The Marrying Parson: The Preacher at the Train Station

For decades a preacher would come to the Bristol, Virginia, train station to meet the incoming trains, looking for couples who’d come to the city to elope.  He claimed to have married 5,142 couples, over 10,000 people, in a matrimonial career that included rival preachers, angry fathers, runaway couples, a “matrimonial hotel,” and even a plea to the state of Tennessee for a state pension based on his marrying work.

This week we tell the story of Alfred Harrison Burroughs, known as “The Marrying Parson,” another one of the Stories of Appalachia.

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