I thought he may have taken them out to dinner. In a small town every mother would have been rubbing their hands together trying to get their daughters married off. I know in the South back in the day there was no problem with that age difference
I was dating at 14 (1973), but must have looked older. People always took me for store clerks.
What is disgusting NOW is what was accepted back then and the accusers should know that. Media does not, though.
No there was not a problem at all. In fact young ladies were encouraged to marry young and to marry a man that was already established in a career or business. Men were expected to have themselves established before marrying. That usually meant there was an age difference we might not be comfortable with now. Teen girls marrying men in their 30s was fairly common.
Another thing they encouraged/forced- if a young woman was "headstrong" and not showing the best behavior her parents would try to marry her off to a much older man, say a widower of 40s to 50s or even older! The idea was the older man would be wise and know how to handle her so there would be no scandals.
Actually makes sense to me, if you want to keep your young daughter on the right path getting her married off young before she does something foolish seems pretty smart using pure logic. Girls matured earlier than boys and both were far more mature than most are now. Marriages of people with some money/clout were pretty close to arranged marriages.
The old traditions did not die out for a long time, I would bet even now it would not be so unusual as we think.