A High-Society Wedding at Trinity Church
Seattle's social elite gathered to celebrate the marriage of a jeweler and the daughter of a prominent local citizen.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The wedding of Mr. Frank Kimball and Miss Georgia Hyde recently agitated local society last evening. It was an event that had been hopefully anticipated for some time, and its actual coming was the culmination of a social excitement of no small order among the particular friends of the young couple. The preparations were most complete and quite costly, while the proceedings were without disagreeable jar. The bridegroom is a young man lately of Walla Walla, where his parents reside. He is a jeweler by trade and is at present in business at New Tacoma. The bride is the fourth daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D. N. Hyde of this city. At eight, Trinity Church being comfortably full of ladies and gentlemen invited to witness the ceremony, the wedding party drew up in carriages. The marriage ceremony was performed by the rector, the Rev. Geo. Herbert Watson, the full and most impressive service of the Episcopal Church being used. Carriages were taken at the conclusion of the service for the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hyde, where a reception was held later. A large number of beautiful, costly and desirable gifts were made to the couple, including a deed for six city lots from D. N. Hyde.
“The wedding party drew up in carriages. The groom, accompanied by his best man, entered through the vestry door, and at the altar awaited the coming of the bride and those with her.”
While Trinity Church still stands as a historic anchor in downtown Seattle, the lavish society weddings of the 1880s often served as public displays of status in a rapidly growing town. The gift of six city lots highlights how land speculation and wealth were intertwined with domestic life in late 19th-century Seattle.
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