Long before the COVID-19 pandemic put many weddings on hold, in the early 20th century couples with a pressing need to wed would head to one of the towns across the country which had fewer restrictions on marriage licenses.
Elkton, Md., once known as the marriage capital of the East Coast, was one of the busiest of these “marriage mills” due to its geography and the lack of a waiting period, which had become mandatory in neighboring states by the early 1910s. Sitting on the same location at the tip of the Elk River that had brought General Howe, George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette through during the Revolutionary War, Elkton’s location made it a convenient spot for couples coming from the populous northeastern states via train or later from interstate highways.
At the dawning of the 20th century, disapproving parents, work schedules or unexpected pregnancies could cause couples to rush to the altar. However, many states had set up barriers against hasty nuptials. States along the mid-Atlantic seaboard had enacted mandatory blood tests and waiting periods for marriage and in many states divorced persons could not marry. As one of the last remaining states without a waiting period, Delaware had become a marriage hub, but in 1913 the legislature imposed a 24-hour waiting period for residents and a 96-hour wait time for non-residents that closed the door to those seeking a quickie license. That left the Free State, Maryland, as the closest place for many couples to obtain a hasty marriage license.
While some romanticized the idea of an elopement, it was evident that others frowned upon these quick, uncomplicated unions. A 1914 headline in the Public Ledger of Philadelphia detailed how this Maryland haven for matrimony had been born and how it was perceived. “Preachers and Hackmen Thrive Through Novel Industry which Sprang into Existence as Rapidly as Jonah’s Gourd When Delaware Adopted Laws Correcting Evils of Its Lax License System.”
The marriage business was driven by enterprising cabbies who met couples arriving on the southbound trains from New York, New Jersey and other Northeastern states, dubbed the “Honeymoon Express” to offer the package deals that helped create an economic windfall for the town of Elkton. Cecil County, Md., historian, Mike Dixon tells TIME “I used to think it was the marrying ministers that drove it, but it was the cab drivers. They might as well have been Harvard business grads. Once you arrived at the train station, you were in efficient hands.”