Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 172, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1920 — Gretna Green. [ARTICLE]

Gretna Green.

Gretna Green, the rendezvous of eloping couples, was once the haunt of persons who exercised cupidity at the expense of Cupid, and innkeepers, ferrymen and tollhouse tenders exploited the couples who fled there. Any witnesses served to make the marriages recognized as legal, but the “professional witnesses” there, like the “marrying parsons" of some American towns, engaged “touts” to bring couples to them, and when the railroad from Glasgow to Carlisle started running, the station platform at Gretna Green thronged with these obnoxious “commissioned men.” According to a popular legend, blacksmith shops were favorite meccas for eloping couples, but authority is lacking for stories of smithies who would pause while shoeing horses to help legalize marriages.