On October 28, 1912, Art Smith and Aimee Cour decided to elope to Michigan in a plane because they couldn’t marry in their home state. The 19-year-old Smith and 18-year-old Cour were too young to marry without parental consent in Indiana, and their parents were not exactly in favor of the marriage.
Smith, a stunt pilot, said he would fly them to Michigan for a wedding neither of their parents could stop. Unfortunately, the plane crashed in Hillsdale and the two had to be taken to a hotel for recovery, as there was no hospital in the area at the time. Eventually, someone found a minister, and the two were married from a hotel bed. It was history’s first aerial elopement. The newlyweds spent another three weeks recovering in the hotel. Their parents, happy to see them alive, forgave them.
Source: Bob Garrett, Seeking Michigan, October 27, 2009.
More information from Hillsdale County History
For more information, see Rachel S. Roberts, Art Smith: Pioneer Aviator (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2003). Available through MelCat from the Western Michigan University Library.