On May 4, 1893, Miss Ray Goldstein found herself in a pickle.
Her wedding to Morris Miller was to be a highlight in Jewish society circles in Columbus. Her home was beautifully decorated for the wedding and lovely presents were arriving every hour. Morris had rented a home for them and they had already purchased all of their furnishings. And the day before they had gotten their marriage license.
Why, oh why, did Harry Steinberg have to travel all the way from Pittsburg to turn up on the day of the wedding to declare his love for Miss Goldstein too?
But that was exactly what happened. Miss Goldstein watched in growing alarm as the two argued. When they drew out their revolvers, she threw herself between them and wrenched one of the guns away and pointed it at herself.
She could not decide between them, she cried. She said she would kill herself and settle the matter once and for all. But Miss Goldstein was immediately subdued and the revolver was taken away from her.
“She finally concluded to marry neither of them just now,” the Cincinnati Post reported, adding “To a Post correspondent Miss Ray declared her intention, last night, of making an end of herself. The Goldsteins move in the best Jewish circles, and are wealthy. Many costly wedding presents had been sent to the house, and the donors were fast recovering them last night.” I guess no one thought this was a temporary split between Morris and Miss Goldstein!
The case was never mentioned again in the papers. I was really curious about what happened to Miss Goldstein and found just one relevant record. It was the marriage license she and Morris had gotten the day before their scheduled wedding on May 4.
The document reveals that the newspapers had been misspelling both of their last names, which were actually Goldstandt and Meisner. More importantly, it shows the couple actually did get married. In the right column, you see an unusually long delay before the statement was witnessed, which was on October 8.
What became of Harry Steinberg, I could not find.
old spirituals 
What a story! I feel disappointed in Miss Goldstandt. It would have been more romantic for her to run away with Harry.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ha! Maybe she was happier with Morris!
LikeLike
Interesting that he wanted to marry her given her duplicity!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know, I hadn’t thought of that. Why was she such a catch? The whole incident is strange. I’ve never heard of someone breaking up a wedding, only to have it occur as planned months later.
LikeLike
Yeah, that’s often a deal breaker!
LikeLiked by 1 person
😂😂
LikeLike
I look dubiously at the misspelling of BOTH last names on the original marriage license. Certainly these adults knew how to spell their own surname. But i cannot fathom why they would not use their family surname. Unless, of course, they wanted not to be legally married at a later date.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s an interesting point. I just assumed that it was the newspapers that spelled both of their names wrong. But I imagine there was some embarrassment there based on the wedding that wasn’t in May!
LikeLike
Glad to see you by the way, Jax! ☺️
LikeLike
Funny how the papers didn’t follow up with the conclusion. But maybe happily ever after isn’t headline material.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was very annoyed about that too. You can’t have an explosive love triangle and just not tell people what came of it. Good thing genealogy databases exist and the info was there!
LikeLike