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by Mary E. Corcoran 8 August 2020  When couples were married in Emmons County, they rarely married in church. Since most church services were conducted in school rooms, couples usually married at home, in the late afternoon at the home of the bride or groom’s parents.
The Bismarck Tribune on 17 October 1884, described a double wedding ceremony at the “D. S.” Ranch of Don Stevenson and wife, Lydia. Stevenson was a well-known early pioneer, and his home in the middle part of the Cannonball country, near Glencoe, had served as a welcome respite for many travelers.
The double wedding was that of his twenty-one year-old son, Hugh Stevenson to Miss Emma Robinson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Robinson of Glencoe, ND. The second couple was John Goughnour and Ane Marie Juhls. Goughnour was twenty-nine years old, and the wagon-master for Don Stevenson’s freighting operation between Bismarck and the Black Hills. Ane Marie Juhls was sixteen years old, and Danish, and had emigrated with her parents, the year before. She was employed at the Stevenson ranch as well.
The wedding took place in late afternoon, and there were 125 guests. It was described as:
“one of the principle social events of the season, and the guests gathered from all sections of the domains of Bismarck and Emmons to tender their congratulations and respects to the young people and the Stevenson family.”
The wedding cakes numbered 46, and the banquet lasted from eleven o’clock in the evening until three o’clock in the morning.
It was written that Mrs. Stevenson was the recipient of many compliments on the “queenly manner in which she entertained the rejoicing thong.”
Editor Darwin Reed Streeter, of The Emmons County Record, recalled the wedding in 1907, and remembered that Don Stevenson had a fractured leg, which was propped up by large pillows.
The wedding concluded by the crowd “hurling their old slippers and antiquated horse-shoes at the young people,” as they left for their homes.
The groom, Hugh Stevenson was born in 1863, the oldest of the eight Stevenson children, born in North Prairie, Sterns, MI. Bride, Emma Kerr Robinson was born in Jerks, Forest, PA and died 1934 in Williston, Williams, ND. Hugh survived her until 1947, passing away in Sidney, Richland, MT.; they had twelve children.
Groom # Two was John Goughnour, born in Cambia, PA in 1855 and homesteaded in Buchanan Valley, raising prize cattle herds until about 1909, when he relocated to Salem, Marion, OR. He died there in 1911. The second bride, Ane Marie Juhls was born in 1867 in Copenhagen, Kobenhavns Kommune, Hovedstaden, Denmark. She died in 1917 in Salem, OR. The Goughnours had seven children. Their oldest son Frank took over the family ranch.
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