Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage of Mr and Mrs T.C. Boylan. They were married February 16, 1866 in Sciota township in McDonough county, Illinois. Both were born in Ohio; he in Irville, Sept 13, 1840, and she near Rhoboth, in Perry county, April 6, 1844.

Having spent his boyhood days at the home in Ohio, Thomas Boylan located in Galesburg when eighteen years old and engaged in farming near that city. A little later he located in McDonough county near Blandinsville. While here the Civil War broke out and Young Boylan enlisted in an Illinois regiment and served until the end of the war being discharged June 7, 1865 at Washington, D.C. Before departing for home all drew new uniforms which they very much needed to make them look respectable, as they had finished a march of four hundred miles; from Savanah, Georgia to Washington, D.C. On arriving home late in June the soldiers were guests of honor at many entertainemnts where they always wore their uniforms which attracted much attention and admiration especially by the ladies. It was at an entertainment of this sort that Thomas Boylan and Miss Martha Rinehart first met. he had an eye for beauty and an instinct for worth and as soon as he espied this young lady made up his mind she was the one he wanted. He sought an introduction to her and at once his glittering uniform he says attracted her as that was all the qualifications he had at that time to recommend him to the fair sex. He says "we were soon at ease in each other's company. Her figure was perfect. She was five feet and three inches high, weighed 120 pounds; had dark brown eyes and hair of the same color. It is useless for me to add that I was attracted to her at once and you all know the outcome. And I will say that she has been a true help-mate all these fifty long years. And while she is older, her hair white and her form somewhat bent yet to me she has lost none of her attraction and gracious qualitites."

Mr and Mrs Boylan came to Page county, Iowa and settled on a farm at Snow Hill near the present site of Coin in 1871. Snow Hill was then the postoffice instead of Coin. In 1893 they moved to Shenandoah and have made it their home ever since, except the three years they lived in Farragut. They are good citizens and we hope they will continue to reside here as long as they live and we hope that will be to a ripe old age.

Mr and Mrs Boylan are the parents of five living children whose names int he order of their births are: William Boylan, Northboro; Walter L. Boylan, Hastings; Mrs Lettie M. Glover, Eugene, Oregon; Mrs A. Porter, Malvern; and Irvil R. Boyland, Ft Morgan, Colo.

Johnny Rebel Coat

The following is a reminiscense story told by Mr Boylan about the Johnny Rebel coat he swiped while marching across South Carolina and which he wore on his wedding day fifty years ago.

About January 20, 1865 the fourteenth army Corps, was ordered up the Savannah River about 40 miles to cross over in to South Carolina. While I was marching on the left flank we came to a large house occupied by white people. Coming out of the house I saw an knapsack on the porch. I picked it up and took it to camp. It proved to belong to a Lieutenant of the Confederate army and contained a suit of citizen's clothes, a frock coat and vest of very fine broad cloth, and a pair of pantaloons of different color. I doned the suit and walked through the street where the men were all cooking and they soon began inquiring who that chap was and began to gather around me, none of them knowing who I was. And right then I had to own up, or I might have been put in the river.

The next morning we were to go over the river. As the coat and vest were just my size, I wrapped them up and sent them home by mail. I had never had a good sit so I kept it nice. A while before we were married I took the coat to a tailor for some repairing. It so happened that he had been a Confederate soldier. He looked the coat over carefully and then asked where I got it. I told him. He said he had made the coat, he knew his stitching, having made it for a firm in Savannah, Georgia. He did not claim the coat so I was permitted to be married in a Johnny Rebel coat. And have never owned as good a one since.