Otteson, Floyd A. & Myrtle Ruth Ersfeld (Marr 1936)

OTTESON, ERSFELD

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, Volunteer (email)
Date: 3/15/2016 at 16:10:23

MARRIAGE - SIOUX CO. Courthouse Record.

Groom: Floyd A. Otteson
Birth Year: abt 1909
Gender: Male
Race: White
Birth Place: Fort Dodge, IA
Residence Place: Sleepy Eye, Minn
Marriage Age: 27
Marriage Date: 22 Dec 1936
Marriage Place: Orange City, Iowa, Iowa, USA
Father: E. C. Otteson
Mother: Hellen Fredericson

Bride: Myrtle Ruth Ersfeld
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Hawarden Independent
Hawarden, Iowa
Thursday, December 31, 1936

STORE ROBBER WEDS AT ORANGE CITY
Miss Myrtle Ruth Ersfeld of Sleepy Eye, Minn., and Floyd A. Otteson, one of the two men who recently robbed two stores at Orange City, were married at Orange City, Dec. 22nd after Otteson had plead guilty to the charge of robbery. After the ceremony the bride accompanied her husband to his jail cell, kissed him and then returned to Sleepy Eye. The bride wired home for money with which to buy the marriage license. She said laughingly that she would get it back from him some way. Justice DeBooy, who performed the ceremony, stated that he believed the reason for their marriage was so that the bride could get sustenance from the state during the time her husband is serving his sentence in the penitentiary.

The couple have lived together four years as common law wife and husband and have a three-year-old son, but Mrs. Otteson stated that her mother believed them to be legally married. Later Sheriff Synhorst took Otteson and his partner, Lowell Haenze, to Fort Madison, where they were sentenced to serve twenty years in the state penitentiary.