The Greenwood Mock Marriages, Part 1

It was just after Christmas 1884 - December 28th to be exact, and two young Brooklyn couples went out for some fun. It isn't clear who was at whose house, or whether anyone wanted to get married at the beginning of the evening. In the sober light of the next day, everyone had a different story to tell about the mess they had got themselves into.

Viola Hamilton and her boyfriend Fred Barnett, went out with their friends Fannie Breakspear and Walter Hill. That much they all agreed on.

Viola was 18 years old (not 16 as her mother later said), as was Fred. Fannie was 19. Walter said he was 18 although the 1880 census states that he was 24 then, employed as a bookkeeper - which would make him 28 in 1884, not 18 (the 1910 census confirms Walter's birthdate as circa 1856). This is a serious lie, which is repeated in several news articles. It isn't surprising that Walter and Fannie's story has the most trouble attached to it.

At 9 pm the four of them went out together. Walter Hill later said that they first went to Prospect Park, following this with a two-hour stroll through Greenwood Cemetery. Then someone thought "hot Scotch whiskey" would taste good and "the party entered a saloon opposite the cemetery." The drinks flowed, and the gentlemen began to "[feel] merry hearted." Walter stated later that one of the girls said they should all get married.

It seems likely, from reading the coverage of the case, that Walter and Fannie already had some vague idea of marriage. Fannie was "in trouble." Viola probably knew this, as they were friends.

Walter (possibly Fred also) called for a Bible and asked the bartender to marry him and Fannie. Fannie refused, saying that she didn't want to be "another Higbie case"* and that they must do it properly. The bartender was getting tired of the noisy foursome. He said "I wish you would all get out of here and get married." Someone shouted out that they had better go down the street and get Reverend Gulick to marry them.

So arm in arm they "staggered" off to the Twelfth Street Reformed Church, loudly singing a hymn. Then they pulled the rectory bell again and again. It was almost midnight by now. The Reverend Uriah Gulick poked his head out of an upstairs window and asked what they wanted. Why, to get married! Instead of telling them to go away, Gulick came downstairs and obligingly married both couples. He said later that they seemed perfectly sober - though with all the hymn-singing and shouting, this is hard to believe.

The morning after, everyone seems to have had second thoughts. Fred was in tears, his father said. And all the parents were furious.

Mrs. Phebe Hankey (also known as Mrs. Sprague, see note below)** was Viola's mother. She had a divorce in the works and was "quite conspicuous" in the press already because of this. When the reporter arrived, she asked what he wanted "in a voice that was audible through the whole house." He described her tacky-looking parlor and said she could hardly wait to talk to him, going "two hundred words a minute." She said, "after recovering from the excitement" of being interviewed, that Fred and Viola were having a quiet evening at her house when Walter showed up and asked the couple to witness his marriage to Fannie. Mrs. Sprague let them go and when they returned Fred said he'd married Viola. Although she'd agreed to let Viola go out with Fred, she was appalled:

Viola was only 16 years of age. I informed [Fred] that he was of intemperate habits, and that I had known him for some time, and that he would never have my child.

Viola told her mother that she didn't want to live with Fred anyway, and that he'd told her to keep the whole thing secret for a year. Mrs. Sprague noted mysteriously that Viola was not quite the same "little daughter" she had been "since she fell down in Mr. Ross's alley some time ago." But she did not drink. She was but a "little child" who liked to eat candy. Think of her getting married! Mrs. Sprague said she'd talked to Fred's father who said Mrs. Sprague could not get the marriage annulled. Phebe replied that in that case, she "would kill his son."

Off went the reporter to find the elder Mr. Barnett, who wore "a beautiful smoking jacket." He said he'd told Phebe that the marriage business was "the result of a drunken spree and that we had better make the best of it."

The next interview was with Miss Fannie Breakspear (or Mrs. Hill). She said they didn't go into Greenwood Cemetery and she hadn't had any drinks. Walter ordered her a sherry flip but she didn't have any of it. She'd only met Walter in August. And she "had never had any children." This is important because it is made clear in the press coverage that Fannie was pregnant, hence the urgency of getting married.

Mr. Breakspear came in and backed up his daughter's story. He said Walter "stole Fanny out of her house" and married her. It was a legal marriage, though. She hadn't got his permission to marry, but it was going to stick, and "if Mr. Hill plays the drunken act I shall follow him up."

Everyone had a different story, and everyone was upset. Soon afterwards, Walter Hill's mother went to court on his behalf for an annulment - on the grounds of fraud. And Phebe Sprague petititoned the court to annul Viola's marriage to Fred.

In tomorrow's conclusion: Everyone is soon in court to try and straighten out the midnight marital mess. One marriage was annulled - the other was not, and was still causing havoc ten years later. We'll look at what happened tomorrow.

*The Higbie case was another mock marriage that took place in Flatbush earlier in 1884.

**Viola's mother had an interesting marital history herself. She was married for the first time at age 16 to William Hamilton, who died sometime after Viola's birth in 1866. She then married Henry Hancke/Hankey who died about 1868. In 1884 Phebe was seeking a divorce from a baseball player named Joe Sprague who claimed that he had never been married to her in the first place. He claimed that he'd never married, and in fact lived with his dear old mother at home. This is in direct contradiction of the 1880 census, however. In that year Joseph E. and Phebe Sprague were enumerated in the household of Phebe's mother, Susan Ryerson. Joseph was even listed as Susan's son-in-law.

Image from NYPL Digital Gallery. The sources will be listed at the end of Part 2.