Spiritualism enjoyed great popularity around the turn of the century. Not only were the living talking to the dead, but in some cases, they were even marrying them. In January 1902, a 45-year-old woman in Detroit, Mrs. Sarah Williams, was wedded to the spirit of Theodore Comstock, once a wealthy miller.
According to newspaper reports, Comstock had “been courting Mrs. Williams for some time” through a medium named Mollie Ladell who “translated the honest dead one’s burning words to Mrs. Williams with such success that the widow at last agreed to link all her fortunes to Mr. Comstock of all time to come.”
Ladell officiated the ceremony by going into a trance to invoke Comstock’s spirit. With fellow Spiritualists in attendance, the bride promised to love and honor her ghostly groom. They were pronounced man and wife.
No one objected to the marriage, however another medium reported that Comstock didn’t arrive until ten minutes afterward. According to this seer, Comstock was “turned back by Charon” because he had no money and could be ferried over.
Regardless, plenty of other spirits made the trip and “came to offer congratulations and presented shadowy gifts, which Mrs. Comstock accepted smilingly, masking her real feelings over the fact that she couldn’t exchange them at the bargain store downtown.”
The bride reportedly took her spirit husband home and claimed she would be good to him as long as he would be true to her—which meant leaving the ghosts of Cleopatra and other famously beautiful women alone.
A few decades later in 1927, another medium helped connect the living and dead in marriage—only in this case, the farmer’s spirit bride jilted him. Read that story here.
