Rice, Hubert - Clara Johnson - 1902
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 25 April 1902
Hubert Rice and his sweetheart, from New Market, Montgomery County, Indiana, planned to surprise their friends by slipping over into this city and getting married, but were themselves shocked when Deputy Clerk Current informed the young man that he could not get a license until he furnished consent from his parents or guardian. Rice said that he was twenty years old, but spoke before he knew the trouble telling the truth about his age would cause him.
It did not take him long to properly diagnose the situation, however, and he made some overtures to Mr. Current that surprised the popular deputy. He first suggested that the clerk “mark him up to twenty one,” and this being refused, he said, “I will go into the hall and come in again, and when I get back you be gone and let there be another clerk in your place. I will tell the other man that I am twenty one and that will do the business all right.”
Mr. Current informed him that it would be impossible for him to get a license here after having admitted that he was too young, unless he could furnish the necessary consent of parents or guardian.
The clerk asked Rice if he did not have to pass through Covington on his way home, and he replied that such was the case, and he and the girl hurried out of the office and made a rush for the Big Four depot to head off the first east bound train that came this way. Such perseverance deserves success.—Danville, (Ill.,) News
(*Hubert Rice & Clara Johnson April 21, 1902 in Fountain County marriage records)