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The golden wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. David M. LESAN was celebrated yesterday at their home in west Mt. Ayr, a surprise having been planned for by their children. All their children with their respective wives or husbands were present as follows: Messrs. and Mesdames A. L. LESAN of Mt. Ayr, G. F. LESAN of Poe township, D. D. BEARD of Mt. Ayr, J. E. MAIN of Creston, C. R. LESAN of Mt. Ayr, C. W. LESAN of Hatfield, Mo. All the grand children were present except the children of Mr. and Mrs. MAIN. A dinner was served to the relatives at the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. L. LESAN. During the afternoon 91 friends of the family called to pay their respects and wish for Mr. and Mrs. LESAN many happy returns.

The celebration of the golden wedding yesterday calls to attention a chain of coincidences stretching from New England via Illinois to Mt. Ayr, Iowa, and covering a period of over a half century of time - a series of coincidences that is seldom equalled.

David M. and George W. LESAN, borthers, were born in Sebee, Maine, two years apart (1828 and 1830). Their cousins, Sybil and Mary, were born in the same town several years later, almost two years apart (1835 and 1837). The two families located later in Stark county, Ill., where in 1853 George, the younger of the two brothers, married his cousin Mary, the younger of the sisters. In '54, also in Stark county, David, the older of the two brothers, married his cousin Sybil, the older of the two sisters. Both couples moved in 1855 to Poe township, Ringgold county, and lived there for about 40 years, both families locating in Mt. Ayr within recent years. Mr. and Mrs. George W. LESAN celebrated their golden wedding in March a year ago, and Mr. and Mrs. David M. LESAN observed their golden wedding anniversary yesterday. It is considered remarkable that the two brothers and their two sister-cousins, having such a curtous correspondence in age and all born in the same town in Maine, should be married under such coincident circumstances in the then far western state of Illinois, should reside for 40 years in the same township in another western state, and finally live to celebrate their golden weddings in the same Iowa town half way across the continent from where the first scenes in this interesting human drama were enacted almost three-quarters of a century ago.

Submission by Theola Hightshoe Weeda, October of 2012