Sentinel editor and his wife had a pioneer-style honeymoon in the Ozarks

Hal Wise, editor and publisher of the Webb City Sentinel asked Miss Gladys Warthen to marry him and “she said YES.” Even after she found out his plans for the wedding and honeymoon, she still said yes!

Hal took his lovely young fiancée east to Galena, Missouri, in Stone County. They were wed in the Methodist Church in Stone County at 3:00 o’clock on Sunday afternoon, February 8, 1909.

The very next morning, bright and early, Hal took his young bride on a very unusual honeymoon. They took a four-day boat trip down 100 miles of the James and White Rivers. About three years earlier, Hal had built a log cabin, which he named the “Hello Bill” cabin, at the mouth of Indian Creek.

Hal had a dream to spend the first two weeks of his married life in front of the big stone fireplace in the humble cabin with bare necessities just as his grandparents did when they first came to this area. That romantic Hal had pioneer blood flowing through his veins, and his charming wife was very adventurous. After surviving their honeymoon, she must have known she could handle any obstacles in their future lifetime together.