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It was on October 31, 1775 that Samuel Doak married Esther Houston Montgomery. The diary of this pioneer Presbyterian minister and educator records a poem that he wrote on this special occasion. It can be found in William Gunn Calhoun, Samuel Doak, 1748-1830: His Life, His Children, Washington College, pp. 25-26 (available at our Secondary Sources page).
The hour is come, we join our hands,
And bind ourselves in wedlock bands,
In presence of Almighty God to vows perpetual.
There we read: — ‘Tis past.
Then first of all we pray
That God may bind our souls to-day
In bonds of everlasting love;
Commenced below; improved above.
Then whilst our moments wing heavenward
And bear us to heaven the final day
O may each heart be true
In honor of our Saviour God
Nor accustom our unhallowed list
Nor glittering stores of worldly dust
Not all the tempting arts of man
Could then our hearts cement in one.
Great God, our witness, ‘Twas thou that joined
Our hearts and hands, and formed our mind
For social intercourse; then may
Our souls as one here — join to pray.