100th Wedding Anniversary Observed by Fiegs

Sept. 3 marks the 100th wedding anniversary of Florence Shields and Lothar Fieg who famously were married while holding hands through a window overlooking a porch.

Florence May Shields Fieg

Hermann Lothar Emil Fieg

Florence, who was suffering from scarlet fever, an often fatal disease at the time, was taken from the boarding house run by her mother, Celestia, in Corbett, N.Y. to the Mary Mason house, a resort on the Delaware River in nearby Colchester, where she was kept under quarantine.

Lothar, a foreman at the Corbett and Stewart Acid Factory in Corbett, climbed up on the roof of the porch and took Florence's hand while the vows were recited.

 

The boarding house in Corbett had been operated by Celestia, and Florence and all her sisters had domestic chores to perform there as part of the operation.   "My mother was a good cook and a good baker," said Thelma Bost, daughter of Florence's sister Nettie.  "She was about 6 or 7 when she had to start making cakes to serve to the boarders."  Thelma, age 88, recalled that the girls had to go to the company store for supplies and sister Marie insisted on carrying the heavy goods back to the house, to Nettie's delight. 

It is believed that the boarding house, which was owned and operated by Corbett and Stewart from the 1920s to 1930s, when the company folded, is still standing.  The remains of the Mary Mason house are under 50 feet of water in the Pepacton Reservoir.

Florence and Lothar's eldest child, Emilie, was born June 29, 1915 (yep, that's nine months!).  The couple later moved to Oneonta, where the other six were born.