Iredell County NcArchives Marriages.....Ball, Robert - Minish, Violet 1907
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Guy Potts http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00017.html#0004214 October 23, 2008, 4:42 pm

Charlotte Observer - Aug 21, 1907
Father Travels Hard Road

His Daughter Gets Married in Spite of His Efforts to the Contrary and When He 
Tries to Prosecute the Man Who Got the License He Loses His Case and is Taxed 
With the Costs.

Statesville, Aug 20 - There have been all kinds of romantic and novel runaway 
marriages in Statesville of late, but here is one which has an aftermath that 
was more interesting than  the marriage itself. This one occurred Sunday 
morning at 9 o'clock when Rev. H.H. Robbins performed the ceremony at his home 
on Race street which made Mr. Robert M. Ball and Miss Violet May Minish man 
and wife.

The young man has a position on the railroad, but is here a good deal of his 
time. He is a son of Mr. R.S. Ball and the bride is a daughter of Mr. James 
Minish. The Ball and Minish families are next-door neighbors on Seventh street 
and Mr. Ball had been paying the Minish girl much attention. The father of the 
girl objected and recently gave Ball orders not to come on his premises again. 

The young people were not to be outdone and since that time have been writing 
notes and meeting secretly. Their affections for one another grew to be so 
strong that Saturday they had an older brother of the young man secure license 
for them and Sunday were married.

The father of the bride learned of what had happened Sunday afternoon and, 
seeking revenge against his son-in-law, went to Justice of the Peace W.W. 
Turner and swore out warrants for the Messrs. Ball, claiming that his daughter 
was under 14 years of age. The warrants were placed in the hands of a deputy 
sheriff and about 6 o'clock the angry father, the deputy, a host of witnesses 
and a large crowd of sympathizers and friends of the couple accompanied the 
prisoners to the courthouse, where the trial was held.

There were many witnesses examined in regard to the girl's age and the trouble 
they had had with the old man and the evidence was interesting and amusing. 
One witness was a young girl friend of the bride, who was with the bride when 
she copied the date of her birth as it was written with pen and ink in the old 
Family Bible and she swore that it was in May, 1889. Other witnesses testified 
that they knew the Minish girl to be near 18, but the father claimed that he 
could prove from the old Bible. 

The Bible was brought into evidence, but it was found that the dates of birth 
of the Minish children were not written in ink, but with pencil and the 
indications were that the Bible had been tampered with, as the oldest dates 
looked as new as the last ones. The plaintiff then introduced a witness who 
had married one of his daughters six years ago and this witness said that the 
writing in the Bible looked to be the same as that when he was married. He 
said that he and his bride examined the old Bible before their marriage for 
fear of trouble after marriage, although his wife was 24 years old when they 
married.

Much conflicting evidence arose and some of the witnesses were evidently 
mixed. The justice took the Bible and examined it closely and found that 
whether it be right or wrong the date in the Bible showed that the girl was 
bout 16. He then explained to Minish that the girl was over 14 years of age, 
and that her marriage was not illegal, and that the only charge that could be 
brought against the defendants was that the older Ball had secured the license 
through false representation, and as the warrrants charged that the girl was 
under 14 years old, and it was proven that she is not, the case would have to 
be dropped and that he, Minish, would have to pay the costs of the action. 
When the justice rendered his decision the old man's countenance dropped and 
the young defendants' faces beamed with joy.

The whole of the crowd in the court room seemed to be in sympathy with the 
groom and when they left many jeered at the old man and shook hands with the 
groom, who hurried away to his bride, who had been left at the home of a 
friend.

The old man not only lost his daughter, but the case against his son-in-law 
and is also out of a little cash.


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