A St. Peter’s Wedding from 1902

Between the end of the Civil War and the First World War, Philadelphia’s newspapers recorded with remarkable detail the daily life of its Center City Episcopal parishes—and St. Peter’s was no exception. From the calling of new rectors to vivid descriptions of Easter Day services, the local press chronicled the rhythms of parish life with fascination and precision. Mining these digitized archives today reveals rich, contemporaneous perspectives on St. Peter’s and its congregation. Among these is a particularly intriguing article published by “The Philadelphia Inquirer” on October 12, 1902, which reports on the marriage of Anna Rodman Jones and Robert Massey Drayton and, in doing so, offers curious commentary on both the parish and its historic building. Below is the article transcribed in full.

“Stately and prim old St. Peter’s, of colonial days, with its high back and uncomfortable pews, was the scene on Wednesday of one of the most picturesque, as well as most fashionable, of this autumn’s weddings. It was the marriage of Miss Anna Rodman Jones and Mr. Robert Massey Drayton, which means the joining of two of Philadelphia’s oldest families.

Stiff and inconvenient as the old church is, there is a dignity about its old gray walls and glossy white woodwork that demands solemnity and sends one’s thoughts back to colonial days.

October and June have for years been looked upon by society as the months of wedding bells, and society’s matrons and patrons hurry back to the city from the shore and the country to be present at the first of the season’s nuptials. There were reasons in the days of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, in the days when old St. Peter’s was in its glory, for October weddings. The young squire in those days made the home for his bride, he superintended the gathering and storing of the crops, he watched and tended his stock, not stocks as in these days, and when the barns, the stables and the storehouses were all filled he would cast off his old and dusty clothes, and with Bob Acres’ pride would don his “meeting clothes,” his best top boots and silver beaver, and would go to her, who to him was the fairest maid in all the land, and ask her to be his bride, to go back with him to the home he had made for her.

There are some who would tell us that we have lost in the mad upward rush of life all the pretty touches of sentiment our great-grandmothers knew. But is it true? No. Dame Nature paints the earth from the same palette and with the same gorgeous autumnal colors as she did in days of old. And the bride who stepped from old St. Peter’s Church on Wednesday had as bright a face and as light and happy a heart as any since the world began, despite the fact that the coal strike robbed her of two of her ushers, brave City Troopers, and the Master of Chimes welcomed her with “Sue, dear, how I miss your laughing,” instead of “Oh, perfect love.”

Troopers E. Shippen Willing and Norris Wistar Vaux were to have been members of the bridal party, but the God of War and the Governor of the State intervened, and their places were filled by Mr. Richard M. Cadwalader, Jr., and Mr. Livingston L. Biddle. The calling of the troop to the scene of the coal strike has not only depleted the list of men available for fashionable entertainments, but is likely to cause several changes in the social calendar of the month. Mr. William Biddle Cadwalader and Mr. Benjamin West Frazier are to be married soon, and a postponement of their weddings is now more than a possibility. Most of the men who were to be ushers at their weddings are also City Troopers.”

A monthly feature brought to you by the St. Peter’s History Committee. This article was written by parishioner Michael Krasulski.