WEDDING BELLS

Edna Alice McAfee and Carl George Bader were married July 14, 1915, in Worcester, Mass.


 Carl George was assistant pastor at the Methodist Church in Worcester, so I assume that's where this event was held. It certainly looks like the entire parish turned out for the nuptials. In these snapshots, you can see how many people are crowding along the porch railing to watch.


Here's what Barbara has to say about their courtship and marriage in her 12-page letter/memoir, "My Mother":

"(Edna) was born and raised in Worcester, Mass. and was slated to enter Smith College following her high school graduation. Fate stepped in to prevent (it). One of her father's brothers in Scotland died, leaving a widow and young children. The money set aside for Mother's college education went instead to her widowed Aunt and family.



"My father was an impecunious, but extremely well-educated young minister just up from Boston University Divinity School on one of his first charges, as assistant pastor to a Methodist Church in Worcester.


Mother and Father courted and wed in Worcester, Mass. He was 27 and she 22 at their wedding in July of 1915.


"Mother was gently nurtured by both her parents. Her mother was one of those energetic women who couldn't bear anyone frittering about in her kitchen, so Mother learned nothing of cooking during her girlhood. She wrote, played the piano, did lovely embroidery, and participated in youth works and church activities. As a result, when she married my father, she could scarcely boil eggs."


Although, Barbara later reports that her mother "pitched in as a loving and loyal pastor's wife, learned to cook, keep house, and attend to her husband and young family." A family that was growing rapidly!

In less than ten years, Edna would give birth to five of her six children—but that's the next blog!

I love this image of the wedding party. I wish I knew who these people were! Years ago, Barbara drew this arrow pointing to Jimmy Love, who I think was a cousin of either Edna or Carl.  I'm not sure where the Loves figure in our family tree, although other portraits of Jimmy Love as a child are also in Grandpa (Carl) Bader's things.