The First Wedding in Seattle, Replayed 42 Years Later

The forty-second wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. David T. Denny, as well as the first wedding ever held in Seattle, was fittingly celebrated at the elegant home of the honored host and hostess, Decatur Terrace, 612 Temperance Street, last Wednesday evening, January 23, 1895, by a gathering of many generations—relatives, children, grandchildren and pioneer friends of the old couple who knew them in the days that 'tried men's souls.'

The handsome residence on the terrace was beautifully decorated with fir boughs—typical of the sturdy nature of the pioneers—flowers, ferns and ivy. The old pioneers were not forgotten, for happily blended with the luxurious surroundings of modern civilization were to be found evidences and representations of life in the forests of Elliott Bay forty odd years ago. The contrast was striking and formed a good text for a sermon. The friendship that always existed between the Dennys and the Indians was also remembered and represented by sixteen young people who, made up as Indian braves and squaws, appeared in a 'Tamanous,' or council, and had a pow-wow in Chinook with their good white father, who answered in the same language.

This feature of the evening's entertainment was strikingly novel, especially to the more modern tenderfoot who crossed the plains comfortably in a Pullman sleeping car. A brief programme, musical and literary, was given, one of the features being a recitation spoken by the grandson, Harold Denny, to his grandfather and grandmother:

'O fortunate, O happy day, The people sing, the people say.'

The unique invitations sent out for this anniversary, consisting of a fringe of buckskin stretched over the invitation and painted 'Hyas, Ankutty, Okoke Sun,' were well responded to, and every room in the large house was filled with interested guests from the baby in arms to the white-haired friend of the old people. Flowers were plenty, and it is doubtful if there ever was a gathering in this city that could aggregate so many years of residence in the Queen City of the West on the borders of Elliott Bay.