Mr. Jones had been referred to Lou and Alex by Mr. Gleghorn at the bank as a good man and someone who could help the Fields establish themselves with stock dealers. He'd visited, partook of Mama Bears' table fare and given the family a tutorial on county politics and business affairs.
"Mornin' Mr. Jones. Spring might come back to us, don't you think?" Lou greeted the tall, lean 65 year-old man whose long gray hair made him look like a thin lion. He might have walked the halls of Washington but he looked like a working man in his leather work apron and turned up sleeves.
"Most assuredly, little lady," the saddler - politician responded. He always called Lou "little lady" ignoring the fact that she was not little and surely didn't put on the airs of a Mulberry Avenue "lady".
"Mr. Jones, I'd like you to meet the Reverend Amos Solon Stevenson." She paused, then said smiling and blushing, "We're getting married come June." Solon's neck snapped to look at her as he secured a hitch weight to the lead horse.
"Lou, Lou, we are?" Solon nearly shouted. Then he took his hat off and sailed it across the sidewalk into the saddle shop's open door. Then he rushed to Lou, picked her up, and whirled her around like heaving a shock of corn. Lou's head bobbed above his as the square rotated. She hadn't been handled that way since she was four and her daddy took her "for rides in the air".
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"You are husband and wife," the Honorable G. W. Jones, Lay Methodist supply preacher and Justice of the Peace, 8th district Lincoln County Tennessee, announced to Solon and Lou. About twenty witnessed the wedding in the front of Lou's place. The ceremony was at 10 AM, Saturday, June 7, 1871. J. N. hadn't been home since early May. He and Alex stood with Solon. Grand John L. was with Lou. Mama Bear and Nancy Bird had parlor chairs behind the wedding party on the lush green grass. The big black walnut tree provided leafy shade for the warming morning. A bright sun in a clear pale blue sky anointed the occasion.
Solon had a new suit from D.C. Sherill's, a black frock coat, vest and trousers in a fine gabardine wool, fine new boots, a John B. Stetson hat - black and broad-rimmed, a boiled white shirt with white cravat. The general had sent a $500 draft with instructions on the money's use - "groom outfit, best quality from hat to boots. With what's left use in your work," the general had written. Alex had given him a haircut and made sure he had some Bay Rum after-shave applied for the special day.