Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, D.C.) July 17, 1897 page 4
The wedding of Miss Sarah Griswold Fitch to Mr. Francis Hillhouse, of New York, Thursday night, was a strange one.
The tapers that lighted the wedding party revealed a coffin, in which lay a dead woman, and the palms and lilies that formed a background for the minister who performed the ceremony were part of the trappings of death.
Miss Fitch’s mother died on Monday. The date of the wedding had been fixed for October 5 and Mrs. Fitch was to have given away her daughter. Her sudden death upset the arrangement, but Miss Fitch determined from a serious impulse that her husband should receive his bride from her mother’s hand, even though she were dead.
The ceremony was performed in the big drawing room of the Fitch House, in a fashionable quarter of Norwich, Conn., and Rev. J. Eldred Brown, of Trinity Church, was the officiating clergyman. No one was present save the bride and bridegroom, the minister and the witnesses required by law.
The wedding party gathered near the coffin in which lay the body of Mrs. Fitch. As the clergyman began the service Miss Fitch clasped her mother’s hand and held it until the words “who giveth this woman” had been spoke, when she gently released it and the ceremony was finished.
Mrs. Fitch was buried Thursday. The Fitch family is wealthy7 and the bride is to have $200,000 in her own right.
Mr. Hillhouse is a graduate of Yale of 1879, and one of the family of Hillhouse so distinguished in the history of Connecticut.
The wedding of Miss Sarah Griswold Fitch to Mr. Francis Hillhouse, of New York, Thursday night, was a strange one.
The tapers that lighted the wedding party revealed a coffin, in which lay a dead woman, and the palms and lilies that formed a background for the minister who performed the ceremony were part of the trappings of death.
Miss Fitch’s mother died on Monday. The date of the wedding had been fixed for October 5 and Mrs. Fitch was to have given away her daughter. Her sudden death upset the arrangement, but Miss Fitch determined from a serious impulse that her husband should receive his bride from her mother’s hand, even though she were dead.
The ceremony was performed in the big drawing room of the Fitch House, in a fashionable quarter of Norwich, Conn., and Rev. J. Eldred Brown, of Trinity Church, was the officiating clergyman. No one was present save the bride and bridegroom, the minister and the witnesses required by law.
The wedding party gathered near the coffin in which lay the body of Mrs. Fitch. As the clergyman began the service Miss Fitch clasped her mother’s hand and held it until the words “who giveth this woman” had been spoke, when she gently released it and the ceremony was finished.
Mrs. Fitch was buried Thursday. The Fitch family is wealthy7 and the bride is to have $200,000 in her own right.
Mr. Hillhouse is a graduate of Yale of 1879, and one of the family of Hillhouse so distinguished in the history of Connecticut.
Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, D.C.) July 17, 1897 page 4
The wedding of Miss Sarah Griswold Fitch to Mr. Francis Hillhouse, of New York, Thursday night, was a strange one.
The tapers that lighted the wedding party revealed a coffin, in which lay a dead woman, and the palms and lilies that formed a background for the minister who performed the ceremony were part of the trappings of death.
Miss Fitch’s mother died on Monday. The date of the wedding had been fixed for October 5 and Mrs. Fitch was to have given away her daughter. Her sudden death upset the arrangement, but Miss Fitch determined from a serious impulse that her husband should receive his bride from her mother’s hand, even though she were dead.
The ceremony was performed in the big drawing room of the Fitch House, in a fashionable quarter of Norwich, Conn., and Rev. J. Eldred Brown, of Trinity Church, was the officiating clergyman. No one was present save the bride and bridegroom, the minister and the witnesses required by law.
The wedding party gathered near the coffin in which lay the body of Mrs. Fitch. As the clergyman began the service Miss Fitch clasped her mother’s hand and held it until the words “who giveth this woman” had been spoke, when she gently released it and the ceremony was finished.
Mrs. Fitch was buried Thursday. The Fitch family is wealthy7 and the bride is to have $200,000 in her own right.
Mr. Hillhouse is a graduate of Yale of 1879, and one of the family of Hillhouse so distinguished in the history of Connecticut.
The wedding of Miss Sarah Griswold Fitch to Mr. Francis Hillhouse, of New York, Thursday night, was a strange one.
The tapers that lighted the wedding party revealed a coffin, in which lay a dead woman, and the palms and lilies that formed a background for the minister who performed the ceremony were part of the trappings of death.
Miss Fitch’s mother died on Monday. The date of the wedding had been fixed for October 5 and Mrs. Fitch was to have given away her daughter. Her sudden death upset the arrangement, but Miss Fitch determined from a serious impulse that her husband should receive his bride from her mother’s hand, even though she were dead.
The ceremony was performed in the big drawing room of the Fitch House, in a fashionable quarter of Norwich, Conn., and Rev. J. Eldred Brown, of Trinity Church, was the officiating clergyman. No one was present save the bride and bridegroom, the minister and the witnesses required by law.
The wedding party gathered near the coffin in which lay the body of Mrs. Fitch. As the clergyman began the service Miss Fitch clasped her mother’s hand and held it until the words “who giveth this woman” had been spoke, when she gently released it and the ceremony was finished.
Mrs. Fitch was buried Thursday. The Fitch family is wealthy7 and the bride is to have $200,000 in her own right.
Mr. Hillhouse is a graduate of Yale of 1879, and one of the family of Hillhouse so distinguished in the history of Connecticut.
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