The Roundup Record February 26, 1909
Young couple elope from New York and come to Twodot on honeymoon
Harlowton News:
For the past week, social circles in the hospitable town of Twodot have been taxed to the limit to pay homage to Mr. and Mrs. Gillette Wells, an eloping couple, just arrived from Corning, New York. The romantic pair are the guests of Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Baxter, who are old friends of the families of both the bride and the groom back in the Empire State. Parties, receptions, and balls have been run off in a rapid and endless succession, and it has been many years since the town has been so stirred with social pleasure.
The story of the courtship, elopement, and marriage of the young couple is truly romantic. The home of the bride, who is about 18 years of age, is in Corning, near the east end of Lake Erie. Her father is a wealthy glass merchant. The groom, 20 years of age, also lives near Corning; his father is a well-known banker and financier. For several years, young Wells has been attending college and, during his studies, he has been able to save about $5,000 out of his school allowances. Strict economy has enabled the bride also to lay aside a snug sum.
The young people were invited out one evening to a party given at a neighbor’s house. But the couple never arrived. Wells informed his friends that his sweetheart had taken ill suddenly.
Late that same night, the happy pair hied themselves to Buffalo and from there into Canada, where they were married. They left on the next train for the west and arrived in Twodot the first of the week. They were looking for a small town in which to hide while spending their honeymoon, at the same time enjoying the hospitality that their station demanded. Twodot has proven to be the ideal spot.
The parents of the elopers are ignorant of the couple’s whereabouts, and it is believed that the state of New York is being searched for the missing pair. Mr. Wells will leave for Helena shortly, and it is likely he will pitch his tent in Montana and try his lot in the land of the cowboy.
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Publisher: A.W. Eiselein — Roundup Record February 26, 1909
Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection
Notes:
The first publication of the Roundup Record on April 3, 1908, coincided with the creation of the town of Roundup, Montana, inspired in large part by the arrival of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway in 1908. The newspaper’s first editor, Alfred W. Eiselein Sr., started the six-column, eight-page weekly at age 23 with $1,000, money he earned editing a newspaper in Danube, Minnesota, while still in his teens.
For much of the town’s history, two variant spellings of the town’s name were in use: “Two Dot” and “Twodot”. The name of the town’s post office was officially changed from Twodot to Two Dot in 1999.
However, when the community was listed as a census-designated place prior to the 2020 census, the U.S. Census Bureau used the name “Twodot”.
