Who were the celebrities back in the day? Theron Ephron Catlin stretched his 15 minutes of fame into a half hour when he made the New York Times about two separate personal milestones within a one-month period.
Catlin was elected to Congress in 1910 as a representative from Missouri. And speaking of back in the day, Missouri was entitled to 16 representatives in 1910 (one of whom was "Champ" Clark, Speaker of the House). We have nine reps these days -- and these days are numbered.
So, Catlin's election was challenged and he ended up losing his seat in August 1912. There were questions about campaign funding. Then his fiancee changed her mind a few weeks before their wedding, which was planned for early October 1912. The Times speculates about why she backed out. Someone else?
No smoke without fire. She married someone else in late November of that year. The fiancee, Laura Beatrice Merriam, sounded like an interesting woman. The Times article above mentions that she was "one of the first girls to go up in an aeroplane." Actually she and her friend, Dorothy Williams, were the first two women to be passengers in an airplane simultaneously (this was April 7, 1911) and only the second pair of passengers in an American airplane flight.
I don't know if Theron E. Catlin found happiness with someone else, but Laura and her husband, James Freeman Curtis, divorced in 1924. A year later she was engaged to someone else and she made the papers again. NYT headline:
SCIENTIST'S FIANCEE MARRIES EX-HUSBAND;
Mrs. Laura Curtis, Who Was to Have Been Bride of Harrison Williams, Springs a Surprise. COUPLE GO TO THE COUNTRY
Jilting Recalls Former Broken Engagement -- Wed in 1912 and Divorced in 1924.
So Theron Ephron Catlin gets a few more minutes of fame 13 years later.
Catlin was elected to Congress in 1910 as a representative from Missouri. And speaking of back in the day, Missouri was entitled to 16 representatives in 1910 (one of whom was "Champ" Clark, Speaker of the House). We have nine reps these days -- and these days are numbered.
So, Catlin's election was challenged and he ended up losing his seat in August 1912. There were questions about campaign funding. Then his fiancee changed her mind a few weeks before their wedding, which was planned for early October 1912. The Times speculates about why she backed out. Someone else?
No smoke without fire. She married someone else in late November of that year. The fiancee, Laura Beatrice Merriam, sounded like an interesting woman. The Times article above mentions that she was "one of the first girls to go up in an aeroplane." Actually she and her friend, Dorothy Williams, were the first two women to be passengers in an airplane simultaneously (this was April 7, 1911) and only the second pair of passengers in an American airplane flight.
I don't know if Theron E. Catlin found happiness with someone else, but Laura and her husband, James Freeman Curtis, divorced in 1924. A year later she was engaged to someone else and she made the papers again. NYT headline:
SCIENTIST'S FIANCEE MARRIES EX-HUSBAND;
Mrs. Laura Curtis, Who Was to Have Been Bride of Harrison Williams, Springs a Surprise. COUPLE GO TO THE COUNTRY
Jilting Recalls Former Broken Engagement -- Wed in 1912 and Divorced in 1924.
So Theron Ephron Catlin gets a few more minutes of fame 13 years later.