Wedded Bliss

St. Patrick's Church
Cumberland, Rhode Island (1)

St. Patrick's Church in Cumberland, Rhode Island has been closed since 2018 but our ties to this church will always  run deep. The church was established in 1861 and the first marriage I can document at St Patrick's was in 1876 when Edward Burke married Annie Masterson. All of Edward and Annie's children and grandchildren were baptized, married and buried from St. Pat's !

I have collected all the birth, marriage and death certificates from this family. But there is nothing like finding a wedding announcement in the newspaper to really flesh out the story. So I was overjoyed when I found the wedding announcement of my great grandmother Catherine Burke who married Florence O'Leary on August 10, 1904. 

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Florence O'Leary is Wedded to Miss Catherine Burke (2)

I love that the article used all the old names for the villages in Cumberland and Lincoln ... Valley Falls, Prospect Hills, Lonsdale, New Village and Saylesville. Some we still use today and some that  have gone out of use.

I was also struck by how simple weddings were back in 1904. You were married at church then you headed back to the brides home where breakfast was served which was followed by a season of sociability. Then a brief wedding trip and the new Mr. and Mrs. O'Leary begin housekeeping on Prospect Hill. 

I know the ending to my great grandparents story. The heartache they endured when they lost children, battled poverty and alcoholism and the untimely death of Florence. How hard it was for Catherine and her remaining 6 children to eke out a living at the Anne and Hope Mills. 

So my favorite part of the announcement was learning that the couple was well known and very popular and received the congratulations of a host of friends. This made me happy. For at least a brief moment in time they experienced wedded bliss!  

Catherine Burke O'Leary

(1) Photo from Valley Breeze Article 5/9/2018 "Former St. Patrick's Church will be sold for secular use"

https://www.valleybreeze.com/2018-05-09/cumberland-lincoln-area/former-st-patrick-church-will-be-sold-secular-use#.Xssl-WhKiUk

(2) Pawtucket Times Newspaper, Pawtucket, Rhode Island Wednesday August 10, 1904