The Girl Next Door

           When assigned the blue and brown wedding gown from Drexel University’s Historical Costume Collection, there was an article that went along with the dress. The article is from The Richmond News Leader on August 26th of 1974. The article talks about how Mrs. Donald Buckley formally Martha Elizabeth Lees wore this gown that has been passed down through the generations but making her only the second woman to wear the dress. The article has the name of the married woman who originally wore the dress on the date of January 22, 1856 in Lancaster, PA. The woman’s married name was Mrs. Martin Peiffer. ("Wedding Dress Spans Generations" 1974) Newspaper records from the Lancaster Examiner and Herald and The Lancaster Intelligencer and Weekly Advertiser confirm that on the 22^nd of January in 1856 that Martin Peiffer of West Hempfield, PA married Fianna Grube of East Hempfield, PA. The originally owner of this wedding gown is Miss Fianna Grube.

            According to the records in the “Personal Records of J.J. Strine” the Mennonite Reverend Strine married the couple on the date of January 22^nd, 1856. It does not say or suggest where the ceremony took place and how many people attended. During this time era you did not need to have a Pennsylvania marriage license to get married. Strine was known to always be ready and willing to marry people that you could knock on his front door and he would marry you there. Due to the fact that Reverend J.J. Strine was a Mennonite other evidence provides us to believe that both Fianna Grube’s family and Martin Pieffer’s family were Mennonites as well. (Weiser et al. 2001) Mennonites have been known to be people who live a simple life where most live and work on farms (Durnbaugh 2003).

            When researching Fianna Peiffer (formally Fianna Grube) in the 1880 East Hempfield, Lancaster, PA Census it displays the Peiffer family members, their age, and occupations. The document indicates that this information was recorded on June 1^st, 1880 in East Hempfield Township, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This lets us know that Martin and Fianna have been married for twenty-four years since they were married in 1856. It shows that Martin Peiffer (Fianna Grube’s husband and the head of the household) at age 61 and his occupation is a farmer. Fianna is listed at age 43 as the wife and her occupation is “keeping home.” There are five children listed on the census. Emma Peiffer (age 22), Martin Peiffer (age 20), John Peiffer (age 19), Fianna Peiffer (age 12), Mary Peiffer (age 11). All of the children are listed as “at home”. Another woman was listed on the census as Elizabeth Grube (age 81) under “Mother-in-law”. There was one last person listed under the Peiffer household and that was Annie Becker (age 22) under “servant.”  (CENSUS)

            After finding this information I was able to find the 1864 Bridgens’ Atlas of Lancaster, Co. that had the names of families and where they lived. As I found the area of Salunga, Pa and East and West Hempfield, there was something extraordinary to the story of Fianna Grube. The name Grube and M.B. Peiffer are located right next to each other on the map. This could mean several things. Considering this map was recorded in 1864 the couple had been married for almost ten years. It could have been a possibility that Fianna’s father had moved next to the Peiffer farm within those ten years or that the Peiffer’s moved next to the Grube’s farm. However the likely case is that the Peiffer and Grube families had lived next to each other and that is how and why Fianna and Martin Peiffer met and came to marry each other. Fianna could be considered as “The girl next door,” to Martin or “The little girl next door” considering the census records displays that the couple was 18 years apart.

            Since the wedding was in January of 1856, I looked back at newspaper articles in 1855 to see if I could find anything that had to deal with fashion and why Fianna might have had a wedding dress as she did. I came across a small article in the Lancaster Intelligencer on November 6^th, 1855 titled “Still Greater Attraction.” This article discussed a book and magazine that was basically a guide for women. The magazine is called Godey’s Lady Book. The article described the upcoming magazine stories that would be out in January 1856 where it talked about fashion. Considering that Fianna was getting married then, this means she would have had to get her dress made before that Godey’s Lady Book Volume 52 came in out. With this information I then looked up “Godey’s Lady Book Volume 51: From July to December 1855.” Since the Lancaster Intelligencer was a newspaper that was available to Fianna it would be possible that by seeing the ads for Godey’s Lady Book she decided to get the issues herself.

            With Godey’s Lady Book and Magazine we are able to compare the style, design, and color to Fianna’s wedding gown. There is a picture in the magazine that has the same style of sleeves that Fianna has on her gown. The sleeves are layered with fringe on each layer just as Fianna’s sleeve are. There is also another picture of a woman wearing a dress with the skirt of the dress alternating colors just as the skirt of Fianna’s dress is. The designs on Fianna’s under sleeves match designs that are displayed in this magazine issue. All of this indicates that Fianna’s gown was fashionable. Although we can not be sure if it was her who saw these designs or a friend or family member, we can be sure that she was fashionable due to the fact that her gown resembled pictures in Godey’s Lady Book. Along with that we can not be certain if it was Fianna or another member of her family or friends who made this dress we are pretty certain that the dress was handmade. The stitching in the dress is not straight resembling that this was not factory produced. Having a dress such as the one Fianna had means that most likely her family had a good amount of money in order for us to be able to compare it to designs in Godey’s Lady Book and Magazine. (Hale et al. 1855)

            In the article from 1974 from the Richmond News Leader along with the dress there is a reference of a woman who was the owner of it at the time that it was given to Drexel University and the name was Miriam Kendig. However the name Miriam Kendig was then crossed out. This could possibly be the previous owner since I found in the book Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage that Emma Peiffer (the oldest daughter of Martin and Fianna Peiffer) married Benjamin Emmet Kendig a doctor in the Salunga area. This could mean that Fianna passed down her wedding gown to her oldest daughter Emma and it was then kept in her family and passed down to her daughters making its way to Martha Elizabeth Lees of Chester who was the second person to wear the dress before it came to Drexel University’s Historic Costume Collection.

Works Cited

1. Bridgens, H.F. “1864 Bridgens’ Atlas of Lancaster, Co. Penna from Actual Surveys by H.F. Bridgens and Assistant. H.F Bridgens No. 38, Hudson Street Philadelphia. Pg 26.

2. Durnbaugh, Donald F. “Mennonites.” Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3^rd ed. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003. 309-310 Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 27 Oct. 2012.

4. Hale , Sarah J., and Louis A. Godey. Gode'ys Lady Book and Magazine: Volume LI.From July-December 1856 . Philadelphia: 1855. http://books.google.com/books?id=K8ZMAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0

5. "Marriages.." Lancaster Examiner and Herald (PA), January 30, 1856.

6. "Marriages.." Lancaster Intelligencer & Weekly Advertiser, January 29, 1856.

7. Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage Volume 25-Number 1. Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, 2002.

8. "STILL Greater Attractions." Lancaster Intelligencer & Weekly Advertiser, November 6, 1855. http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Skins/civilwar/Client.asp?skin=civilwar&AW=1351450368212&AppName=2 (accessed October 26, 2012).

9. “Wedding Dress Spans Generations." Richmond News Leader, Monday 08, 1974.

10. Weiser, Fredericks, and Debra D. Smith . Personal Marriage Records of Reverend J.J Strine 1815-1870. Apollo, PA: Closson Press, 2001.

11. Year: 1880; Census Place: East Hempfield, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Roll; 1141; Family History Film: 1255141; Page 1A; Enumeration Disctric; 122; Image: 0004.