. F. and T. A. Read had one son each in the Confederate army, while their oldest brother had two in the Federal army.

Mrs. S. J. Read has her wedding dress and her second day dress yet, while Mrs. E. D. F. Read still has the white satin slippers worn when she was wedded.

W. P. Pulliam, one of S. J. Read’s groomsmen, was present Thursday.  The attendants at the former wedding were Miss Mary J. Hall, Joe Carpenter, Miss Mary Bush.