Burbidge-Parry Marriage

• The Courtship of Fanny Louise Parry
• And the Bride Wore White Chiffon…
• Jury Duty Excused; Wedding Plans Proceed
• Burbidge-Parry Wedding Reception, an Invitation
• Burbidge-Parry Marriage License

On 8 Sept 1897, 118 years ago, today, Joseph Edward Burbidge met his bride-to-be at a friend's wedding reception. He arrived at the reception with his sister, Lizzie, and her husband, James Poulton. When he left, he left with Fanny.^[1]

From then on, they were a couple. Even so, their courtship didn't always progess easily. At least, not for our young Joseph. There were other suitors, and they were determined to not give Fanny up without a fight

One of those suitors, in a jealous rage, hurled a rock at Joseph, as he was walking up to the Parry home. The rock missed him, hit the window, and broke it on impact. What did our hero do? I think he probably ran into the house to make sure the love of his life was safe. Don’t you?

Besides her suitors, Joe also had to contend with her brothers. My grandfather, Joseph David Burbidge, wrote:

In the winter time, Dad used to jolly Mother about how cold the front room was when he called on her. One winter night while he was there, one of her brothers placed a dead mouse in his overcoat pocket. When he went to leave and found the mouse - Dad told Mother that the mouse must have been cold and crawled into his front pocket and froze to death.

I wonder who was the more surprised Fanny, Joe, or the mouse?

If her suitors and her brothers had known that she was making Joseph his lunches, they would probably have given up then and there. Joseph Edward worked on one of the very early Salt Lake City street cars as a conductor. One of his runs went right past Fanny’s home at the corner of Fifth West and First South. She would wait for him on the corner. As he came in sight, he would stop the street car, and she would hand him his lunch. Their life as a married couple was settled.

And they did marry. Nearly four years later. On June 27, 1901.

FOOTNOTES

^{1. This date is based on 2 sources. The first provides the date of the wedding reception where they met. The second identifies that they met at the reception and their courtship began from there. "City and Neighborhood," Salt Lake City Tribune, 9 Sept 1897, p. 8, col. 1; digital images, Utah Digital Newspapers (www.digitalnewspapers.org : accessed 12 Sept 21012), searched for "Fanny Parry." This article identifies the existence and the date of the reception. It does not mention those who were present. Moore, Vera Burbidge, compiler, “Sketch of the Life of JEB,” typescript, n.d., privately held by Nancy Sorofman, 2005, p. 1. I received 2 typed written pages on onion skin paper from Barbara (Burbidge) Jackson who received it from Vera (Burbidge) Moore. Joseph David must have provided Vera with written memories of his parents which she then compiled into this sketch. Here, Joseph states that his parents met at the Webb-Peck wedding.The rest of this post is based on Joseph David's recollections of the stories he was told by Joseph Edward and Fanny, his parents.↩}