Taylor Genealogy

Awaiting Nancy's return (1885)

21-year-old Elizabeth was suffering with a bad cough, but her brothers all seemed to be healthy on a late April day in 1885. The older children of the TAYLOR family related to their father how impressed they were with the Sunday evening sermon at the Presbyterian Church, and that Mr. Darby would probably be preaching on a regular basis in the future. JOHN had stayed home the entire Sabbath day, supervising his little 2-year-old daughter, Hattie, during the absence of his spouse.

JOHN's 46-year-old wife had gone away on an extended trip to visit her son's family in Pennsylvania, where Nancy's son "Willie" Wyman had not been well. However, she was being missed very much by those remaining at home, but most especially by her husband. If she were to travel alone again, JOHN decided, they should discuss it in more detail than they had this time.

The weather was really pleasant next day when lonely JOHN TAYLOR herded several head of his cattle into a pasture where fresh spring grass was thriving. At noon, he returned to the house for dinner, even though his dear Nancy was not there to prepare his lunch.

After the mid-day meal, JOHN strove to free his mind from the melancholy gloom of being apart from his beloved mate. He decided to enjoy the fair weather, and took a walk with little Hattie being toted upon his back. After strolling down through the lower field and timberland, they stopped to rest at the dumping area down by the railroad tracks and gazed at the tranquil peacefulness of the springtime scenery.

Suddenly, the raucous clamor of a speeding steam locomotive and its trailing rail cars came roaring loudly down the track very close by their observation point. The startled little girl instantly lifted both arms and cried out for her "Ma." JOHN sympathetically tried to console Hattie in her fright and the longing for her mother, while he himself also earnestly wished Nancy were back home again. Before this early spring day was over, JOHN rode to the post office to check the mail, but no letters arrived on that final April Monday of 1885.

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