Screven County Marriages

JOHN GROSS & MARGARET POYTHRESS MARRIAGE STORY
Source:Lynchburg Weekly Virginian (Lynchburg, VA) Tuesday, 04 March 1884
Forty Years' Courting
After Many Engagements and Lovers' Quarrels, John Gross and Mary Poytress Gets Married

SYLVANIA, Ga., Feb. 24. -- A courtship extending over a period of forty years has just resulted in marriage here. In 1843, Miss Mary Poythress was the belle of this county. There was one John Gross among her admirers, to whom she was more than partial, and counting on him she rejected other eligible offers.
The lover, however, was moody, and not allowing for a girl's love of adulation, became jealous of Miss Mary's popularity with the beaus of the neighborhood. The girl was of a proud family and scorned to make explanations where she was sure no cause for jealousy existed. Gross wandered off and for ten years was not heard of, when one day he returned bronzed and bearded and expected to find his former sweetheart married. True to her heart she was still single.
They became once more engaged and once more estranged, since which time they have been as strangers, though often meeting socially. Vicissitudes of the times and circumstances kept them apart and seemed to have chilled out whatever of love had existed. Lately the lady, still unmarried, was about to celebrate her sixtieth birthday. Mr. Gross began thinking over the years gone by and made up his mind that the long deferred nuptials should come off at last if Mary was willing. He found she was and they have just sealed the vows made forty years ago.

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