LOVE STORIES
The Trip From Tweed to Gretna Green
If you know where Tweed, Georgia is, you probably grew up there, or at least somewhere close by. There are no signs left of this once bustling community on theOld River Road in southeastern Laurens County, except the signs indicating the route of the Minter-Tweed Road, which terminates right in the heart of downtown Tweed. In the years 1895 and 1896, a local correspondent of the Atlanta Constitution furnished reports of several elopements in the now extinct community, home to the Wilkes, Branch, Drew, Beacham and McLendon families.
The community, once populated by descendants of immigrant Scots, was probably named for the River Tweed, a large river in southern Scotland which forms the border between Scotland and England as it empties into the North Sea. Established along the old Darien-Milledgeville “the Capital to the Coast” Road, Tweed is situated along a ridge with a commanding view of the Oconee River Valley.
William Branch fell in love with Naomi Wilkes. At fifteen, Naomi was the most beautiful girl that William ever had seen. Her father vehemently objected to their courtship. The couple communicated through her cousins in hopes of evading Mr. Wilkes’s scorn. Much to his chagrin, on the very day Branch came into Dublin to secure a marriage license, he discovered that Mr. Wilkes was also resent. Realizing Wilkes was busy trading, Branch sped toward the Wilkes home to claim his bride. Through the aid of Naomi’s cousin Miss Ricks, Branch sent a young boy inside the Wilkes home to summon his fiancé to join him posthaste. Naomi gathered up her belongings, specially arranged for the elopement and joined her intended. Parson White married them on the spot on March 23, 1895. The incident was Naomi’s third attempt at elopement. A previous suitor tried and failed twice. Unused marriage licenses were his only souvenir of unrequited love.
William Livingston and his family moved into the Tweed Community in 1895. William frequently visited the McLendon home about a mile away. He was drawn to the homestead by his increasing infatuation with the McLendon’s buxom rosy-cheeked daughter Rebecca. Love blossomed and the couple were engaged to be married. The Livingston family soon grew unsatisfied with their surroundings and moved across the Oconee River. The McLendon’s thought not too highly of their daughter’s intended suitor and forbade her to marry the pretentious paramour. By a secretive communiqué, William notified Rebecca that he would appear at her home on Christmas Day to take her hand in marriage. True to his word, the young man appeared right on time. Following the protocol of the day, Livingston asked the McLendons for permission to marry their daughter. Mr. McLendon consented, but Mrs. McLendon balked at the impending nuptials.
Undaunted, the couple planned a trip to Gretna Green to consummate their marriage. Gretna Green was a village in Scotland where young couples were married without parental approval. The following Thursday, Livingston pretended he was going home alone. Rebecca, feigning a bout of severe depression, informed her mother that she was going to visit her grandfather. Just above the McLendon house an friendly accomplice intercepted the lovers and spirited them away with all haste to Squire Drew’s office. They were married on the spot and triumphantly and defiantly returned to the McLendon home. A good old-fashioned country frolic ensued. Mr. McLendon celebrated. Mrs. McLendon stayed home and cried.
The spirit of love was in the air. During the celebration complete with an anvil shooting and pyrotechnic display, Joshua Branch and Mattie Wilkes announced their immediate intention to marry. Branch told his plan to Mattie’s married sister, who immediately tattled to their father. Wilkes immediately confronted Mattie in front of her entire family, chastising her for such an impropriety. Branch, listening to the reprimanding from a concealed spot, bolted to his horse and sped from the scene. The young man announced to his friends that he would marry Mattie, or someone else, before the next full moon. Just in case the situation demanded it, Joshua obtained a marriage license with a blank for the wife’s last name.
Three months later, Josh Branch found another Rebecca to marry. Branch and Rebecca Henry appeared at the home of C.S. Beacham to complete their marriage ceremony. Alerted to the impending matrimony, a young man named Barber, who had been spurned by Rebecca, arrived at the Beacham home. Rebecca’s admirers commenced a knock down drag out joust to determine her rightful husband. It was reported that “blows rained thick and fast and the combatants cursed each other in the most violent manner.” Rebecca canceled the wedding, refusing to marry Branch for conduct unbecoming a gentleman engaged to be married. Just days after the ruckus, Rebecca observed Branch courting a former sweetheart. Was it the other Rebecca, Rebecca McLendon? Or, was it one in a long line of brides Branch longed to marry. Despite her announced intentions to the
contrary, the spurned and frustrated young man told friends that he still intended to marry his true love. According to Laurens County’s marriage records, no Joshua Branch ever married in Laurens County. I guess he gave up trying to marry a Tweed girl and left the area in an effort to improve his matrimonial desires.
George Miller was an orphan, but managed to accumulate a small fortune to “keep the wolf from his door.” Naomi Beacham, a fifteen-year-old brunette, was a daughter of one of Tweed’s oldest families. The Beachams censured their daughter for even looking at the much older Miller. Naomi disregarded her parent’s earnest restraints and continued to keep company with her suitor. The young swain, in the company of a friend, approached the Beacham home on a Sunday afternoon. Miller asked Mr. Beacham for permission to have Naomi visit his home. Beacham, obviously disconcerted with the entire circumstance, replied “Yes, she can go, and she can go for good, as far as I am concerned.” Without further ado, George and Naomi spirited away in a buggy bound for the home of Justice of the Peace John S. Drew. With a bible in his hand and the blazing sun bearing down on his forehead,
Judge Drew stood against the front gate of his house. The bride and groom sat in their buggy, situated just over the fence. In the presence of Drew’s family and a host of friends gathered on the front porch, George and Naomi were united in marriage. The newlyweds merrily drove toward their new home without a care in the world, except the dreaded next visit from her irate parents.
Just as a year of elopements was coming to an end, perhaps the most unusual trip to Gretna Green was coming to a finale. Charity Wilkes, daughter of the venerable Methodist minister John Wilkes, announced her intention to marry Charlton B. Smith, son of Rev. Charlton Smith, of the prominent Hardy Smith family from the Anderson community- just up the River Road from Tweed. Charity’s
twenty-year-old son John A. Wilkes protested his mother’s marriage shouting, “ I’ll kill him just as sure as he comes inside the house again. You shant marry him; I’ll see to that part of it, provided my gun will fire.” Charity secreted away and traveled to Messer’s Creek Bridge to wait for Smith. Meanwhile the groom and his best man waited for her at Norris’ Chapel. Soon the groom found his bride. Approaching Charity with the marriage license in hand, Smith cried out, “I have a bench warrant for your arrest. Will you submit?”
The couple dashed to the home of Judge John Drew, where they were instantly married. Drew took off his marrying hat, put on his postmaster’s hat and handed a letter to the new groom. Inside the dispatch was a forged rejection of Smith’s offer of marriage, presumably at the hand of the disenchanted son. As Christmas Day approached, all was merry and bright. Charity, a forty-year-old newlywed, had all but forgotten her first engagement twenty years before, one which ended in heartbreak and relegated her to the life of a single mother for two decades.
Charity Ricks, a beautiful young daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M.R. Ricks, desperately wanted to marry Adolphus McLendon. Her parents never believed their industrious and intelligent daughter was courting anyone, much less that she would ever get married. Just before Christmas Day in 1895, the Ricks accepted an invitation to attend a wedding in Montgomery County. As soon as her parents were out of sight, Charity told her sister Mattie that she was going to visit a girlfriend, grabbed up her tooth brushes and headed off to the branch. There she met her aspiring lover. The couple made their way to Squire Drew’s house where they became man and wife, much to the consternation of the absent parents.
The Trip From Tweed to Gretna Green
If you know where Tweed, Georgia is, you probably grew up there, or at least somewhere close by. There are no signs left of this once bustling community on theOld River Road in southeastern Laurens County, except the signs indicating the route of the Minter-Tweed Road, which terminates right in the heart of downtown Tweed. In the years 1895 and 1896, a local correspondent of the Atlanta Constitution furnished reports of several elopements in the now extinct community, home to the Wilkes, Branch, Drew, Beacham and McLendon families.
William Livingston and his family moved into the Tweed Community in 1895. William frequently visited the McLendon home about a mile away. He was drawn to the homestead by his increasing infatuation with the McLendon’s buxom rosy-cheeked daughter Rebecca. Love blossomed and the couple were engaged to be married. The Livingston family soon grew unsatisfied with their surroundings and moved across the Oconee River. The McLendon’s thought not too highly of their daughter’s intended suitor and forbade her to marry the pretentious paramour. By a secretive communiqué, William notified Rebecca that he would appear at her home on Christmas Day to take her hand in marriage. True to his word, the young man appeared right on time. Following the protocol of the day, Livingston asked the McLendons for permission to marry their daughter. Mr. McLendon consented, but Mrs. McLendon balked at the impending nuptials.
Undaunted, the couple planned a trip to Gretna Green to consummate their marriage. Gretna Green was a village in Scotland where young couples were married without parental approval. The following Thursday, Livingston pretended he was going home alone. Rebecca, feigning a bout of severe depression, informed her mother that she was going to visit her grandfather. Just above the McLendon house an friendly accomplice intercepted the lovers and spirited them away with all haste to Squire Drew’s office. They were married on the spot and triumphantly and defiantly returned to the McLendon home. A good old-fashioned country frolic ensued. Mr. McLendon celebrated. Mrs. McLendon stayed home and cried.
The spirit of love was in the air. During the celebration complete with an anvil shooting and pyrotechnic display, Joshua Branch and Mattie Wilkes announced their immediate intention to marry. Branch told his plan to Mattie’s married sister, who immediately tattled to their father. Wilkes immediately confronted Mattie in front of her entire family, chastising her for such an impropriety. Branch, listening to the reprimanding from a concealed spot, bolted to his horse and sped from the scene. The young man announced to his friends that he would marry Mattie, or someone else, before the next full moon. Just in case the situation demanded it, Joshua obtained a marriage license with a blank for the wife’s last name.
Three months later, Josh Branch found another Rebecca to marry. Branch and Rebecca Henry appeared at the home of C.S. Beacham to complete their marriage ceremony. Alerted to the impending matrimony, a young man named Barber, who had been spurned by Rebecca, arrived at the Beacham home. Rebecca’s admirers commenced a knock down drag out joust to determine her rightful husband. It was reported that “blows rained thick and fast and the combatants cursed each other in the most violent manner.” Rebecca canceled the wedding, refusing to marry Branch for conduct unbecoming a gentleman engaged to be married. Just days after the ruckus, Rebecca observed Branch courting a former sweetheart. Was it the other Rebecca, Rebecca McLendon? Or, was it one in a long line of brides Branch longed to marry. Despite her announced intentions to the
contrary, the spurned and frustrated young man told friends that he still intended to marry his true love. According to Laurens County’s marriage records, no Joshua Branch ever married in Laurens County. I guess he gave up trying to marry a Tweed girl and left the area in an effort to improve his matrimonial desires.
Judge Drew stood against the front gate of his house. The bride and groom sat in their buggy, situated just over the fence. In the presence of Drew’s family and a host of friends gathered on the front porch, George and Naomi were united in marriage. The newlyweds merrily drove toward their new home without a care in the world, except the dreaded next visit from her irate parents.
Just as a year of elopements was coming to an end, perhaps the most unusual trip to Gretna Green was coming to a finale. Charity Wilkes, daughter of the venerable Methodist minister John Wilkes, announced her intention to marry Charlton B. Smith, son of Rev. Charlton Smith, of the prominent Hardy Smith family from the Anderson community- just up the River Road from Tweed. Charity’s
twenty-year-old son John A. Wilkes protested his mother’s marriage shouting, “ I’ll kill him just as sure as he comes inside the house again. You shant marry him; I’ll see to that part of it, provided my gun will fire.” Charity secreted away and traveled to Messer’s Creek Bridge to wait for Smith. Meanwhile the groom and his best man waited for her at Norris’ Chapel. Soon the groom found his bride. Approaching Charity with the marriage license in hand, Smith cried out, “I have a bench warrant for your arrest. Will you submit?”
The couple dashed to the home of Judge John Drew, where they were instantly married. Drew took off his marrying hat, put on his postmaster’s hat and handed a letter to the new groom. Inside the dispatch was a forged rejection of Smith’s offer of marriage, presumably at the hand of the disenchanted son. As Christmas Day approached, all was merry and bright. Charity, a forty-year-old newlywed, had all but forgotten her first engagement twenty years before, one which ended in heartbreak and relegated her to the life of a single mother for two decades.
Charity Ricks, a beautiful young daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M.R. Ricks, desperately wanted to marry Adolphus McLendon. Her parents never believed their industrious and intelligent daughter was courting anyone, much less that she would ever get married. Just before Christmas Day in 1895, the Ricks accepted an invitation to attend a wedding in Montgomery County. As soon as her parents were out of sight, Charity told her sister Mattie that she was going to visit a girlfriend, grabbed up her tooth brushes and headed off to the branch. There she met her aspiring lover. The couple made their way to Squire Drew’s house where they became man and wife, much to the consternation of the absent parents.
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