Howard + Virginia Douglas. Virginia (daughter of Doya (Lloyd) Cassel Douglas and Bessie Io Porch) was born in private. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Lloyd Cassel Douglas, an American minister and author, was born Doya C. Douglas.

Lloyd C. Douglas was a well known author, he wrote quite a few books. A few of the books he wrote were: The Robe, Magnificent Obsession

Excerpt from newspaper article by Edwin Meitzler

It was on April 7, 1904 and a wedding such as few in Columbia City had ever witnessed before. This was the marriage of the Rev. Lloyd C. Douglas to Miss Besse Io Porch, daughter of the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. F. M. Porch. Dr. Porch had given up a large church in Louisville, KY, due to failing health to administer to the congregation a Grace Lutheran Church here.

The engagement was a Valentine's Day event in the Porch household and Lloyd Cassel Douglas himself announced it. During the party, Mrs. Clyde Keirn was called to the parsonage telephone. The young minister had made the call, and he announced the news.

After congratulations, the party went to the dining room where plates were set for 18. Hearts and carnations were the decorations, red being the color. Besse was the first of the three Porch girls to be married, and her parents did it up properly.

Douglas told his daughters that he planned an elaborate campaign of courtship "but the first time I was alone with your mother, I blurted out the whole thing and asked her to marry me."

Besse said no, giving as a reason that she didn't want to be a minister's wife and she wanted to go on the stage. But Besse soon changed her mind, mentioning that although she at first rejected the author, she really loved him.

The author, son of the Rev. and Mrs. A. J. Douglas was born at the Northwest corner of Main and North Streets. His father served as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church and was superintendent of the town's schools. His grave is in the Masonic section of Greenhill Cemetery. His wife, who was sometimes blunt of speech, was laid to rest in Salem Cemetery at Wilmot near her girlhood home.

Over the wedding plans she muttered at the Porch family's extravagance, "The Reverend will be ready for the poorhouse by the time his wife gets the three of them (daughters) married off.


Church Manipulation
In a biographical account of Lloyd Douglas, his two daughters, Virginia Dawson and Betty Wilson, told how the engagement came about through some church manipulation played by the bridegroom-to-be, his father and none less than President Ort of Wittenberg College.

Dr. Ort had taken a fatherly interest in the young minister because of his long friendship with the Rev. A. J. Douglas. He asked the young North Manchester minister to visit him on campus when convenient and questioned him about his work. As Douglas was getting up to go and feeling bewildered as to why Dr. Ort had sent for him, President Ort said "By the way, Lloyd, I have a letter here from Dr. Porch. He says his daughter Besse has broken her engagement. Douglas returned to his chair and the two of them grinned at each other. Besse and Lloyd had been fast friends during their Wittenberg days.

Quoting from the daughters book "The Shape of Sunday" Douglas mentioned to the college president that Louisville was a long way for a poor preacher to go courting.


Ministerial Plotting
Dr. Ort informed his young visitor that the pulpit at the Columbia City church had been vacant several months and the Rev. A. J. Douglas had considerable influence with the Church Council there. He advised his young caller that he might suggest Dr. Porch to the elder Douglas as a possible candidate.

Church "politics" followed and soon Dr. Porch was installed at Grace Church and Lloyd Douglas became a frequent caller at the Porch home when he stopped to see his parents in Columbia City.


Elaborate Wedding
Of course, Dr. Porch officiated at the elaborate wedding in his church at a 4 o'clock Thursday ceremony. Present were several hundred people, including members of the church.

Invitations had been sent out to special friends of the families so that "when the bridal party entered, the auditorium and gallery were crowded with guests." This was the comment of the Columbia City Post's society editor.

The newspaper account went on to say that the church was elaborately decorated with palms and flowers. The section occupied by the honorary guests was marked by ribbons and flowers "in great profusion".

Ceremony Starts

The newspaper reported that "When Miss Jessie Weber, stuck the first notes of the wedding march on the pipe organ, little Ruth Mills, the ribbon girl, entered from the rear of the church, Ed Weber and Clyde Douglas were the ushers.

Following came the Misses Glen Porch and Mary Makemson, and in turn the bridesmaid, Miss Nell Porch, the the bride on the arm of her father, Dr. Porch.

Organist Jesse Weber is now Mrs. Homer Kitt of Washington, D.C. The Mary Makemson later was to marry Tom Peabody of North Manchester. They were lifelong friends of the Douglases

The newspaper reported that all the ladies in the wedding party carried "large bunches of flowers" and those carried by the bride were white lilies. "The bride wore a beautiful white French lawn dress trimmed in Teneriss lace and presented a very charming appearance," so wrote the Post's society editor.

The groom was attended by Joe E. Brown of North Manchester. They came down the steps from the pipe organ left and met the bridal party in front of the altar, whereupon Dr. Porch proceeded with the marriage ceremony, so the wedding account continued.

"Immediately after the vows had been taken, the bride and groom entered a cab and were driven to the home of the Rev. A. J. Douglas (ill and unable to be present) that he might be the first to offer congratulations. They returned to the church parsonage and received congratulations of those who were there by special invitation," so the reporter wrote.


Five Course Dinner
The Post's wedding story mentioned that later on a wedding dinner was served, "consisting of five courses." Waiting upon the guest were the Misses Marie Meyers (later to be Mrs. B. J. Bloom), Hazel Harrison and Mrs. Joe Adair-Keirn. The decorations were in white, consisting largely of white carnations and lilies.

The guests from out of town were Mr. and Mrs. Joe Brown and two daughters, Mr. and Mrs. Holly Sheller (landlords of the groom who lived at the Sheller Hotel in North Manchester), Mrs. John Mills the Zion Lutheran Church's coterie girls, all of these from North Manchester; Mrs. W. J. Stuart, R. M. Hatcher, sister and father of Mrs. F. M. Porch from Springfield, Ohio; and Miss Nell McGavern, Van Wert, Ohio.


A Bag Of Gold
According to The Post's writer, the bride received "many beautiful and useful presents, and the groom was especially pleased over his bag of gold, consisting of 20 $5 gold pieces which came from his congregation at North Manchester.

His call to Zion Church in 1903 set May 1 for the date of his ministry's start there. This had come to him before he had completed his theological course.

After the wedding dinner, the bridal couple "departed for the east at 7 O"clock". This was not factual, the honeymoon was at Lake Wawasee.

This story of the Douglas-Porch wedding serves to introduce a series of book reviews which will appear in the newspaper from time to time. The novels were written at later dates by the 1904 bridegroom. He became not only one of the country's most famous ministers, but also carved a place for himself in American literature. The Robe is probably the best known work of more than a dozen of his best sellers.


Books by Lloyd C. Douglas
The Robe, Magnificent Obsession, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, Precious Jeopardy, Green Light, White Banners, Disputed Passage, Home For Christmas, Doctor Hudson's Secret Journal, Invitation To Live, Time To Remember, The Big Fisherman.

Time To Remember, is a book about his Papa and Mama and his life, sort of a biography.

The Shape of Sunday, An Intimate Biography of Lloyd C. Douglas. By his daughters, Virginia Dawson and Betty Wilson.

Doya married Bessie Io Porch on 7 Apr 1904 in Columbia City, Indiana. Bessie was born in 1878; died in 1944 in Buried In Forest Lawn Cemetery Los Angeles, California Area. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Towne SE. Worse than Vallandigham: Governor Oliver P. Morton, Lambdin P. Milligan, and the military arrest and trial of Indiana State Senator Alexander J. Douglas during the civil war. Indiana mag hist. 2010 Mar;106(1):1-39. See full article in my Articles database A6473.

Alexander J. Douglass was born in 1827 in Richland County, Ohio, near the town of Mansfield, the son of farmers. When Alexander was twelve, an attack of rheumatism crippled his father, rendering the older man unable to work. Alexander and his two younger brothers Thomas and Michael farmed the land to support their parents and two younger sisters. When not busy farming, Alexander attended a local school in the winter. Reputed to be a voracious reader as a youth, he began to teach school locally at eighteen. He soon enrolled at a local academy (or high school) at nearby Ashland, and then at Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio. It was at this time he dropped the second ?s? in his family name. Douglas intended to study for a career in law, but the college aimed to produce pastors for Lutheran congregations. Notwithstanding that he and his family were Presbyterians, Douglas studied for the Lutheran ministry. However, he failed his examination for the pastorate and did not graduate, as the examining committee was not satisfied by his answers to questions on accepted doctrine. His failure to receive full credentials did not hinder him from filling Lutheran pulpits for many years later in his life, nor from teaching in church schools up until his death. Shortly after leaving Wittenberg in 1850 he married Mary Jenner, of a prominent Richland County family.
Douglas?s failure to become a Lutheran pastor allowed him to revert to his earlier ambition to practice law. After teaching school for two years in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, he read law in the Mansfield firm of Samuel J. Kirkwood and Barnabas Burns. After three years of toil and study, Douglas passed the Ohio bar in 1855. The Douglas family resettled in Whitley County, Indiana, nearly due west of Richland County, Ohio, by about one-hundred-seventy miles. There the family grew, with a succession of children added to the couple. After teaching at the Wartburg Seminary, Douglas established a law practice in Columbia City and soon began to develop a name as an effective Democratic Party speaker and advocate. He won election as Whitley County prosecutor in1858, and played an active role in public affairs in the county and the surrounding region. Appointment as county school examiner followed. Later in that year he offered himself for his party?s choice for state representative, but came in third place in the candidate selection process. In addition to holding public offices, Douglas continued to teach at a local Lutheran school.
In common with a substantial minority of his fellow Democrats at the outset of war in 1861, Douglas voiced his decided opposition to federal coercion. Reacting to a pro-war sermon preached in a local Lutheran church, he announced in a long letter in Columbia City?s Democratic newspaper that he did not want ?blood on my garments.? A speech at a county party convention in September 1861 again embroiled him in dispute. While denying that he termed a recently recruited volunteer company a bunch of ?yellow legged abolitionists,? he admitted to having said that there was ?disloyalty in places where loyalty was pretended.? The denominational and oratorical controversies do not appear to have damaged his standing in the community, at least among the Democratic majority: Douglas won reappointment as county school examiner, and the newspaper reported that his private, Lutheran school enjoyed a large enrollment.

Alexander married Sarah Jane (Jennie) Cassel on 20 Jul 1876 in Noble County, IN. Sarah (daughter of Samuel Cassel and Sarah Kimmerly) was born in Oct 1847 in Mount Eaton, Wayne County, OH; died in 1938 in Indiana, USA; was buried in Salem Cemetery, Wilmot, IN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

eighth child in a compact family of ten.

Sarah Jane ?Jennie" Cassel was the mother of Lloyd Douglas. She was born in Mt. Eaton Ohio 1847, daughter of Samuel & Sarah Kimmerly Cassel. Other children born to this union were, Catherine b. 1840, Amanda b. I842 (she married Dr. William Henry Coyle,) Isabe1 b. 1844, John b. 1844, Mary ?Molly" b. 1845 (married Paul Beezley), Daniel b. 1852 married Martha Jane Long. Maggie was the sister of Martha Jane Long who was married to Franklin Hunt. The Hunts were a prominent family in Etna Township. Worth b. 1854 and Samantha b. 1858.
In 1850. the Cassel family moved to "the west", after a fire ravaged their home and gristmill in Ohio. They settled on a farm half a mile east of the Salem Church in Noble County. Samuel built a Sawmill in Noble County. When the Civil War started Samuel and John Cassel were drafted. Jennie's brother, John Cassel, died and is buried at Chattanooga. Jennie's father returned after the war, and had a drinking problem the rest of his life.
At the age of 15, Jennie entered into the teaching profession filling in for her sister, Molly, who had become sick with malaria.
She married Rev. Alexander Jackson Douglas in 1875. She was his second wife. His first wife was Mary Jenner. Jennie and A.J. Douglas were married for 29 years and they had three children, Lloyd, Mabel and Clyde E.
Jennie spent her last years living in Monroeville, Indiana, where she wrote articles for the Monroeville newspaper. She died Easter Day April 9, 1939 at the age of 91. She is buried in Salem Cemetery, Noble County Indiana.

Below from The Columbia City Post, Monday April 10, 1939

???? Death Claims Mrs. Douglas on Easter. Mother of Lloyd Douglas, the Author, dies in Monroeville - A Former Local Resident. ???? Mrs. A. J. Douglas, 91, died at noon on Easter Sunday at her home in Monroeville after a long illness. Her son, Lloyd C. Douglas, of Los Angeles, Calif., who flew here last week from the west coast, and Mrs. Grace Lawrence, of this city, a niece of Mrs. Douglas, who has been her companion for the last few years, were at the bedside when Mrs. Douglas died. ???? Funeral rites will be held Tuesday morning at 10:30 o'clock in the St. Mark's Lutheran church at Monroeville. Interment will be made in the Salem cemetery in Noble county. A number of nieces and nephews reside in Noble county. ???? The father of Mrs. Douglas, who was a millwright and carpenter, moved to Columbia City with his family in 1850 and after the Civil war moved to Noble county. Her maiden name was Cassel and she was born in Mount Eaton, Ohio. ???? Mrs. Douglas taught school in Noble county and in 1876 was married to Rev. A. J. Douglas, who died in 1905. For twenty-nine years, Rev. Douglas served various Lutheran churches in northern Indiana towns. For several years he was pastor of Grace Lutheran church in this city and at one time was superintendent of schools in Whitley county. ???? Following the death of her husband, Mrs. Douglas returned to Monroeville, where Rev. and Mrs. Douglas had lived for a number of years. She was the last surviving member of her family. A son, Clyde E. Douglas, died in 1908, and an infant daughter, Mabel, died in 1879. Surviving besides her son, the well known author, is a stepson, Stephen A. Douglas, of Freeport, Ill. ???? The body will lie in state at the Painter Brothers Funeral Home in Monroeville, until the hour for services at the church. ???? Mrs. Douglas was always an ardent reader and until recently had kept well informed on current events. At frequent intervals she contributed columns to the Monroeville Breeze, a weekly publication, and in recent months had made contributions to the newspaper. Her articles, which dealt with the customs and events which she recalled in her lifetime, were read with interest here.