Volume 9 , Issue 34

1907 News - Elopers Walk 25 Miles - Wed At Midnight

Have you heard about the couple from Frederick, Oklahoma who ended up walking 25 miles to Kell, Oklahoma to wed?

That was around August 23, 1907 with the following headlines in The Oklahoman: Elopers Walk 25 Miles; Wed At Midnight - Lovers Run Away From Angry Dad; Suffer, But Don't Care.

Kell, Okla., Aug. 23, 1905 -- "After having walked 25 miles across the high prairie, wading several streams and suffering from blistered feet and weary limbs, John P. Atkins and Miss Estelle Wilson, who reside near Frederick, reached here at 12 o'clock tonight and were united in marriage by Rev. James Campbell, at the latter's residence.

"We planned an elopement," said Atkins, "but we didn't calculate on walking such a long distance. I told Estelle there would be dozens of wagons along the road and we could ride perhaps more than half the way. The only wagon we saw along the route coming our way was driven by an Indian who refused to permit us to ride. So we walked. Estelle's feet are awfully sore and the poor child's knees are powerfully weak; but we are married now and we don't care for troubles any more.
,br> "You see, her father, objected to the match. he's hard on the girls. Every one of them has eloped, but none of them took such a trek as this. But the old man always forgives, and after we've rested a few days, we'll go back to Daddy's house."
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