115th wedding anniversary
For members of the Longnecker (Longenecker) family
Arguyland Daniel “Guy” Longenecker and Alice Bitticks were married on February 10, 1910. That’s exactly 115 years ago today.
Guy and Alice were my great-great-grandparents, ancestors of my maternal grandmother Belva Louise “Billye Lou” Longnecker.
Both Guy and Alice were born and raised in Arkansas. They were married on February 20, 1910 in St. Charles, Arkansas Co., Arkansas; Guy was 22 years old and Alice was 17 years old. By April of that year they had set up house in Montgomery, Monroe Co., Arkansas. Guy worked as a farm laborer while Alice had a job as a house servant. Their first child, a daughter named Louise, was born in December of 1910. They would go on to have a total of nine children together.
By 1920, the couple was back in St. Charles; they would live there for the rest of their lives. Alice could no longer work as a servant after becoming a mother, so she spent the rest of her years as a homemaker. Guy held various blue collar jobs throughout his life in order to support his large family — rice farmer, road construction overseer, house painter and woodworker, clerk at a general store.
As usual, we no longer know much about the intimate details of these ancestors’ lives, like their personality quirks or the quality of their marriage or their parenting styles. We can only hope that they lead satisfying lives and were able to find some joy in each other. I feel that it is important to acknowledge their lives and the impact they had on our family as it exists now.
Happy 115th, Guy and Alice.