A Deathbed Promise Fulfilled
A Bellingham widow travels thousands of miles to marry her brother-in-law, honoring her late husband's final request.
Mrs. Nellie Oppdenhoff, of Bellingham, made a 2000-mile trip to St. Louis to marry the brother of her deceased husband. When the first husband died last spring he expressed the wish on his deathbed that his wife and his younger brother marry, and it was to follow out this desire that Mrs. Oppdenhoff went to St. Louis to become the bride of her brother-in-law.
“When the first husband died last spring he expressed the wish on his deathbed that his wife and his younger brother marry.”
While this practice of levirate marriage was often encouraged in 19th-century communities to ensure financial security and family continuity, it reflects a starkly different era of social and legal expectations regarding bereavement and domestic arrangements.
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