Angelkeep kept track and photographed the process of eggs being added to wren nests throughout the summer. Mrs. Wren did the nest construction, egg laying, and brooding. During these processes Mr. Wren perched nearby and sang. He could belt out a verse like the winner of the Bluffton Free Street Fair Idol singing competition. Over summer, now in its final week, Angelkeep watched as five wren nests produced fledglings.
Although each nest contained three to five eggs, no determination could be made as to the number of times any particular wren nested. They were known to have multiple nests per season. Angelkeep did count three of the nests being occupied at the same time on one particular day.
Equally difficult to determine was the singing spouse of the brooding female wrens. The singing Mr. Wren at Angelkeep habitually positioned himself between two backyard nests. It was impossible to determine with which Mrs. Wren he had a relationship and sang his cherry comforting songs during her brooding weeks. Wrens were supposed to be monogamous. An online site suggested “one possible observation of polygamy.”
Angelkeep missed the wedding ceremony. No photos of mating rituals exist. The only thing captured via video was all the ruckus of song while awaiting the duty of nestling feeding.
Many wrens with no marriage observations brought yet another recollection, like the past couple of weeks of Angelkeep Journals, of things connected to next week’s Bluffton Free Street Fair. Not a batter-dipped wren-on-a stick, but weddings.
Weddings occurred over the years during and as a part of Bluffton Free Street Fair. It all began in the second fair of 1899. During the second fair it happened twice. At least one had to have been a spur-of-the-moment decision. Perhaps this was what happened with Mr. Wren at Angelkeep when he created the “world’s second possible observation of polygamy.” Then again, Angelkeep could have had two male wrens taking turns perching on the same tomato cage wire to sing to his brooding spouse, at Street Fair Idol volume.
Street Fair attendees were called for by the Courthouse Clerk Hatfield’s office to stand and serve as witnesses for a wedding. A free show of a different color, even by Bluffton Free Street Fair standards. Groom W. H. Miller, age 42, wed Miss Maggie Dangerfield, who was exactly half the groom’s age. A large number of fair goers took advantage of the chance to see the wedding connected to the Street Fair. The Bluffton newspaper reporter failed to indicate if the group gathered were offered a wedding dinner of a corndog or Zum Stik. Not the latter for sure, as it was decades too early for that fair-treat to appear on the streets of Bluffton, first happening in 1981. Corn dogs were American, invented by German immigrants, but did not appear until after a quarter of a century beyond Mr. and Mrs. Miller’s Street Fair wedding.
Perhaps Angelkeep’s wrens visited the Courthouse Market Street balcony for their unofficial wedding.
Robert N. Morgan and Ada Frye, both of Liberty Township, called on Squire Smith the Wednesday morning of Street Fair and were actually the first couple married during Street Fair in the 19th century. Perhaps she wore a speckled gown of light tan for her wedding attire, like Mrs. Wren would have worn.
Once the first wren brood hatched in the nest built among the patio-hanging boat cushions, Mr. and Mrs. Wren repeatedly brought food to the hungry, gaping beaks. Daddy usually flew off and came back with a small insect, the size of which seemed to grow each day, as likely did the nestlings. Mommy Wren chose to fly the eight to ten feet to the suet feeder and grab a chunk of the greasy, seedy food, it not unlike much of the Bluffton Free Street Fair food vendors’ offerings. Deep fried in fat seemed to be the midway favorite, regardless of what was being boiled in oil.
Thus it was that in the summer of 2022 Angelkeep totally missed the wren wedding ceremony. Additional weddings took place over the years during the Bluffton Free Street Fair, some promoted as being a fair attraction or event. Former Mayor Ted Ellis performed at least one of such marriages. Angelkeep missed the wedding ceremony. Angelkeep was probably standing in line for a dumpling wedded to ice cream from the Lion’s Club Apple Dumpling Gang booth.
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
