A Convent Escape and a Steamer Waiting: The Elopement That Ended in Port Townsend
When her parents opposed the match on religious grounds, Mary Emma Kealy was cloistered in a convent. She escaped in a carriage, reached a waiting steamer, and married Ward Debeck in Port Townsend.
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.
MARRIED, in this town, on the 19th inst., by Rev. Jno. Rea, Mr. Ward Debeck and Miss Mary Emma Kealy, both of New Westminster, B.C. Quite a romance is attached to the above marriage. The parents of the young lady were opposed to the match on account of a difference in religious belief, and to defeat the engagement placed her in a convent, to be kept under strict surveillance; but 'Love laughed at locksmiths,' and last Sunday morning, while the pupils of the convent were wending their way to mass, accompanied by a band of watchful nuns, a carriage drove up and in a trice this young lady had escaped—to the utter amazement of her companions. A short but furious drive brought them to the river's side, where the little steamer Leonora lay in readiness. The prow was quickly turned toward the escape, and the couple were soon on their way.
“But 'Love laughed at locksmiths,' and ... in a trice this young lady had escaped—to the utter amazement of her companions.”
Forbidden love and family disapproval are perennial, but this 1877 elopement also shows how steamer schedules and border crossings shaped romantic possibilities on Puget Sound. The story’s mix of religious conflict and youthful defiance still reads like a period drama—except that the wedding really happened here.
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