Local history: Wedding dress returns to church after 150 years - Akron Beacon Journal

Two days before Christmas in 1869, Lida Wetmore walked down the aisle in a white silk dress to marry George C. Stanford at a new church in Peninsula. Imagine the congregation’s surprise 150 years later when the bridal gown unexpectedly returned.

The wedding was a union of two prominent families in Summit County. The groom’s grandfather, James Stanford, was one of the original surveyors of Boston Township and is credited with suggesting its New England name. The bride’s grandfather, William Wetmore, was an early settler of Stow and a founder of Cuyahoga Falls.

Peninsula United Methodist Church, which celebrated its 150th anniversary this year, owes its existence to the couple. According to local lore, the sanctuary at Main and Locust streets was built because Stanford and Wetmore had wanted to be married in a church.

The congregation traces its roots to the Boston Moral Society, which formed in 1833 for the “better organization of religious worship and moral improvement.” In the early years, the group depended on circuit-riding preachers to deliver services at various buildings.

Randy Bergdorf, director of the Peninsula Library & Historical Society, is caretaker of Stanford’s leather-bound diaries, a gift from the estate of Nina Howe Stanford, who died in 2006 at age 96. On a recent afternoon, Bergdorf flipped through pages of meticulous, handwritten entries.

In an entry dated May 8, 1968, George C. Stanford writes: “In afternoon went to Peninsula to draw stone and lumber for the church that is building which … I hope will have a blessing to many and be the means of many ‘entering in at the strait gate.’ ”

Written in elegant cursive, Stanford’s well-preserved diaries tell mundane tales about 19th century life in Boston Township and Peninsula. They are full of matter-of-fact details about purchasing goods, repairing wagons, visiting relatives, going to blacksmith shops, tending to farm animals, harvesting crops and enduring weather calamities. With increasing regularity, the name Lida appears on the pages.

“Lida and I had supper alone for the first time,” Stanford writes Aug. 15, 1869, describing a feast of tea, bread and butter, preserves, custard, tarts and potatoes.

Special day

In Stanford’s entry for Dec. 23, 1869, he notes that he “killed two turkeys,” “tacked down carpet,” “blacked boots,” “washed and all such things” and in the evening drove to Peninsula “where there was a very great stir ‘running to and fro.’ ”

Rounding out the day, he writes: “I was married to Lida R. Wetmore in the M.E. Church … had an excellent wedding and a good time in general.”

The Reverend Pollock, no first name given, officiated at the service. The bridesmaids were Lizzie Wallace and Mira Crawford while the groomsmen were Wells Hawley and Lewis Curtis.

The following day, Christmas Eve, the newlywed couple entertained the bridal party and other friends at their Boston home, where “we had supper and much rejoicing and I may say for me a happy time,” Stanford writes in his diary.

George and Lida Stanford welcomed three children: Ellen (born in 1871), Perkins (1874) and Clayton (1877). After his father’s death in 1883, Stanford inherited the 100-acre family homestead near the Cuyahoga River and Ohio & Erie Canal. The Stanford House, a Greek Revival structure built in the 1840s, still stands today in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

George C. Stanford died in 1921 at age 81 and Lida passed away in 1925 at 83. They share a headstone in Boston Cemetery.

As Peninsula United Methodist Church prepared to celebrate its sesquicentennial, the Beacon Journal published an item about the milestone event and 1869 wedding.

“I was looking at the paper and I saw they were having a 150th anniversary celebration,” said Donna McMillen of Springfield Township. “And I said, ‘Ohhhhh. I have her wedding dress!’ ”

McMillen is a great-great-granddaughter of Lida and George Stanford. Her father, Dave Perkins McMillen, the former fire chief of Stow, was a grandson of Perkins Stanford and his wife, Stella. The bridal gown has been passed down for generations.

“It was stored in an old trunk in my parents’ basement,” McMillen recalled. “We had pulled it out a few years ago. … There was a note pinned to the dress that was written by my great-grandmother Stella Stanford.”

Showing its age

The white silk dress, which has yellowed with age, was kept in a wedding box with gloves, shoes and a veil.

“The veil kind of fell apart if you touched it,” McMillen said. “Everything else is in pretty good shape.”

After examining the dainty wedding slippers, though, she had to wonder about Lida’s shoe size. “They were very small,” she said. “I bet they weren’t 2 inches wide.”

McMillen told her mother, Eleanor, about the Peninsula celebration and they decided to contact the church about the family heirloom.

Church secretary Lynn Parmentier answered the phone and was stunned to learn that Lida Stanford’s wedding dress — a symbol of the church’s beginning — had survived for 150 years.

“I was just over the moon,” Parmentier said. “We were so excited.”

The McMillens attended the Peninsula festivities and donated the dress to the historic church where it made its first public appearance since 1869. The gown had come full circle.

“It was a pretty amazing find,” McMillen said.

“It made our anniversary celebration so meaningful to have her wedding dress right there in the sanctuary,” Parmentier said. “It was something tangible that made our church history come to life.”

The gown was displayed for more than a month before congregants turned it over to the Summit County Historical Society for preservation. Society President and Chief Executive Officer Leianne Neff Heppner said the dress will be available for the church to display on special occasions.

Happy 150th anniversary to George and Lida.

Two days after his wedding, Stanford dedicated a diary passage to his newlywed wife: “This is truly a merry Christmas to us. Thank you my dear.”

Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3850.

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