Jul 3, 2008 7:20 pm US/Pacific
Historic Ben Franklin-Betsy Ross Wedding Held
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ―
Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross celebrated the eve of the Fourth of July not with fireworks but with wedding vows.
Ralph Archbold and Linda Wilde, who portray the historical figures, tied the knot Thursday evening in a public ceremony in front of Independence Hall, where the real Franklin helped draft the nation's founding documents.
The bride and groom, as well as the entire wedding party, were in costume for the event.
"Ralph and Linda, the entire city could not be happier for you," said Mayor Michael Nutter, who performed the brief ceremony.
After exchanging vows, Archbold and Wilde were given a standing ovation bythe crowd of several thousand as the Philly Pops, who were to give aconcert immediately afterward, played the wedding march.
The couple boarded a lighted open horse-drawn coach for the trip to a private reception at the city's historic City Tavern, where Franklin himself dined along with such notables as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Archbold says he and Wilde met Sept. 1 after she hired him for a friend's wedding toast. The couple then discovered a mutual love of history and education that soon blossomed into love, and they announced their engagement this spring.
Wilde, a pharmacist, is widowed. Archbold, now 66, noted his first wife died and he is long divorced from his second.
"I've waited a long time for this," said the lovestruck Archbold.
"Spending the rest of my life with him is going to be a lot of fun," said bride Wilde.
Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, is credited in many history books with stitching the first American flag. But historians have found no proof. Some believe that Francis Hopkinson, a member of the Continental Congress from New Jersey, may have designed the flag.
Ben Franklin was a printer and young journalist writing under the fictional name of Silence Dogood, supposedly a witty local widow. After coming to Philadelphia, Franklin became a social activist and and scientific innovator.
Among advancements credited to Franklin include America's first subscription library service, one of the first fire departments, the heat-efficient Franklin stove, swimming fins, the glass harmonica musical instrument and bifocals. He famously demonstrated lightning and electricity were connected through an experiment using a kite and a key.
During the Revolutionary War against British rule, Franklin was among the founding fathers who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and later served the new nation as an emissary to France, a close ally to the newly democratic former colonies.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
