“Twenty-one year old Carl Porubsky, the son of Mathias and Christina Vogelman Porubsky was wed today to eighteen-year old Elizabeth Schulmeister in a family ceremony at Saint Joseph German Catholic Church in Topeka.”

If I was writing a wedding announcement for these two, it would probably start out with my just-the-facts manner before devolving into a mess of a discussion about roses, 3-button suits, and broaches. Alas, I am not the writer of wedding announcements. This picture was taken on Karl and Lizzie’s wedding day, Sunday, 26 August 1906.¹

I don’t know the time of the service, and unlike other Christian denominations, Mass times for the Catholic churches don’t appear in The Topeka Daily Capital. The weather this Sunday was described as fair, with temperatures in the upper 70’s to lower 80’s.² Surely, for August in Topeka, it was a lovely day to get married.

Carl and Elizabeth would see this marriage last fifty-five years, until Carl’s death in 1962. Elizabeth died in 1972.

Sources and Notes:

1. Names appear in the marriage license announcement as Karl Bornesky and Lizzie Schulmeister. “Marriage Licenses,” The Topeka [KS] Daily Capital, 26 Aug 1906, page 11, col 4; digital image, (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 7 Aug 2016), Newspapers.com.
2. “Weather Conditions,” The Topeka [KS] Daily Capital, 26 Aug 1906, page 1, col 5; digital image, (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 7 Aug 2016), Newspapers.com.
3. Carl Porubsky and Elizabeth Schulmeister Porubsky, photograph, taken in Topeka, Kansas, on 26 August 1906; digital image, photograph of original, taken 2016 by Joseph Lowry; privately held by Barbara Viti, [address for private use], Tallmadge, Ohio; Two young adults in marriage outfits, one a dark 3-button suit and the other a white gown with flowers; Provenance is Carl and Elizabeth Porubsky to Caroline Porubsky Wolford to Barbara Wolford Viti.