Once upon a time, two young people fell in love and decided to get married after having "kept company" for the last year of their togetherness! And the way they saw things, her father was being terribly unreasonable in his disapproval of their relationship. On the surface, this story reminds the reader of many of our children's fables as well as many a Hollywood movie. But as the older generation use to say, "the devil's in the details!"
As it so happened the young groom was John Harley Holton (1892-1965) who fell in love with Della Marie Smith (1900-1983) and the two were secretly married on October 6, 1913 in in Appling, Georgia. This of course means that Della had just turned 13-years old seventeen days hence with the love of her life at 20-years old! In today's world there would be BOLO's (Be On the Lookout) posted in every police station across America. But times were different then, as long as you had the parent's permission! Regardless, this union was not blessed with the father of the bride's consent, thus the problem. When the act was presented to her parents Dennis Smith (1865-1922) and Olief Lee "Ollie" Warnock (1871-1962) you can just image the furious father leaving his farm and searching the countryside for Mr. Holden.
Knowing the young man's past employment with various turpentine mills and knowing the young couples need for money, he knew where to begin his search. He contacted turpentine stills all over until he located the couple in Jay, Florida. He immediately boarded an L&N train and headed south with a Georgia deputy in tow! In this case, Smith was within his rights since Georgia law stated that any marriage of a girl under the age of 14 was legally null and void. And since Holdon had taken an underage girl across state lines, he was arrested and extradited back to Georgia. If convicted, he faced 4-7 years' imprisonment. When interviewed, both of the young people appeared heartbroken and it was noted in the report that Della had the appearance of a 20-year-old. But Georgia law stated otherwise. She even swore that she would rather die than return with her father and if forced she would wait for him to be released and "marry him again!" The reporter stated that the father's anger appeared more about revenge than the "welfare of his daughter!" As it turns out, there's was a history here in that Mr. Holdon had assisted Mr. Smith's older daughter Gracie Lee to run off with her present husband Horace Crapps when she was but 15-years old! But as it turned out the "romantic" flair of the situation caused an undercurrent of sympathy for the couple by the local Jay residents rather than any for the father.
In the meantime, the happy family returned to Appling and Holdon was turned over to the authorities. However, there appears to be no charges filed or if there were they were dismissed. By 1920, he was a laborer in a local sawmill with his marriage to Della listed as 1913 so the ceremony must have been left intact! By 1930, he was a tractor driver on a road crew and ten years later a farmer. John & Della would have at least three children, their youngest named after her father so maybe things got patched up with time. John would pass away in 1965 followed by Della in 1983 with both laid to rest in the New Hope Congregational Methodist Church Cemetery in Alam, Bacon County, Georgia.
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