June is oftentimes a very popular month for weddings. In recognition of this, along with going through a large amount of archived photos from the Republic-Monitor, the Perry County Historical Society recently unveiled a new exhibit titled “June Brides (and Grooms): A visual History of Perry County Weddings.” It is on display at the Doheny room of the Perryville Area Higher Education Center (108 South Progress Drive).
Bill Hart, director of the Perry County Historical Society wasn’t sure why June has gotten to be such a popular wedding month.
“I don’t know how that got the tradition started,” Hart said.
A quick search by Hart revealed there are several reasons for the popularity of June weddings in Western culture. The most practical one is that with a June wedding, the woman was more likely to give birth to her first child in early spring, which allowed for plenty of time to recover for the fall harvest.
A few of the items on display are from the Perry County Museum at the City Park.
“All of the photos here are from the museum, which already had a lot of wedding photos,” he said. “They had about three or four wedding dresses on display at the museum, and they got a couple more. We can tie present day, recent past to the more distant past so that sort of became a history of weddings in Perry County, going backward.”
The oldest attire on display dates back to 1900. Included as part of the exhibit is a forest green colored dress and veil from Julie Meyer Wecher from Oct. 28, 1900, which is on loan from Rudy Buerck.
One of the photos is of Charles E. Weber, the son of Charles A. Weber, the first mayor of the city of Perryville. Charles E. Weber married Emma F. Scheinert Dec. 10, 1895.
Hart also put together a list of the first weddings at local churches. The oldest wedding in Perryville was Jan. 8, 1822 at the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Seminary) between Christopher Hentz and Theresa Layton. Two more weddings in Perry County churches took place prior to 1840. They were: Scholastica Estricker and Mauritz Barel at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Apple Creek (May 19, 1833) and Johann Heinrich Weinhold and Johanne Chrstiane Caroline Walther at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna (Nov. 24, 1839).
