Death of blacksmith John Taylor (1888) Almost three weeks after his 16th wedding anniversary with Nancy, JOHN TAYLOR died on a mild autumn Friday, October 26, with the outside air temperature fluctuating through the 50's at his showplace farm home. JOHN had first come to the U. S. 40 years earlier and had lived in Nebraska 24 years, longer than at any other place. He was described as "an intelligent reader, a man of good capacity and strict integrity, and as one of the substantial men of the community, his death was esteemed a great loss." He was a member of both the Presbyterian Church and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. JOHN's first wife and four daughters had preceded him in death. The 62-year-old blacksmith-farmer was survived by his second wife, Nancy, and their nine living children. William, Robert, Elizabeth, and the younger JOHN were from his first marriage. Three stepsons, George, William, and Frank Wyman, along with two more children, Edmond and Hattie, were by his second wife, Nancy. Although JOHN became a step-grandparent in his marriage with Nancy, both JOHN and MARY were deceased by the time any other grandchildren were born. The farm he left behind was reported to have been one of the finest and most productive in the precinct and had an orchard and windbreak just north of the house. With a slip scraper pulled by a team of horses, he had built a dam east of the house. The four-level barn on his farm, providing plenty of room for hay, grain, implements, animals and other storage, was said to be able to house over 50 horses. The structure was unusually large and would stand along with the house for well over a hundred years until each was demolished. JOHN had traversed the Atlantic Ocean three times during his lifetime, with all the trips occurring in a span of a little more than two years. He first arrived at New York City in June, 1848, from his native Scotland. Two years later, he was back at Kirkwall to marry merry MARY WISHART. Shortly after the wedding, in July of 1850, they left the Orkney Isles. Accompanied by JOHN's brother Magnus Francis Taylor, they sailed on the Harmonia from Glasgow, and arrived at New York in August. JOHN and MARY had lived around Wilkes-Barre, PA, two or three years and at Hawesville, KY, about 12 years. JOHN became an American citizen at Hawesville. The TAYLORS came to Nebraska Territory in early May, 1864, and lived in Pawnee county until MARY's death in 1870 and JOHN's death in 1888. 16 years earlier, during October of 1872, JOHN had married a second time to Pennsylvania native Nancy (Kerns), widow of a Civil War soldier. Her first husband, Decatur Wyman, had died in battle near Richmond, VA, a decade before that, in 1862. JOHN was buried at Pawnee City next to his first wife, MARY, and two of their daughters, Emma Jane and Mary Helen, in the cemetery on the west edge of town.  John Taylor's barn The cause of John's death was not recorded at the time; at least, I've never discovered a death certificate, obituary, newspaper article, mention in a letter of correspondence, nor any other written report. The only facts available to me were oral accounts which have passed through the generations. One states that John never recovered from falling into a well being dug on his farm, that he suffered a broken neck and lingered for perhaps less than a week. Although the fatal accident was surely a very grievous circumstance for the entire family, his son Robert was always deeply saddened whenever he recalled the event, so I've been told. Another account states that John died of pneumonia. Perhaps both recollections are true. |
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