Dr. W. H. Earnest & Maria Rogers

The Seymour Herald - 17 October 1935

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Seymour Couple Married 63 Years

Dr. and Mrs. Earnest Quietly Observe Anniversary

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How a soft-spoken Quaker lassie and a dashing young medical college graduate fall in love one beautiful spring day in 1871, and how their romance lived for more than six decades, is the story of Dr. and Mrs. W. H. Earnest, Seymour, who observed their sixty-third wedding anniversary here Saturday.

Many a page of history has been turned since that day in 1871 when the bride and groom took their wedding vows in a pioneer log cabin, and started housekeeping in a two room house west of the Wayne hotel in Seymour.

Maria Rogers, the bride, was a Quaker girl whose vocabulary was enriched by the "thees and thous" of the Quaker language. She came to Seymour to visit relatives, and stayed to teach school.

Dr. Earnest, just out of medical school, was from Ottawa, Ohio, and went into partnership with Mrs. Earnest's uncle, Dr. S. H. Rogers. Then the young doctor got a school in the adjoining district. His pay was above average for that day and age, being $25 per month. He first met Miss Rogers in the spring and they were married in October the following year.

Civil War Service

Dr. Earnest is a civil war veteran, having served in Co. "D," 150 Ohio Infantry for three months, and 189th Ohio Volunteers, for the remainder of the war. Dr. Earnest says that if the United States were in war today and he was of fighting age, he would want to be in uniform fighting for his country. He recalls with pleasure the adventure and excitement of military service.

Up To Date

But don't be misled into thinking Dr. and Mrs. Earnest live in the past dreaming dreams of the long ago. Both are up-to-date and well informed on current events. Dr. drives his own car, and has ridden by plane to Kansas City so many times that the writer has a hunch the civil war veteran could do a right or left bank like a professional pilot. Dr. and Mrs. Earnest are worried about the government's increasing burden of indebtedness, but as for "the younger generation," they are just as good as young folks were when they were young.

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The editor sincerely appreciates the contribution of this article to The Jerome Journal by Geraldine Rinker of Augusta, Georgia. Her grandfather, George Earnest Rinker, was named by his parents after Dr. Earnest.