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Among the students at the little one-room school at Wolf Bayou that he attended was his future bride, Maud Cranford, who had been going to school since she was about six years old. In those days a student did not necessarily spend a year at each grade. As soon as they could master the material at one grade they could go on to the next. Maud said that he "passed her up" very quickly. He was two years older than she was so he had an advantage in maturity. Probably he knew he wouldn’t be allowed to go to school for many years and looked at school as an opportunity, not an obligation or duty, so he was highly motivated to learn. During his whole life he had an interest in and respect for education. He read newspapers and other publications and kept himself well informed about local and world affairs. |
| Hubert and Maud Cranford were married on Thursday, January 12, 1899 at the home of L. T. Cranford, the bride’s parents, at Wolf Bayou, Arkansas by Rev. R. H. Grissett. We don’t know exactly where they lived at first, but the 1900 census lists their household as adjoining that of William and Ella Prichard, Maud’s sister’s family, and next to them the household of L. T. Cranford, Maud’s parents. Hubert continued to work at the Ward mill for several years. |  |
In the first week of December of 1899 another Norton family, Hubert’s uncle N.N.S.S. Norton made the move from North Carolina to Arkansas. The timing of this move was connected to the romantic situation of their daughter, Mary Edith. She was "in love" with a young man in North Carolina of whom the parents disapproved, so they made the move just before she would become 21 on December 27. It was said that the trip was like a "funeral train" because she was so upset at leaving her "love." Family members, including Hubert, met their train and it was decided that Mary Edith would stay for a time with him and his very pregnant wife. She continued to stay with them until after the birth of their first child. She undoubtedly told them the news about the relatives who remained in North Carolina, including the fact that a little girl recently born there in the Norton family was named "Elva." Perhaps that’s where they got the idea of the name for their baby.