92 YEAR OLD MINER MARRIES 18 YEAR OLD INDIAN GIRL...TWICE
Oatman, Arizona (JFK+50) On June 20, 1922, Judge Zadock Sheffield and Sheriff Bill Mackey pondered the issue of "whether a man, even though a...justice of the peace, can officiate at his own wedding."
It seems 92 year old Edgar McGurrin* of Hardyville** "married himself to an 18 year old Indian girl named Juanita Sundial."
Learning of the marriage, the two officials rode out to speak to the couple and urge them to have a second marriage ceremony just to be on the safe side.
Mr. McGurrin, the only inhabitant of Hardyville and its justice of the peace, said "it suited him all right."
He explained that he had decided Miss Sundial was the girl for him when..."I saw her peepin' at me from behind a cactus."
*Edgar McGurrin was a veteran soldier, Indian fighter, prospector and miner. He had lived in Hardyville since 1864 & his marriage to Juanita Sundial was his sixth.
**Hardyville (now Bullhead City) Arizona, located at the end of Silver Creek Gulch, was once a bustling town from which ore from the Oatman Gold District was shipped down the Colorado River. into the Gulf of California & the Pacific Ocean.
SOURCE
"Hermit, 92, Both Groom & Judge After Squaw Peeps From Cactus," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., June 20, 1922, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
