A Three Rivers Marriage?

A 22- year-old farmer from North Fayette Township marries the 19-year-old daughter of a river man living in O’Hara Township.   What separates their hometowns is 25 miles and the convergence of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers.

How did they meet?
Where did they court? 
Was it a long courtship? 
Where did the ceremony take place? 
These are great mysteries yet to be solved. 


What we do know is that Charles C. Cheesebrough married Nellie B. Hulings on April 3, 1889, as evidenced by the following marriage license docket.

More Siblings

June 9, 1880.  During the previous 10 years Charles is joined by two more siblings.  William Cheesebrough was born in about 1875 and Jane C. Cheesebrough in December of 1879.  Charles’ father is working as a farm laborer and they continue to live in North Fayette Township.

First Move

Sometime before Charles turned two years old, his family moved from New York to Pennsylvania.  They lived in North Fayette Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.  His father was employed as a dairy man.  His younger brother Marcus was born in about July of 1869 in Pennsylvania.

1870 U.S. Census

Charles' Beginnings

Charles Carey Cheesebrough was born on the 5th of December 1866.  He was the first of six children born in the family of Truman Adelbert Cheesebrough and Arbella Margaret Carey.  His birthplace is the community of Brookfield in Madison County, New York.1
1History of Washington County Pennsylvania, Volume III, Chicago, IL, S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926, P. 326.