Hello Forest County Community!
A few months ago I traveled to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay archives that temporarily held early Forest County documents that are permanently housed in Ashland County. I spent all day copying papers to bring back to Forest County so that residents can learn more about their local history. Several of the documents that I discovered were early marriage applications. If one or both of the individuals wishing to be joined in matrimony were not of legal age their parents could sign a consent form. The legal age in Forest County at the turn of the 20th century was 18 years old for females and 21 years old for males. The consent form below was signed by one of the prominent men in our county’s history, William VanZile, the brother of the founder of Argonne. The document allowed his daughter Mary, to be wed to John Slagle before she was of age in 1904. Feel free to visit the library to search for your ancestors’ marriage applications and stay tuned for more documents discovered at the UW GB archives.
Did you happen to find anything on Orville DeWitt, Bethal DeWitt, any Rugg’s? Please let me know. Thank you!
No I do not. But I was only able to collect half of the marriage applications because of time constraints. When I am able to copy the other half I will check for those names.