Maurer, Nelson E. & Mamie Foulds (Marriage 1917)

MAURER, FOULDS

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, volunteer (email)
Date: 11/2/2010 at 15:58:05

Hawarden Independent
May 3, 1917

BECOMES A WAR BRIDE
A Former Hawarden Girl
Weds Canadian Soldier
Miss Mamie Foulds Married On
A Troop Train as it Whirls
Over Canadian Prairies

Miss Mamie Foulds, a former Hawarden young lady, is one of the few war
brides of the United States. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. W.
Foulds who resided on a farm near here a number of years ago. Her father
operated a butcher shop here after leaving the farm and the family will be
remembered by many of the older residents. The Great Falls, Mont., Tribune
of April 19th gives the following interesting and romantic account of her
marriage to a former Illinois young man who is now a soldier in a Canadian
regiment who will soon be sent to the front upon the European battlefields:

“Traveling several hundred miles to meet her fiancé who was enroute to his
post in the east upon a Canadian troop train, married in the dining car of
the train while it was rolling over the Canadian prairies, and leaving her
husband within a few hours to return to this city while he continued towards
the European war zone was the unique experience within the past few days of
a Great Falls girl, Miss Mamie L. Foulds, who for the past three years has
been secretary-treasurer of the Charles E. Morris company.

Miss Foulds was married Saturday evening near Cranbrook, B.C., to Nelson E.
Maurer, an American, a native of Illinois, now a soldier in the Canadian
Forestry battalion. Mr. Maurer enlisted about two months ago at Creston,
B.C., and when orders were received for the movement of his battalion
eastward the young couple decided upon a hurried marriage. Miss Foulds left
this city for the northwest to meet him but her train was delayed at Essex
and she just had time, by taking one of the lines running north across the
international boundary, to meet the troop train at Yahk as it was moving
eastward.

There was only one other woman on this train, the wife of a lieutenant, as
women are not permitted to travel on troop trains, and at Cranbrook a
Presbyterian minister was secured and boarded the train. Some distance out
of Cranbrook the ceremony was performed in the dining car, which had been
decorated for the occasion by the soldiers who used British and American
flags in brightening up the car. The bride accompanied the groom on as far
as Medicine Hat, where his train was consolidated with another regular troop
train, and from this place she returned westward.

The groom continued eastward to Brockton, Ont., where he will be stationed
for a time as recruiting sergeant until such time as his command shall be
transported to Europe.”