Announcing Another Wedding

Almost five years after giving his daughter’s hand in marriage to one of the fine, upstanding young men of Fort Wayne, Indiana, John Kelly Stevens found himself traveling to Chicago to witness the wedding of his only son.

If you have been following A Family Tapestry for the last couple years, you may remember the series introducing the family of John Kelly’s son, William Stevens. Of course, at that time, I was writing from the perspective of the bride’s family, for we had already spent quite a bit of time examining the many papers and photographs of the Tully family I’ve been entrusted with to share.

From the Fort Wayne perspective, in contrast, I have little to share of the artifacts usually passed down through the generations. Actually, if it weren’t for the historic archives in Fort Wayne, which provided our family with photographs and other documents, and if it weren’t for the many newspaper mentions of John Kelly Stevens, himself, I’d have little to say about this side of the family.

So it was interesting to discover a wedding announcement, from the groom’s family’s perspective, announcing the upcoming wedding of Will Stevens and Agnes Tully, included in The Fort Wayne Sentinel’s Society column on June 7, 1912. (Those of you who know me well will wince along with me at the editorial error, “Miss Agnes Anthony Tully,” and mentally insert the correct—and much more ladylike—“Antoinette” in its place.)

Invitations have been received by friends in this city of William Alfred Stevens to his marriage to Miss Agnes Anthony Tully, daughter of Mrs. John Tully, which will take place on Wednesday, June 12, at 9 o’clock, in St. Anne’s church, Chicago. Mr. Stevens is a son of Kelly Stevens, of this city, and he worked in the freight department of the Pennsylvania for a number of years. The bride and groom will live at 507 West Garfield boulevard, Chicago.

Photograph, above left: William Stevens and his bride, the former Agnes Antoinette Tully, at the time of their marriage, June 12, 1912, at Saint Anne's Church in Chicago.