The Marriage License

 

Marion County Clerk, Indiana. 20 Oct 1881.

Yesterday's mail contained a copy of the marriage license between Agnes Atherton and Fred E. Day, dated 20 October 1881. This was provided by the Marion County Clerk's Office, following my mail-in request for a copy. Last month I posted a copy of the divorce decree, granted in September 1887 by the Davidson County Court in Tennessee. Unfortunately this record doesn't tell us much about Agnes, and contains a number of misspellings of her name (her stage name to be more accurate) by Justice of the Peace, Theodore W. Pease.

Agnes was about 23 at the time, and had been on tour in Michigan and Wisconsin in January-February 1881 prior to her October marriage to Fred in Indianapolis. It isn't clear where Fred had been living prior to the marriage date, but I have some hints he was living in Detroit in 1880. They may have met on tour as Fred was also a musician. In the 1880 Census in Detroit, there is a Frederick E. Day who was 19, with no occupation.