Phillips County Post (Phillipsburg, Kansas), Thursday 19 August 1909, page 7 - the headed notice "Mitchell-Northup.", reporting the marriage of Miss Olive E. Mitchell and Everet E. Northup by Probate Judge Cole; the page also carries two columns of county personal items.

What this document records

It corrects the index that led to it

THE MARRIAGE WAS 18 AUGUST 1909, NOT 25 AUGUST. Ancestry's Newspapers.com Marriage Index (coll. 62116 rec. 49539029) gives "Marriage Date 25 Aug 1909" while citing this issue, which is dated 19 AUGUST - a date six days BEFORE the marriage it reports. The notice resolves it: the couple married "WEDNESDAY afternoon", and the issue is a Thursday, so the Wednesday is 18 August 1909. THAT INDEX CARRIES ANCESTRY'S OWN WARNING that "the facts in this collection were found using artificial intelligence technology and may contain errors", and this is one. Its name field is wrong too: it indexes the bride as "MISS EVERET MITCHELL", which is the groom's forename on the bride's surname. THE LESSON IS THE CATALOG'S USUAL ONE and it earned itself again here: the index was worth following and was not worth transcribing. Olive E. (Cooper) Northup held 25 Aug 1909 for about fifteen minutes.

The notice calls her josiahs daughter

"Miss Mitchell is a daughter of Josiah Mitchell." RECORDED PLAINLY BECAUSE IT CUTS AGAINST THIS CATALOG'S READING, which is that she is Olive E. (Cooper) Northup Olive Edna (Cooper), daughter of John A. Cooper John A. Cooper by Emeline (Elliott) Cooper Emeline (Elliott), raised in Josiah Mitchell's house from the age of five. IT IS NOT EVIDENCE THAT JOSIAH FATHERED HER, and the reason is on the same page as the claim: a 1909 wedding notice names the household a bride comes out of, and she had been a Mitchell since 1894. The 1900 census does the same thing - column 4 "Dau", father's birthplace Virginia ([D.874]). AND JOSIAH'S OWN FAMILY SAID OTHERWISE. His 1928 obituary ([G.697]) lists her among his survivors as one of "two step daughers", set apart from "his four children". A notice written by a newspaper in 1909 and an obituary furnished by the family in 1928 are not equally close to the fact; the later one distinguishes, and the earlier one had no reason to.

What it adds that is new

SHE WAS A SCHOOLTEACHER - "one of the successful teachers of Phillips county". The catalog held no occupation for her at all, and this is the only source for one. HER HUSBAND'S FATHER IS CONFIRMED FROM OUTSIDE FIND A GRAVE: "Everet Northup is a son of S. E. Northup, a prominent Phillips county farmer living south of Glade" - and Everett Ellsworth Northup's memorial, parsed the same afternoon, gives his father as STUARD ELLSWORTH NORTHUP (1861-1940). S. E. matches, and the family farm is placed SOUTH OF GLADE, the same village where the bride's own mother farmed five miles south-west ([G.697]). THE OFFICIANT was Probate Judge Cole, and the couple were attended by "Miss Northup, a sister of the groom" - Everett Ellsworth Northup's memorial panel offers Elmyra Clarissa "Myra" and Bessie B. as sisters; the notice does not say which.

What it does not say

NO BRIDE'S MOTHER, so Emeline is not named. No ages. No mention of a Cooper of any kind - which was the specific thing this page was pulled to test, her father being alive at Glasco until 1935. The test returns nothing.