The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-04-23
TWO Are HELD
In MARRIAGE
OF Y0l|NGGRL
NJ IjBs-tS fE{S4E
32-Yeaf-oh Husband of
10-Year:0ld' Child and ID -
Y4Clerk Arrested II
MApfsoNvliiIEyg Fthh., lapril

vi
23.-(UP)r-Deputips { fran the
Tennessee low country climbed
high into. the Cumberlands last
night and arrested Homer Peel,
2-year-old mountaineer, for mar
rving a r0-year- old girl. r.'"'.
Protesting that his HcOmtship
and marriage "ain't no business
of you low-country furriners, "
Peel was brought down to the
county jail here and ordered held,
An hour earlier, Fred Payne,
clerk of Monroe county, who is
sued the license for the mountain
marriage, also was arrested. lie
was released on his own rccogniz-
ance.
The warrants were sworn by
Annie Handy, 32-year-old UNI
married mother of six children,
who took quick action when she
found that her daughter, Geneva,
born either 10 OF IL years ago,
had become the bride of a man
% years her senior.
They were the first arrests UNI
der the Tennessee Child bride
law. The statute was enacted tins
spring after another mountain
child marriage-uniting 22-year-
old Charlie Johns and nlne-year-
old Eunice Winstead.
The warrant, issued by Justice
of the Peace G. w. kimbrugh,
charged Peel "wilfully, unlawful
" signed an application for a
marriage license, giving the age
of one of the contracting parties
as Is when the said party, Geneva
Handy, was only IL years OF age,
and known to be only II by SAID
Homer Peel"
The warrant against Payne
charged him with issuing a license
to the gawky mountaineer With
out first having ages of the par
ties sworn to.
The child bride, who smokes
cigarets and dips snuff, was Ill
when Deputy Sheriff s. B. LatI-
more with other peace Officers
climbed to Peel's mountain cabin
to serve the warrant late yeSter-
day. ,....,,..
Peel, a rawboned, cadaverouS
man with Sunken cheeks, was
standing idly by while his mother
Mrs. Sarah Peel, attended the all
Cant see why you low-coun-
trv folks CANT leave decent mar
ried people alone" he told Lati,
more. "'Neva loves me and III
take good care o her.
"The paper for our marriage
was wrote jest right down thar
Mt Madisonville and we was hitch
ed by a preachin' reverend. We,
amt done nothin' wrong ana
thar's no right for you folks to
90 a'lawin' on u.s. -,
The little girl was left in the
Peel home as the deputies took
her protesting husband down TO
the county seat and jail. Dr. Il: u
Kimbrugh, Madisonville physician
was to 20 up the mountains to the
Peel home to examine the chlld.
Clad in heavy blue denim with
shameless shoes clogged with
mountain mud, Peel was amazed
when he arrived at the Jail to hnG
n crowd of newSpapermen ana
cameramen awaiting him.
When newspaper flashbuibs be,
Gan to pop, he was startled ana
almost attempted to flee.
Geneva Handy and Peel were
married late last month but news
of the brides true age did not
come out of the mountains until!
this week. Peel had sent a taxi
down the mountain with note
asking for the license. The coun-
ty clerk said he gave his brides
age as Is.
The mother, who was married
once but who said her six children
were not products of the union,
learned of the marriage through
the mountaineer grapevine.