{"id":3978,"date":"2026-08-28T20:00:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T00:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3978"},"modified":"2026-08-28T11:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:42:45","slug":"the-marrying-parson-the-preacher-at-the-train-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3978","title":{"rendered":"The Marrying Parson: The Preacher at the Train Station"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U5_tactmBxo?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>For decades a preacher would come to the Bristol, Virginia, train station to meet the incoming trains, looking for couples who\u2019d come to the city to elope.\u00a0 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 \u201cmatrimonial hotel,\u201d and even a plea to the state of Tennessee for a state pension based on his marrying work.<\/p>\n<p>This week we tell the story of Alfred Harrison Burroughs, known as \u201cThe Marrying Parson,\u201d another one of the Stories of Appalachia.<\/p>\n<p>Be sure to subscribe to the Stories podcast so you don\u2019t miss any of our stories!<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_8298\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3978-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/74736202\/download.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/74736202\/download.mp3\">https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/74736202\/download.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/74736202\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?powerpress_pinw=3978-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/74736202\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"download.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?feed=podcast\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For decades a preacher would come to the Bristol, Virginia, train station to meet the incoming trains, looking for couples who\u2019d come to the city to elope.\u00a0 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 \u201cmatrimonial hotel,\u201d and even a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,9,49,17,34,31,22],"tags":[1942,104,368,1946,1945,1951,1944,1947,1948,1707,1949,1954,1943,1950,1067,514,1952,1953,916],"class_list":["post-3978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oddities","category-personalities","category-religion","category-the-1880s","category-the-1890s","category-the-1910s","category-the-oughts","tag-alfred-h-burroughs","tag-appalachian-history","tag-appalachian-stories","tag-bristol-history","tag-bristol-tennessee","tag-bristol-train-station","tag-bristol-virginia","tag-elopement","tag-eloping-couples","tag-forgotten-history","tag-gretna-green","tag-historical-stories","tag-marrying-parson","tag-marrying-preacher","tag-stories-of-appalachia","tag-tennessee-history","tag-union-station-bristol","tag-unusual-history","tag-virginia-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6TX4A-12a","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3978"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3981,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions\/3981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}