A Summer Wedding

by David Parmer

An Orlando Wedding
‘Twas a jubilant wedding day in August 1914; good times there did reign.
The bride and groom, their vows exchanged, wait upon the train
To take them to a honeymoon, over in Webster Springs.
The bride and groom also await what marital life would bring.
Anna Farrell, the bride of the dapper Edward McCudden, Was a lovely thirty three, and did not believe, a marriage should come sudden.
A wonderful life, they did live, in the county of their birth,

Blessed they were, and full lives lived, a contented treasure’s worth.
.

To the right is Mr Edward McCudden and his new wife, Anna Farrell McCudden.

Below is the scene at the Orlando Depot

on August 17, 1914, waiting for the train

to take the new couple off to their honeymoon in Webster Springs.

Edward and Anna are to the right of the picture,

with Edward wearing the bowler hat and Anna to the left of him. .

. . . . .

The Marriage of Anna Farrell & Edward McCudden

Anna Gertrude Farrell was born in 1881 on View Map' Rocky Fork (which is just over the hill from Posey Run). Anna was the daughter of Peter Farrell and Anna (Cuff) Farrell. She was thirty-three when she married thirty year old Edward Joseph McCudden, who was born in 1884 on View Map' Brush Run to Francis McCudden and Ellen (Bohan) McCudden.

Both families were part of the Irish/Roman Catholic community that settled northwest of Confluence/Orlando, runnning west well into Gilmer County and north into Weston. Anna's parents were emmigrants from County Roscommon, Ireland. For Edward's part, it was his grandparents who had emmgrated from Ireland, we don't know which county.

For a little more on Orlando families from County Roscommon see the Nov '07entry The Dolan Family.

Anna and Edward were married by Father Thomas Quirk at St. Michael’s Church in Orlando on August 14, 1914. The newly weds honeymooned at the famous Webster Springs Hotel in Webster County. and departed for their wedding trip by train from the Orlando Depot.

In 1914 the parish of St. Michael's was worshiping in the frame building pictured to the left. It was located on the hill, in the Rusimisell-Fury Addition. After it burned in 1918, the brick church on the floodplain was built. For the church's story see the May '07 entry St Michael's Church.

To the right is Fr. Thomas Quirk. For more on the accompliished and beloved Reverend Quirk see the Oct '06 entry Orlando's Priest Father Quirk

To the right, (lt to rt) are Anna (Farrell) McCudden, and Edward McCudden with four of Anna's siblings

Nell (Farrell) Bohan, John Farrell, Elizabeth (Farrell) Rush and Mary (Farrell) Fitzpatrick.

Anna's sisters all married sons and grandsons if Irish who came to America during the potato famine and were members of close-knit Irish/Catholic communty that extended northwest from Orlando to southwest of Weston. Elizabeth married Michael Rush, who died of typhoid fever in 1907. They operated the Rush Hotel, located next to St. Michael's Church in the early 1900’s. Ella "Nell" married James Bohan who was a driller, working in the gas or oil fields, Mary married Thomas Fitzpatrick, whose parents or grandparents came from County Roscommon.

To the left, l to r, are all four of the Farrell sisters in the 1940s: Ann McCudden, Nell Bohan, Elizabeth Rush and Mary Fitzpatrick.

In addition to John, who is in the photo, Ann had brothers named Thomas and Peter. None of the three brothers married.

Edward and Anna (Farrell) McCudden operated the McCudden family farm on Brush Run, near Goosepen, their entire lives. Anna died in 1957 and Edward followed in 1971.

. . . . .

comments

comment 1 the Webster Springs Hotel

In 1897, Sen. Johnson N. Camden built a 300-room resort hotel, the Webster Springs Hotel, complete with Russian and Turkish baths, where visitors could enjoy the medicinal qualities of its salt sulphur waters. In 1926, the hotel was destroyed by fire, and never rebuilt.

In the year 2000, Daniel Hamrick mentioned the hotel in a remembrance of Viola and Portia Hamrick at WVPIONEERS:

"When the 300-room Webster Springs Hotel was in its glory, Eli 'Rimfire' Hamrick often called the figures for the Saturday night square dances, Portia pointed out. 'One night he was pretty full (meaning he'd had a few drinks too many) and took his mule right onto the dance floor.' Rimfire was a jeweler, house painter, game warden, fire warden, hunter and>fisherman, and not necessarily in that order."

The map shows Webster County in red. Orlando was located just north of Webster County, straddling Lewis & Braxton Counties, centered where the pink dot is located.

comment 2 the Orlando Depot

To the right is the Orlando Depot. The picture below, left, is of the wedding party waiting in August, 1914 to see Anna & Edward off on their honeymoon. Note that the scene in the 1914 photo was approximately the area lightened in the older and broader photo of the Depot. Double click on the photos to enlarge them.