"Devine" Intervention

Debunking family lore about a runaway marriage

Several years ago my aunt relayed a story that had been told to her by her grandmother (my great-grandmother), Alice Devine. Here’s the story passed to me from my aunt: 

Love story of Alice Devine and Robert Kerkow around 1910

Alice, who was born in 1890, was the oldest child growing up on the Irish family farm outside Belle Plaine, MN. Robert, born in 1889, grew up on the German family farm outside Jordan, MN.

For both of them, the week was filled with chores from before sunrise to way past sunset. They each went to dances held within a horse and buggy ride with their friends.  I’m sure their parents weren’t aware that different ethnic teenagers mixed at these dances.  Irish and Germans held animosity for each other dating back to the old country.

Robert was an excellent dancer and very charming making him very popular with the girls.  At some point, he found that Alice was his favorite dance partner.  They looked forward to seeing each other and kept this information from their families. 

A man had to financially be able to make a living on his own before he could think about marriage and, of course, obtain permission from the girl’s father to court her. In their case they knew there would be no permission from Alice’s father, so they made a secret plan to get married. Alice knew her family would never accept Robert or their marriage unless he would steadfastly agree to raise their children Catholic. He was raised Lutheran but without hesitation, he agreed. 

Getting married locally was out of the question so they decided to elope to St. Paul and find a priest to marry them. They each brought along what they could carry undetected to the dance to meet. They went to the train station and took the train to St. Paul. Thinking this would be a simple process showed how ill-prepared they were for the catholic church rules for a mixed religion marriage.  Robert agreeing to raise the children catholic was just the beginning of a long process.  There would be no marriage on this trip to St. Paul.  Special dispensation had to be obtained from the arch bishop and lots of paper work had to be filled out first.

Now what?  Alice had a lot of explaining to do to her family when she didn’t come home after the dance.  No way could she tell them she wasn’t married after that.  So, Robert put the wedding band on her finger and they would say they were married while waiting the three months it would take to get the church’s permission.  

They took the train back to Belle Plaine and went to tell her parents they were married and hoped they would accept what was already done.  Alice was shocked at their reaction. They were outraged that she would run off with a German, of all people. There was no way they would accept him into their family, and in fact, she had to pack her personal belongings and they never wanted to see her again!

Fortunately, Robert’s family reacted differently.  They were not exactly pleased but agreed to let them share Robert’s bedroom.  It was a long three months for Robert sleeping on the floor giving Alice his bed and waiting for the paper work saying they could go back to St. Paul to get married. They never told anyone their story until Alice Kerkow told her granddaughter Joanne Petrasek when she was staying with her for a visit in Texas about 1975. Her own children never knew this story.

About a year after they married (for real) the first child, Robert, was born.  Alice’s parents had softened up after missing their daughter and wanting to see their grandson so they accepted Robert into the family, maybe not lovingly but, what was done was done.

They never told anyone their story until Alice told her granddaughter in 1975. Her own children never knew this story.

This is quite the story and the stuff of family lore! I wondered how I would be able to prove or disprove, so I started doing some research working with three clues:

1. Since there are usually nuggets of truth in these situations, the story itself was my first clue.

2. I did some searching on FamilySearch.org and pretty easily discovered an Application for Marriage from Scott County (where they lived) dated 15 Nov 1910. This document also included the record of marriage by the Hennepin County Court Commissioner dated 16 Nov 1910 which indicated they were married in front of the clerk in Hennepin County, which is where Minneapolis is located. The story had said they ran away to St. Paul, which would have been Ramsey County.

3. A torn piece of an old church record that had an official embossed seal, the signature of a priest, and a typed statement under the signature that reads "Pastor of St. John's Church, Jordan, MN" -- on this piece of paper, someone else penned in "Married Alice Devine and Robert Kerkow" - but it clearly wasn't part of the original document. The paper was obviously cut or torn, which to me indicated someone had cut off the top half of the record maybe because they didn't want anyone to know a "real" date of a wedding (especially since their first child was born just 9 months after the 1910 wedding date.)

The fact that the Hennepin county marriage record is in conflict with the church record was my first clue that the story may not be 100% accurate; but as these stories usually go, I figured there was a nugget of truth in there somewhere -- I just had to find it!

My usual source for Catholic church records is the Minnesota Genealogy Society, but unfortunately they do not have records from this particular church. I did try searching some of the other “St. John” church records from the area, but nothing turned up. Then one day I was checking out the Scott County Historical Society’s webpage and saw that they had some church records – so off to Scott County I went! (This place is a gold mine for Scott County ancestors, by the way.)

I easily found the one roll of microfilm that had church records from St. John’s Church in Jordan, MN and started reviewing the records, one by one, over a three year period – the year prior to the 1910 Ramsey County marriage date, the year of 1910 and the year after. I thought I would find a record within a few months of the 1910 wedding date, but I didn't find anything and was quite disappointed. I was unsure of what further I could do to help solve the mystery. 

I started to rewind the microfilm and accidentally hit the forward button and unbelievably it landed RIGHT ON THEIR RECORD! "Devine" intervention from Alice, I think!! This was a good lesson for me, actually! Always widen the search parameters more than you think you should!! (Good grief, I wonder how many things I've missed because of this type of error!) 

The St. John's church record is dated 9 May 1912 (a year and a half after the 1910 date and well after their first child was born!) It is written in Latin, but I utilized the “Genealogical Translations” Facebook group and a nice woman quickly translated it for me. It reads:

On the 9th of the month of May in the year 1912, preceded by three readings of the banns, I, Bernard Werer, joined in marriage Robert Kerkow, a baptized non-Catholic, son of Carl Kerkow and Bertha Kochlin, and Alice Devine, from the parish of Jordan, Diocese St. Paul, daughter of Robert Devine and Helena Geehan, baptized in the parish of Sacred Heart Church, Belle Plaine.

Witnesses were: Sigfrid Rindermann and Silvan Hoffmann.

Signed - Rev. Bernard Werer

Margin notation: Obtained dispensation over the mixed religion. The marriage is already <legal?> before the civil court.

“Church of St. John the Baptist Jordan, MN Marriage Reg. 1869-1992”, digital image Kerkow & Devine, 9 May 1912. On microfilm at Scott County Historical Society.

The name Bernard Werer on the Church’s record matches the signature on the torn church record I have in my possession. The margin notation confirms the Hennepin County record.

If I were to reimagine the story (which I did in this video adaptation) with these new pieces of evidence, I’d say that Alice and Robert did go to the big city for a runaway church wedding with a Catholic priest but realized they would need special dispensation. So, knowing that they’d have explaining to do for running away, they went before the county clerk to get married before returning to their families. My guess is that both of the families were disappointed and possibly reacted the way the original story indicates. But for the purposes of propriety, a certain image needed to be presented.

As it turned out, there was an announcement in the local newspaper shortly after their 1910 wedding. Knowing what I know from the story – that their parents were not happy about the situation – the jovial tone of the newspaper announcement makes me chuckle about the importance of appearances at that time.

“Married”. Belle Plaine Herald. Belle Plaine, MN. November 1910. This was found on microfilm at the Scott County Historical Society, as this newspaper is not available on commercial sites such as Newspapers.com.

Now the only unknown is who those two witnesses at the church were. Definitely two names I've never heard before, which tells me that the purpose of the wedding at St. John's was solely to satisfy Alice and/or her family, both of whom were very devout.

The runaway wedding story is amazing and I feel honored to have had shared with me. Plus it was a great little mystery to solve too! I wish all the mysteries came together so nicely!

What unsolved mysteries do you have in your family?