The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-09-05
GROOM Il, BRIDE 6S.
Aged Couple Marry After Fifty
Years of Waiting.

"
mantle courtship, which was begun
half a century ago at Pembroke In
Brvan county, was renewed in Sa-
yannah and Dan Cupid, who has car
ried forward an unbalanced account
in the book of love for Al years, wit
messed the wedding.
Peter J. Thompson, II years old,
was the groom and Mrs. Ann Cele-
mia Wilson, aged 6S, was the bride.
They were married by Pastor John
S. Wilder at the South Side Bap-
tist parsonage at. 10 o'clock.
AS young girl Mrs. Wilson was
Miss Ann Waller, of Bryan county,
in the late fifties she and young Pete
Thompson, whose father then owned
all of the land on which the town
of Pembroke is now situated, were
boy and girl sweethearts. At that
time they were adjoining farm
neighbors, but in the course of time
their parents moved further apart
and they saw less Of each other.
After an absence of Al years Mr..
THOMPSON returned to Savannah.
During that time he had been entire
" out of touch with his family and
this part of the world.
He found the wife and baby ne
was forced by the cicissitude of war
to leave had both married and were
living in Blichton, Ga. Feeling very
much like the Enoch Arden of poet
ry. he decided to finish out here a
career that seemed fast drawing to
a close.
Then the hand of fate reached out
and touched him. While stopping
with his relatives on West Charlton
street an aged woman, who was llV-
ing in the same house, but with a
different family, saw him.
isn't this Peter Thompson?' she
asked him when they met on the
stoop of their home.
Of course it was, but who in the
world could it be who, after half
century, could recognize a grlzzled
old man and call him by name?
why don't you remember Ann
Waller?" she asked.
Of. course he did. And instantly
he found that the loneliness that was
fast obsessing him was breaking;
even this cloud which had formed
when he returned and found the wife
of his youth married to another actu-
ally had q silver lining.
Both of these survivors, of count
less vicissitudes of life felt young
again as they sat down and remin-
isced. The girl Mr.. Thompson left
here as Ann Waller had been twice
married, but was widow, while ne
was made a widower through the
statute of limitations. Believing him
long since dead Mrs. Thompson had
married man named Davis IN
Blitchton, and was living happily.
Happy in the discovery of two
FRAGMENTS of a romance that had
been shattered fer back in the last
century Cupid got industriously on
the job, and pretty soon he was re-
warded by evidence of renewal OF
| the old love between this aged pair.
And there can be no doubt about 1t
being a case of genuine love between
| the old people. They were as happy
as a pair of turtle doves after the
minister had pronounced the magic
| words.
| When the war broke out Mr..
| THOMPSON, not of age, enlisted 1oI
six months, and at the expiration OF
the enlistment he went into a caval-
ry troop. The beginning of '65
found him in hospital in Savannah,
and. convalescing, he obtained leave
| to visit his father at Pembroke
While he was there Sherman swept
down the State and the Confederate
soldiers took refuge in the sWamps
Driven from hiding by hunger ne
made his way across the Ogeechee
river bridge and fell into the hands
of federal outpost, which sent him
to Savannah.
Becasue of a shortage of ratlons
here Mr.. Thompson and others were
shipped to New York as refugees
and from there to Cincinnati. From
there he made his way to Kan
sas, where he hoped to rehabllltate
himself and return to Georgia Wher
peace had been restored. A cyclone
destroyed what property he had ac
cumulated in Kansas, so he wander
ed to Kentucky, settling at Mount
Sterling. Some years later his prop