While he jollied the timid victims of marital fever he worked swiftly at the registration blanks, filling in the names, ages, occupations, birth-places and so on of fathers, mothers, and everybody concerned and not concerned.” And it is only necessary to see him work to become convinced he is the most expert of his kind on earth. The boats only remain in Milwaukee two hours, and of that time one hour is consumed in getting to and from the wharf. Hunsberger, it is not probable any other minister is called upon to go through so many in so short a space of time. “While doubtless there are many ministers who perform as many marriages as the Rev. In 1895, a Chicago Tribune reporter dropped in on a Sunday afternoon to watch the action:

Hunsberger of the Grand Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. Thanks to a prime location at Fifth and Wisconsin not far from the Goodrich dock at Michigan Avenue, many of the marriages were performed by the Rev. So notorious was the city that the phrase “Milwaukee marriage” became a handy way to spice up newspaper stories of an especially scandalous marriage, divorce, or abandonment – never mind if the couple in question had actually been married somewhere else. A local justice had a large sign on his downtown office, “Marriages Solemnized Here.” One minister frequently rode the Christopher Columbus to Chicago so he would be in position to talk up his brand of instant marriage on the return trip to Milwaukee. excursion steamer Christopher Columbus was sure to have a few eager couples boarding at Chicago for the trip to Milwaukee.When those couples sat down for a meal they would find advertisements on the ship′s menu from Milwaukee justices of the peace offering special deals for the marriage minded. On any given day, the Goodrich Transportation Co. As a Milwaukee Journal article of the time put it, the State of Wisconsin might as well be called the State of Matrimony.

Factory town campaign 4