In many places, sixteen was not considered too young to get married and in some, perhaps, maybe just about the right time. In my parents day (both born before WWI), the concept of the teenage years had not yet developed, I believe, although it may have by the time of WWII with the bobbysoxers. At any rate, if a student dropped out of school, he would have been expected to get a job, if he could find one. My father never even went to high school, much less dropped out, and I believe he did farm work. Before he was drafted in 1942 when I think he was 28, he worked in mines, "worked cattle" (cowboy) and drove trucks. His life was rather harder than mine.