Gabel, Michael J. & Bertha Erbes (Wedding 1924)

GABEL, ERBES

Posted By: Bruce Atkinson (email)
Date: 12/25/2007 at 19:33:02

Gabel, Michael J & Erbes, Bertha (August) 26 Oct 1924

Mystery in Romance of LeMars Man Is Scented by His Friends; He is 81 and Bride is 60 Years Old Sons and Daughters Knew Nothing of Gabel's Heart Affair.
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Just when romance came into the life of Michael Gabel, of LeMars, 81 years old and a retired farmer of considerable wealth, no one knows.

At least, none of his three daughters and six sons know. Neither does his landlady, Mrs. Lena Robbins. But the fact that Michael Gabel married Mrs. Bertha Erbes, 60 years old, at the courthouse here Tuesday with Justice of Peace Carl W. Sass officiating. Following the ceremony the couple left for Pierson, Ia., for a few days honeymoon.

Mrs. Gabel stated that she lived in LeMars for five years and had known her husband for about a year. She declared both had been robbed of their former spouses by death.

No one in LeMars appears to know Mrs. Gabel, however, nor was she ever seen in public in the presence of her husband. On the contrary, Gabel was known around town for his long solitary walks, which he appeared to take daily.

LeMars is asking itself now whether the long walks really were for exercise only, the mere whim of an old man, as was at first supposed, or if the lovers had a trysting place where Gabel, with the spirit of a man of much younger years, gallantly courted and won his bride.

Gabel's first wife died two or three years ago. For a while he lived in Greenwood addition, LeMars' most select settlement. Later he became a boarder of Mrs. Lena Robbins', who runs a boarding house in LeMars.

Mrs. Robbins stated she has never know Gabel to go out with a woman, to receive any correspondence from one or to have any lady friends come to visit him. Monday evening she declared, a man called and inquired for Gabel. Mrs. Robbins stated the man stood in the shadow and she could not see his face. Gabel went out in the veranda and the two held a long conversation in an undertone.

What was said in that conversation, Mrs. Robbins is unable to say. All she knows is that upon entering the house Gabel was very reticent about his evening caller. Tuesday morning he beat the sun in rising. He took an early morning train to Sioux City and the statement on the marriage license books at the courthouse tells the rest of the story.

Sioux City Journal (Sioux City, Woodbury County, Iowa) of 10/??/1924.