Laura and John Carroll got to celebrate their 66th wedding anniversary on September 8, 1953 (Grandma Carroll passed away two months later). Two Thousand Twelve marks their 125th anniversary! The above news item is so sweet, I'm retyping it below in case the clipping is too small to read:
"Mr. and Mrs. John E. Carroll, of 90 Morris Avenue, Penns Grove, celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary last week. It all started with a few dance steps which Mrs. Carroll taught him--apparently in the right direction, for they led to the altar.
Mrs. Carroll met her husband at a party, the only entertainment in those days. He and his family had just moved to Northumberland from Harrisburg. She saw him standing aside and asked why he wasn't dancing. She proceeded to teach him when he told her he didn't know how.
The Carrolls were married in Northumberland, Pa. on September 8, 1887, the culmination of a one-and-a-half-year courtship.
A great deal of history has raced by since they traded vows in a simple home ceremony, but the big historical event in their lives was seeing Thomas A. Edison turn on the first electric light. They recall that when the electricity was turned on at The City Hotel in Sunbury, Pa. the filament inside the bulb glowed pink instead of yellow. Edison went to his shop and corrected the difficulty. When he returned and made a second attempt, the light went on. The hotel was later named after him.
Fastest Ride Comparing the dizzy speeds in today's car age, Mrs. Carroll remembers her fastest ride--and that was when she was a young mother. She and her sister were on their way to visit relatives at Eagles Mirror, in Sullivan County, Pa., (now a well-known resort) and were riding in a truck hitched to two oxen. The two sisters were with their two small children and their father and were being driven to their destination by a 14-year old girl.
Because it was their first experience on oxen, the two sisters were screaming, laughing and clapping their hands with excitement. The oxen were frightened by the hilarity and began to race through the wild, mountainous, unpaved country roads. As the oxen descended a hill, the young driver jumped out and stopped the animals with a pole, thereby eliminating serious injury.
The experience was such a frightening one that Mrs. Carroll never forgot it. She often laughs when she recounts the tale of her speediest ride to her children and grandchildren.
The couple was on a sleigh ride when Mr. Carroll proposed. His wife, who is 83 and five years his junior, recalls that "it was a beautiful clear night filled with stars."
Mrs. Carroll was so happy she couldn't wait until she told her mother. But before she could accept, it was customary, in those days, for the suitor to ask the girl's father for her hand.
A week or so passed before he mustered up enough nerve to face him. They were married six months later.
Raised 10 Children. The Carrolls raised 10 children, four of whom are still living. Nicholas, with whom they live, Mrs. Thelma Gemberling, who lives across the street at 93 Morris Avenue, Mrs. William Alcott, of Gibbstown, and Mrs. S. J. Marks, Jr., of Woodbury. They have 22 grandchildren and about as many great-grandchildren (they have lost count).
By trade, Mr. Carroll is an iron worker. He worked for 35 years puddling iron, that is, melting iron for nails. He also worked as a government mail messenger and during World War I worked on the steep tower at the Carneys Point Works.
They moved to Penns Grove 20 years ago.
Mr. Carroll's favorite pastime is walking. When the Delaware Memorial Bridge opened in August, 1951, he walked over the span twice the same day. The Red Cross found him bound for the Delaware side on his second trip, they told him it was too hot to walk and drove him across then put him on a bus bound for home. Mrs. Carroll is suffering with arthritis and is confined to her home most of the time.
The Carrolls were feted at an anniversary dinner at the home of her niece, Mrs. Alvin Jaeger, near Woodbury, last Thursday."
[Actually I believe Mrs. Alvin Yager was Laura (Lugar) Yager and was a grandchild, not a niece.]
And this, then, would be a picture of Grandma and Grandpa Carroll holding one of their first great-grandchildren, Arleen (Yager) Ryan. I love this picture because they look so proud and happy:
And they're still waltzing around the dance floor, I'm sure. --cds/ck
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