Timing a wedding

At 8:02 a.m., Joe Melzer and Hazel Goldberg could have said, “I do,” thus becoming the state of Arizona’s first wedded couple.

Instead, they waited for official word. The two had been planning this for months, entering their new lives together just as Arizona entered statehood. They were in no rush.

As Taft finished the signing in Washington, with three motion-picture cameras capturing the moment, the news was sent toward Arizona via telegraph.

It took 55 minutes for word to finally reach Phoenix, arriving at the main telegraph station at the railroad depot. Among those awaiting official word was a boy or young man entrusted with one thing — alert members of the wedding as soon as possible.

Though no official record exists, the wedding’s representative likely pushed his way out of the crowd (for many were there to spread the word on the street), hopped on a bike and headed to the church.

The ceremony began as soon as word was received. Melzer and Goldberg exchanged vows, and soon he slipped onto her finger the ring presented to him by the 3-year-old ring bearer, Barry Goldwater.

At the western end of downtown, a crowd had gathered around George W.P. Hunt in front of the Ford Hotel at Seventh Avenue and Washington Street.

There, less than a mile away, they could see the Capitol at the