True Love Triumphs

In honor of Valentine's Day, this is the story of the marriage of my grandparents, Herbert Samuel Kuhn and Nellie Belle Church. Fade back to the early 1900's …

Grandma was born at Sycamore in Calhoun County in 1902, the third child of Eli and Lenora (Summers) Church. The family lived briefly in Ritchie County, then spent nearly seven years in Roane County. Around 1913, her parents moved the family to Moundsville in Marshall County, where she met and fell in love with a dapper young man named Herbert (Grandpa had been born in Moundsville in 1898).

Herbert Kuhn & Nellie Church ~ July 1920

I'm not sure when Grandma started working at Fostoria Glass Company, but Grandpa began working there shortly after his father had died in 1912. After falling in love with each other, they wanted to get married, but neither of their mothers would hear of it. So life went on as usual … at least that was the appearance.

In 1922, Eli saw a newspaper advertisement to rent a 300 acre farm near Adena, Ohio, and prepared to move the family. It was at this point that a secret had to be revealed … and this is the story as told by my grandmother:

"Herbert's mother, Hattie, would not let us get married, so we eloped to Wellsburg, West Virginia, then returned and continued to live with our respective parents. The only person who knew was my boss at the Fostoria Glass Company (he had seen the license notice in an Ohio newspaper) and I swore him to secrecy. About a year later, the Church family was preparing to move from Moundsville to the Tweedy farm so we had to tell them what we had done so I could stay behind. Hattie was furious and tried to have it annulled, but it was too late."

Love prevailed, and Grandma stayed in Moundsville with Grandpa when the rest of her family moved to Ohio. In case you're wondering, their actual marriage date was 19 February 1921.

Happy Valentine's Day!