The Tale of Two Elopements

  "Married at Hotel Here"

     Blanche Sapp McCall was almost 18 when she married her 28 year old beau, Herbert McCall. In contrast to the newspaper account her notes said they "eloped" and were married at "high noon," May 12, 1910 in the Athens Hotel parlors in downtown Columbia, Missouri. 

    This took some gumption as her brother Bert Sapp was the  deputy sheriff for Boone County and another brother, William Hollis "Wood" Sapp was not only a prominent lawyer in Columbia, but in five years would serve as a member of the Missouri State House of Representatives from Boone County. Her marriage license said she was over eighteen, but she did in fact have another 19 days to go.

    After the wedding they moved in with "Father McCall." Her new father-in-law lived in Hartsburg, Missouri, and owned a general store on Second Street. They lived with his family, possibly living above the store and and Herbert continued working for his father as he had done previously.  

    In 1914 they moved to Columbia where they had a grocery store at 3rd and Broadway.

    Blanche Mae Sapp was born in Ashland, Missouri on May 31, 1892.  She was the youngest of the seven children born to William Henry Harrison Sapp, a farmer and confederate veteran, and Mary Rebecca Fletcher Sapp, a midwife and proud supporter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

Blanche with her sisters Pearl, Minnie, and Hattie; her brothers Bert, Allen, William H. "Wood; and their mother Mary Fletcher Sapp around 1900.

    Her father was 52 years old at her birth and she was 22 years younger than her older sister, Hattie Sapp Calvin, and three months younger than her niece, Bessie Lou Calvin Maxwell. Blanche and Bessie Lou are seen below in a colorized picture of them sitting in a car around the time Blanche was married. Blanche is on the left.

 

"Miss Ruby Calvin prepares a surprise for the folks at home"

    Blanche's niece Ruby Catherine Calvin, another daughter of Hattie Sapp Calvin, born August 5, 1897, followed her example and eloped in September of 1915 when she was 18 years old. Blanche appears to have not only set an example for her niece, but also helped with her plan.

    According to a front page story in the October 1, 1915 University Missourian,  Ruby eloped on the day she arrived in Columbia to attend college.  The romantic story seems to have caused quite a furor, "it is the honeymoon shining, not the midnight oil..." 

    Ruby moved to Columbia to pursue school as a day student at Christian College and planned to live with her Aunt Blanche, but when she left Ashland she left behind "a lonely young man," Noah Arnold. They decided that "education could be bought at too high a price" if they had to be separated.  

    Noah picked Miss Calvin up at her Aunt Blanche's the day she arrived and drove her to the county recorder's home at 9:30 PM. They "routed him from his warm blankets," and conveyed him "protesting, but good natured" to the courthouse to issue them a wedding license. The preacher followed them to Blanche's house and married the couple that evening.

"I thought she had run along to school like a good little girl."

Will Calvin in a white suit standing in his hardware store in Ashland.

The bride's father, W.H. Calvin, was called on the telephone at his hardware store in Ashland and he was surprised at the news:

"No, I did not know that my daughter was married...I thought she had run along to school today like a good little girl."  

"Do you care, Mr. Calvin?" There was a moment of silence and then, "She was eighteen," came the answer.

Picture in front of the Will Calvin house with Will and his wife Hattie seated. Daughters Ruby, Naomi, and Estelle are pictured, along with sons Aubra "Mule," and Fred.  Also pictured are Paul Maxwell with Bessie Lou and their twin sons Glen and Fred. Picture was taken around 1915, probably just a few months before Ruby was married.

 

"Mr. and Mrs. Arnold have completely made their escape and no one knows where they are."