Humpletts with Nosy Neighbors Find They Can't Keep Their Secret Marriage a Secret, Dec. 7, 1923

Tried to Keep Their Marriage a Secret. . . But Had to Give Up Because Neighbors Knew and Talked Too Much

All romance is not dead and in this day and time one doesn’t have to go far to find it among the older people. For instance, there is J.H. Umphlett of 605 Third Street, this city, who married Mrs. Fannie Case, a neighbor, on October 28. Mr. Humphlett and Mrs. Case went down to Hertford and were married by Rev. T.M. Grant, Methodist minister, at his home there, according to Mrs. Humphlett.

Mr. and Mrs. Humphlett then came back to Elizabeth City and went to keeping house at the Humphlett home, the only other member of the family being Mr. Humphlett’s nine-year-old son. Soon the neighbors began to gossip about the fact that the widow Case had gone to living in the home of the widower Humphlett. And the newlyweds told nothing. However a few days ago the marriage was made public. The Humphlett couple is not sold on the idea of keeping a marriage secret when a lot of neighbors are bound to know the truth anyway.

From The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, Dec. 7, 1923