Exactly How and when Bertha Wasmer and met Dan Harris are unknowns. Most probably the couple were introduced by Charles and Emma Schering, Bertha's sister and brother-in-law. Charles Schering had purchased seventeen lots from Dan in April 1883 and had constructed a building at the northwest corner of 10th and Harris Streets in which he operated a restaurant. (See the companion booklets Dan Harris Founds Fairhaven and Dan Harris Meets the Press for details.)

    The probability of Charles Schering's agency is supported by his oath and signature on the marriage license issued to Dan Harris and Bertha Wasmer, which reads as follows:

Territory of Washington
County of Whatcom    ss

Charles Schering being first duly sworn on oath deposes and says that he is well acquainted with Daniel J. Harris and Bertha Wasmer both of Whatcom County, Washington Territory and knows that there is no legal impediment to the marriage of said Bertha Wasmer and Daniel J. Harris.

                                                                                Charles Schering

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 16th day of October A.D. 1885

                                                                                      C. Donovan
                                                                                  County Auditor of
                                                                               Whatcom County W.T.

    The wedding was held the following day, October 17, 1885, at the Harris home with the Reverend Mr. B. K. McElmon, minister of the St. James Presbyterian Church, officiating. The witnesses were Charles and Emma Schering, Charles Schering being identified as the affiant. The Harris home was probably not the hotel that Dan had built at the corner of 4th and Harris Streets in the summer of 1883 but the two-story structure he built in the fall of 1883 on a lot in Fairhaven the location of which has not been identified. Dan Harris is known to have owned a cow, a team of horses and a buggy which might have been kept adjacent to that building. (See Dan Harris Meets the Press for details.)

    On October 23, 1885 the Whatcom Reveille published the following announcement about the wedding, which is transcribed verbatim:

    Mr. Daniel J. Harris, of Fairhaven, more
familiarly know as Dan Harris, was mar-
ried on Saturday last, the 17th inst., to Miss
Bertha L. Wasmar, sister of Mrs. Schering,
  of Fairhaven; Rev. B. K. McElmon officiating

    Apparently, the bride had a noticeably beneficial effect on the groom, for the Reveille printed the following brief note on November 27th, just a little over a month after the wedding:

    Dan. Harris, of Fairhaven, has "braced
up" considerably since his marriage.

No information has been found about the couple in the eleven months immediately following their wedding and no indication as to whether or not Dan was involved in the management of his hotel during that period.

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