BioM: Vanderhoff, Emma (1956)

Contact: Stan

Email: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Vanderhoff, Kessnich, Hauser

----Source: THORP COURIER (Thorp, Clark County, Wis.) 10/04/1956

Vanderhoff, Emma (1 SEP 1956)

The bride, 73, cried a little and the groom, 92, beamed happily at the autumn wedding of Emma Vanderhoff and Peter Kessnich, Monday.

The Rev. Augustan Sulik, Cadott, performed the 9 a.m. ceremony at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in the Town of Wilson.

Attendants for the couple were Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hauser, Neillsville, nephew and niece of the groom and bride respectively, in whose home the couple first met at Thanksgiving time three years ago.

About 30 intimate friends and relatives attended the wedding mass and more guests were expected for a reception conducted at the adjacent church hall after the ceremony by ladies of the church and friends.  A coin shower was held at the church hall on Sunday night.

"I prayed for this day," the groom said outside the church after the couple was pronounced man and wife and they kissed at the altar.  His shoulders were slightly stooped and he listened hard when someone spoke to him, but his eyes sparkled brightly and he beamed when friends stepped up to congratulate him.  He was dressed in a dark blue suit and wore a rosebud in his lapel.

"The priest said he made a very good choice," the bride added with a smle.

"You mean of the day for the wedding?" a bystander asked.

"No.  He said he picked a nice bride," she said.  She was dressed in royal blue and wore a wild rosebud corsage.

It was the second marriage for both.  Kessnich has been a widower for 35 years and Mrs. Vanderhoff’s first husband died about 20 years ago.  For the past three eyars he has been boarding with her at her small home they call Rest Haven in Pleasant Valley.

"It isn’t too often that people of our age decide to get married.  But in our case it wasn’t a hard decision to make," they said.  "God decided it for us."

Relatives and friends, including their children, encouraged the wedding, and Mrs. Vanderhoff’s son sent her wedding dress from Denver, Colo.  Both have grandchildren.

During the ceremony the pair exchanged vows in firm clear voices that rose above the happy babble of a little girl whose mother tried in vain to hush her.  James Raycher and Simon Koepl served as altar boys.

After the rice had been tossed, the couple congratulated, and the picture taken, Joseph Raycher, church custodian, said, "This is a great occasion for the parish.  We haven’t had a wedding in quite a while."