Published: June 28, 2009 11:10 pm      

Couple first to be married by clerk of the court

“We are gathered here to join this man this woman together in matrimony. The contract of marriage is a most solemn one and not to be entered into lightly but thoughtfully and seriously and with deep realization of its obligations and responsibility. If anyone can show just cause why they should not be lawfully joined together let him speak now, or else forever hold his peace,” Richard L. Davis said on Jan. 2, 1964, as he performed the first civil marriage in Garrett County.

He stood in a room on the second floor of the Garrett County Courthouse, “decorated especially for the occasion and future civil marriages,” according to The Republican.

A 1963 act passed by the Maryland General Assembly made it legal for clerks of the circuit court to perform civil marriages. The change took effect with the new year, but since New Year’s Day was a legal holiday, the first civil marriages in Maryland couldn’t happen until Jan. 2. Maryland was the last state in the country to allow civil marriages.

“Do you take this woman, Margaret Ann Durigon, to be your lawfully wedded wife?” Davis asked. He had the couple join hands. “Now repeat after me, I, Bernard Benjamin Bialon, take this woman, Margaret Ann Durigon, for my lawful wife to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”

Durigon was 20 years old and lived in Keisterville, Pa. She worked as a stripper for a textile mill. Bialon was 21 years old and lived in Uniontown, Pa. He worked as a machinist for the same mill.

There were no witnesses at the small ceremony, just Davis and the couple. However, witnesses were not a requirement for Maryland marriages.

“Place the ring on her finger and say, ‘With this ring, I thee wed,’” Davis instructed Bialon.

It was almost accidental that Durigon and Bialon became the first couple wed in a civil ceremony in Garrett County. According to The Republican, another couple had wanted to be the first couple, but they didn’t have the $10 cost for the service.

The cost for a civil ceremony at the time was $10 in addition to an application fee of $1 and a $4 marriage license. Durignon’s and Bialon’s cost was $5 since they were county residents.

From the revenue generated by the license and application fees, $2 went to the county government. In turn, the Garrett County commissioners turned over 85 percent of the amount to the Ruth Enlow Library and 15 percent to the Garrett County Historical Society. The remaining revenues from the fees stayed in the clerk’s office.

Of the $10 cost for the civil ceremony, $8 went into the Garrett County general fund and $2 went to the clerk’s office.

“By the power and authority vested in me as clerk of the Circuit court for Garrett County, Maryland, and I now pronounce you man and wife,” Davis said, and so history was made and future created.

In the first eight days of 1964, 24 marriage licenses were applied for and seven of the couples requested civil ceremonies.