Surnames: O’NEILL CALWAY KARNER FREE LUKENS YOUMANS

----Source: CLARK COUNTY REPUBLICAN & PRESS (Neillsville, Wis.) 06/15/1911

O’Neill, Marian (Marriage - 8 Jun 1911)

On Thursday evening Jun 8, 1911, Mr. Forrest D. Calway and Miss Marian O’Neill were married at the home of the bride’s parents, Judge and Mrs. James O’Neill. Judge E.W. Helms of Hudson, Wis., performed the ceremony. The wedding in arrangement and detail was one of the prettiest that ever took place in Neillsville, Clark County. The color scheme of the decorations was white and pink and green, the same idea being carried throughout in the table decorations and even in the refreshments. The walls were banked with flowers, with potted ferns, roses, syringas, peonies and sweet peas in profuse but exquisite arrangements in the stairway, hall, doors and archway and all the rooms; the bay window, which served as altar place was draped over with ribbons strung with flowers.

At nine o’clock Mrs. Snodgrass at the piano and Ruth Whitcomb with violin struck softly the chords of Thome’s Simple Confession like a gentle prelude to Mendelssohn’s wedding march, played as the bridal party came down the stairway. Miss Lucille Lukens, as maid of honor led the way, the bride followed, leaning on the arm of her father. Two little girls, Rosalie and Margaret Karner were the ribbon bearers and little Helen Free, flower girl. The party advanced to the altar, where they were met by the bridegroom, accompanied by G.C. Youmans as best man, the bride’s mother and Judge Helms, who were ushered in from the side room. The ceremony, which except as to the time-honored and legally necessary questions and answers, were unique and original. Judge Helms, himself a man of scholarly dignified type adding much to the impressiveness of the occasion. The assembled guests for the most part relatives or very near friends will not soon forget the scene. The bride was dressed in batiste over white satin, trimmed with rose lace and rose embroidery; she wore a veil and carried a shower bouquet of bridal roses and lilies of the valley. The maid of honor wore a white embroidered dress over yellow and carried pink roses. The ceremonial scene with its settings, the soft strains of Chopin’s Nocturn Op. 12, which floated faintly in from the piano and violin during its enactment, left an impression on guests, bride and bridegroom long to be remembered. At the close of the ceremony and before sitting down to supper, the Neillsville band appeared outside in a serenade, an event which greatly delighted the bride, who, with the groom went out and met the boys and received their expressions of good will. The refreshments which were in keeping with the occasion, were served in the dining room, where the bridal party and near relatives sat and at smaller tables in the living room. Many very pretty presents were given or sent by distant friends. The young couple departed on the midnight train for the east, and on Tuesday sailed from Hoboken, N.J. for a European trip, which they expect will last till about the middle of September. They will land first at Rotterdam, Holland and will visit places of interest in that country, in Germany, Switzerland, France and the British Islands.

They grew up in Neillsville, Clark County and scarcely need any introduction to people here. The bridegroom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. S.B. Calway. In addition to his course in Neillsville schools he took a course and became an expert in stenography; for the past ten years he has been Circuit Court Reporter. He is a young man of high character and possesses business ability as well as marked musical talent. The bride is the only child of Judge and Mrs. O’Neill. By a coincidence, as we write these lines we received through the mail a letter from a friend of the bride from which we excerpt the following tribute: "She has lived since babyhood among us, having been born in the stately home from which she went out a bride. Her sweet unassuming manners with her loving helpfulness of spirit have endeared her to all who know her. The native musical talent has been developed under able musicians until she has become an artist at the piano."