When Durant was Oklahoma’s marriage capital
DURANT, Okla. (KFOR) — They are remembered in a series of ledgers that go back to before WWII and end around the mid-1970s.
The collection also contains old polaroids of couples just married, most just met, who didn’t want to wait, which is why they headed straight for what was then ‘the marryin’ capitol of Oklahoma.
Tom Chriswell is still a practicing attorney in the city at 87.
“The way I remember it,” he says, “they would come straight up 9th Street from Texas.”
He can recall the era when enterprising brokers like Pet MacManus roamed the Bryan County Courthouse looking for young couples.
