Amanuensis Monday: Samuel and Rose Newmark's 59th Wedding Anniversary

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

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Below I transcribe a newspaper article from the St. Louis Star and Times mentioning my great great grandparents, Samuel and Rose Newmark.

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St. Louis Star and Times 
Dec 13, 1939, page 27

'Round the Town with Regan

...When Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Newmark, of 1364 Hodiamont avenue, staged a fifty-ninth anniversary party at their home last Sunday they were one week ahead of themselves, advises their son, "Buddy," who declares the wedding celebration was pushed ahead that it might include out-of-town relatives who were in the city last week-end. The actual date falls on next Sunday, he states, when a second edition of anniversary merriment will be presented...

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Notes:

1. This article was found in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch archives.  I have no official record of marriage from Poland of my second great grandparents. This is the only indication I have seen of the date. This article places it on December 17, 1880.

2. "Buddy" (Israel David), Sam and Rose's youngest child, would have been 36 in 1939.

3. The reason behind observing a 59th wedding anniversary with a huge family gathering may have been an expectation that there wouldn't be a 60th.

It appears a month earlier, in November, Samuel had begun selling off his tailoring equipment.

November 12, 1939.
St. Louis Post Dispatch

In June the reason is specifically stated.

June 2, 1940.
St. Louis Post Dispatch

On July 20, 1940, Samuel died from cancer of the liver and stomach. Age 78.

July 28, 1940.
St. Louis Post Dispatch