Elkton was the place for quickie weddings for much of the twentieth century as eloping couples rushed here for hasty ceremonies. The town’s marrying parsons worked overtime to accommodate the trade, performing over 16,000 marriages one year in the 1930s. While officiating day and night, some turned their homes into 24-hour chapels.
This highly profitable nuptial business created a hum and bustle for Elkton as the “honeymoon express” delivered cupid’s hurried business to the Train Station. The license bureau, marrying ministers, cab drivers, runners, and everybody else concerned with assisting cupid worked to please the eloping couples.
This colorful story of the matrimonial business where everything was made easy for those wanting to tie the knot in Elkton is presented in a captivating talk by Historian Mike Dixon at the Cecil County Public Library on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, @ 6 p.m. Click this link to go the library registration form for the program of Elkton weddings.
I was married in Sturgis chapel in1965. I still have pictures of our getting in my 64 Pontiac after the ceremony. We were together 54 years until my wife passed. It was a day not.to forget. I never regretted going to Elton and Reverend Sturgis from Philadelphia PA. Best trip ever. We had our our honeymoon in a hotel in Cherry Hill NJ. Eventually Bermuda a few years later
Paul Pflaumer. Yardley PA
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