1868 - Interesting Marriage

The Salem (Mass.) Gazette says: "On Tuesday of last week Mr. Wm. Blodgett, a resident of Topsfield, who severed creditably in the army in the late war, and is looking for a pension for support, called in at the public house of Mr. Parkinson, where a woman was staying who had been soliciting charity form the inhabitants. Blodgett said to her, in substance, 'I am going West. I have lost my wife, and wish to obtain one to accompany me.' The woman replied that she was a widow, with two children to support, having lost her husband during the war, and that she would become his wife. Whereupon both repaired to the town clerk's, and procured a certificate, going afterwards to the house of Rev. M. McLoud, where they were lawfully married."