The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1916-10-13
LATE PARsON KEPT HOTEL FOR
PURPOSE AND MARRIED
5,tI2 COUPLES.
INN WAS ON BOUNDARY
engy Had to Cross Hall To BE In
Another State - Unique
Weddings.

Eristol, va, Oct. the rev
Alfred Harrison Burroughs, the
Marrying Parson" of Bristol. is
dead at the age of eighty-three
years. Parson Burroughs resigned
from the Baptist ministry twenty
five years ago in order to establish
the American Gretna Green"
he built and equipped a hotel for
the exclusive use of runaway couples
and he performed the marriage
ceremony for SLAP couples. Most
OF the couples came from states
where the laws prohibited the mar
riage of persons under twenty-one
years OF age without parental con-
sent.
Some years ago the Ministerial as
sociation OF Bristol memorialized
the Tennessee legislature to put 4
stop TO the hundreds of "hasty and
indecent marriages" performed an
nually at the Bristol mecca.
Keeps Matrimonial Hotel.
Parson Burroughs hotel was de-
signed expressly for the convenience
OF clipping couples. Every room in
Il is a bridal chamber. II stands
squarely on the line between Vir-
ginia and Tennessee. which runs
through Bristol. so that half of the
hotel is in one state and half in an
L,Innarg from ana of tho fwn
states had only to cross the hall to
he within the Jurisdiction of the
other.
Burroughs performed marriages
under every conceivable circum-
stance-in a carriage racing through
the streets at night with an irate pa
rent in full pursuit. with the couple
standing in the middle of street
car running along the boundary
line, with hands clasped across the
boundary line, the bridegroom In
one state and the bride in another.
He had been in IL long enough to
marry the children of couples who
first came to him. Fully ninety per
cent of the couples he married were
x.elopers. They represented many
states-virginia and West Virginia.
Kentucky. the two Carolinas. Geor-
gia, Alabama. New York, New Jer-
.sey, Michigan. Ohio. Indiana, Penn
sylvania. Arkansas, Illinois, and
n California.
Weds Five Couples at Once.
lie had been called upon by as
many as five couples at one time,
when one ceremony and one blessing
answered for all. Only recently he
married Ave couples at one time,
and he had barely concluded this
service when two more were ushered
In.
All of the clippers coming by train
arrived at the Union Passenger Sta
ton, which is on the Virginia side,
but within 100 feet of Tennessee
soil. Parson Burroughs would meet
all trains upon their arrival, and ii
was the exception when no clippers
were aboard.
Sometimes the parents of clippers
would telegraph the Bristol, Va,
police to Arrest the runaways upon
their arrival. In such case Parson
Burroughs would hurry the couple
across the line into Tennessee.
When he saw an officer watching a
train he aimed to get to the couple
first.
Experience taught him how to
pick out possible clippers from the
mass of people leaving the trains.
lie had the sympathy of the police,
and frequently they were accused of
not exercising due diligence in the
apprehension of clippers.
Built ON State Line.
so steadily did the stream of
clippers increase after the establish
ment of Parson Burroughs mecca
that when the old Nickels house, In
which the minister first began his
career crumbled into decay some
wears ago, he began Immediately the
erection OF the matrimonial hotel.
II is modern In every respect, and
is located in one of the best sections
OF the city. II is possible to marry
a couple in either Virginia or Ten