GOLDEN WEDDING

     A large company of relatives and friends gathered at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Silas Jordan of Vernon, on Monday, Dec. 29, 1890, to celebrate the Golden Wedding anniversary of that worthy couple. Five children were present, all married, and twenty-seven grand children of the aged couple, besides many other relatives and friends which swelled the number of guests to seventy-two. Many handsome and useful presents were received among which were thirteen dollars and a half in gold coin.
     An excellent dinner was served to all, and the time passed pleasantly in conversation and in extending congratulations to the bride and groom of half a century. One of the most enjoyable and pleasing features of the day was the following poem by Mrs. M. A. Leavitt.

Just fifty years have sped away
Since that snow-wreathed December day-
When snow-flakes whitened all the air
And snow-showers drifted everywhere,
When Silas Jordan took, for life,
Lorena Young to be his wife.
Yes eighteen-forty was the year,
And now the golden wedding's here!

Life has been a checkered scene
Thro' these fifty years, I ween.
Clouds and sunshine, joy and pain
In a sad or joyous strain
Have mingled in life's full refrain
Weddings, births and deaths have come
Into this ancestral home.

And the years have left their trace
O'er early hopes, and youthful grace,
In faded cheeks and wrinkled face.
But, less of change is in each brow
Than life's outlook weareth now.
Where sunshine poured its golden rain,
Soberer tints fold hill and plain.
Sown with shadows are the ways
Where young eyes saw life's rosy haze

Tho' the glow of that morning bright
Has faded into sunset light,
Tho' shadows sweep the vales below,
The hill-tops wear an afterglow.
Tho' here and there a shadow lies
Where of old were cloudless skies,
More of sunshine than of rain
Has followed this united twain.

Tho' all have flown from th' old home nest,
Ten children came that home to bless.
Five lie asleep in th' churchyard grey,
And five are gathered here to-day.
One child crossed, in its infancy,
Over death's mysterious sea;
Two sailed o'er its awesome flood
In the bloom of womanhood:
Stricken down, in young manhood's pride,
By accident another died.
One, offered at his Country's call
His youthful strength and earthly all.

Once and again tho' death has come
To desolate their hearts and home,
Mercy's hand has held the cup
That their lips were called to sup;
More of sunshine than of shade
Their united lives have had.
And now the rounded chorus swells
Of fifty years!-their wedding bells!
A golden chorus, rare and strange
In this world of death and change!
How few have heard the music swell,
The chime of their golden wedding bell!

Here's health to bridegroom, and to bride
Who, fifty years, walked by his side!
At eventide may light arise
More clear than in life's early skies:
Celestial light to them be given
Along the path that leads to heaven!
Illumed by faith steadfast and bright,
"At eventide, may it be light!"
               Mary A. Leavitt
Vernon, Dec. 29th, '90

(The picture of Silas and Lorena is from other Jordan family records and was not with this article. SLK)

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