Category: Taylor, Ozro C.

M Is for…Military

M Is for…Military

Posted on by spuddled

For today’s post, I had grandiose ideas of making a simple list of all the relatives in my database with military activity. Then I realized even just providing a complete list of names would result in an outrageously long post. So instead, here is just a sampling of what I found.

Thomas William Davis, my 7th great-grandfather: born 15 May 1719 in Westerly, Rhode Island, he served as a captain in the 3rd Regiment, Monmouth County (New Jersey) Militia in 1777 and also from 1780-1781. He later moved to Monongalia County in what would become West Virginia, where he died in 1791.

Thomas Goolsberry Childers, my 1st cousin 6 times removed: this Thomas was born 31 January 1790 in Lincoln County, Kentucky. Records I found make him sound like an early-day Forrest Gump, so I should probably do some more research to verify claims that he: took part in the Battle of Tippecanoe, then was captured by the British during the War of 1812 and held prisoner for two years, then in 1832 fought in the Black Hawk War before moving to Texas and taking part in the Battle of San Jacinto with Sam Houston. Thomas died in Coryell County, Texas in about 1851.

Andrew J. Slatten was my third cousin four times removed: he was born somewhere around 1831-1833 in Illinois. In 1860 he was living in Des Moines, Iowa, and was occupied as a lawyer. Shortly after the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in Company D, 2nd Reg. Iowa Volunteers, Infantry. Less than a year later he was wounded at the Battle of Fort Donelson in Nashville in February 1862. Two months later he died in Saint Louis as a result of the leg and temple wounds he had received. He is buried in Des Moines’s Woodlawn Cemetery.

Find a Grave Memorial ID 38394272

Ozro C. Taylor, third great-granduncle: born 21 January 1847 in New York State, he enlisted 29 August 1864 in the 1st Regiment of the New York Light Artillery in Malone, New York. He enlisted as a substitute for a Seymour Gibbons; he was later mustered out at Elmira. He later moved to West Union, Iowa, where he was occupied in the livery business. He died 8 December 1890 “after ailing all fall.”

Ozro Taylor’s gravestone, West Union Cemetery

While most of the relatives I found were men, not all of them were. Mary Alice Evans, third cousin four times removed: born 18 February 1889 in Nortonville, Kansas, she served in the Army Nurse Corps between 16 February 1918 and 28 July 1919. She had been a nurse before the war and would continue her occupation after her military role ended. She died in 1948 in San Joaquin County, California, and is buried in the Stockton Rural Cemetery.

And last but not least from this random selection we have Ernest E. Bauer, half first cousin twice removed: born 14 January in either 1894 or 1895 in Gridley, Illinois, he left from Watseka, Illinois on 21 June 1918 to serve for six months during World War I. After his return he married Mary Yergler in Cissna Park, Illinois, in February 1920, and he died there in October 1966.

His Face Will Be Missed: Horseman Ozro C. Taylor

His Face Will Be Missed: Horseman Ozro C. Taylor

Posted on by spuddled

For every grim or simply sad death anniversary, there is a birthday to commemorate. On this day in 1847, my third great-granduncle, Ozro C. Taylor was born in New York State. His parents were Loring and Caroline (Caryl) Taylor, my 4G-grandparents, both of whom were born in Vermont. His eldest sister was Thesta Taylor, about whom I’ve written previously, and his second sister, Lucy Bridges Taylor, was my 3G-grandmother.

Ozro was enumerated with his parents and siblings in 1850 in Louisville, New York, and in Russell, New York in 1860. Four years later, at age 17, he enlisted as a substitute for a Seymour Gibbons1 and served in the 1st Regiment, New York Light Artillery, from 29 August 1864-17 June 1865. Of particular interest to me as a diehard Little House on the Prairie fan/nerd is the fact that he enlisted at Malone, New York, hometown of Almanzo Wilder. Sometime in 1865, Ozro’s father Loring died in Russell. I can’t help but wonder whether his death occurred before or after his son was mustered out of the military or if he was unable to see him again before he died.

By 1870 Loring’s mother Caroline had moved to Buchanan County, Iowa, where she was living with her eldest son Orric and his young family. Ozro was also married, though he was still living in Russell with his wife Helen (Carr) Taylor, 22, and their children Hattie, aged 2, and Charley, 4 months.

Sometime between the 1870 census enumeration and 1872, Ozro and Helen would follow Orric and Caroline to Iowa. Caroline continued to live with Orric’s family, though they, as well as Ozro’s family, now lived one county north, in Fayette County’s seat, West Union. By 1880 Hattie and Charley (now listed in the census as Charles M. Taylor) had been joined in the family by Millie, 8; Loring, 6; and Leon, 2.

Often our only glimpse into ancestors’ lives comes once every 10 years with census enumerations. We are lucky in the case of Ozro in that he appears numerous times in contemporary newspapers. Though in 1870 Ozro is listed as a farm laborer, by 1880 his occupation appears as “liveryman.” He and his brother Orric are said2 to have operated a livery business together in West Union between 1874 and 1877, at which time Orric became a West Union deputy sheriff. It seems plausible that Ozro continued in the livery business, as this affinity for horses is evident in many of the newspaper articles in which he appears.

The first of these that I found was in Davenport, Iowa’s Morning Democrat of 11 July 1884. In a listing of horses that were expected to appear at the Davenport track the following week, an “O. C. Taylor” from Ainsworth, Nebraska is noted as entering a chestnut mare, Flora P., and a bay mare, Mountain Girl. I have yet to determine when, if, or under what circumstances Ozro actually was in Ainsworth, but the next month he entered both mares in the Mahaska (Iowa) County Fair races according to the 28 August 1884 Oskaloosa Herald. A week later the Herald reported that Flora and Mountain Girl placed first and second, respectively, in the “Free for all Trotting.” In this article O. C. is noted as being from West Union.

In May 1885 Ozro entered the two horses in races at Sioux City, according to the Sioux City Journal of 28 May. Mountain Girl would race on the first day, and Flora P. on the third day. Mountain Girl is even called out as a “well-known trotter” who had a “close contest with Elmwood Chief at Minneapolis” two years previously. The Journal of 9 June 1885 confirms Mountain Girl’s entry for that day’s race, and two days later the same paper notes Flora P.’s entry.

A non-horse-related snippet in Cedar Rapids’s Evening Gazette of 24 August 1885 notes that “O. C. Taylor and wife…Sundayed in the city.” The following month, according to The Des Moines Register, Flora P. and Mountain Girl were expected to race at the Iowa State Fair.

The next entry I have found thus far appeared in the 26 June 1889 Evening Gazette. Here Ozro is noted as entering chestnut mare Lena Miller for the following day, and an article concerning that day’s races notes that Lena Miller took second place in two races, and third and fourth in two others. Two days later, Lena Miller placed third once, fourth three times, and second once. On 26 August 1889, The Gazette noted “O. C. Taylor of West Union is in the city for a week with the horsemen.”

The following year, in the 7 November 1890 Fayette County Leader, a small poignant article notes that O. C. Taylor’s “fast four-year-old, ‘Bixie,’ is dead.” And then little more than a month later the same newspaper noted the death of Ozro C. Taylor himself. The article noted that he had been “ailing all the Fall.” Ozro was only 43 when he died on 8 December 1890, and he was buried in the West Union Cemetery, as are numerous other relatives including his mother, who preceded him in death in 1887, and his brother Orric, who lived until 1898. Ozro’s wife Helen died 24 July 1923 in Spokane, Washington, and is buried in Fairmount Memorial Park there.

Interestingly, in 2012 I passed through West Union on a trek from Virginia (where I now live) to a high school reunion in Idaho. My mom and I stopped at the cemetery, which Find a Grave tells me has over 5000 gravestones, and I somehow managed to park my car on one of many cemetery lanes and walk straight to the Taylor plot. I still don’t know how that happened. Genealogical serendipity? The Fayette County Leader article announcing Ozro’s death notes that he was well-known in the region for his “trotting stock,” then ends by noting that “His face will be greatly missed at fu[ture] county fairs.” On his 177th birthday, I’d like to think we can all miss him just a little bit too.

Ozro C. Taylor Headstone
  1. New York State Archives. Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts, 1861-1900 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.Original data: Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts of New York State Volunteers, United States Sharpshooters, and United States Colored Troops [ca. 1861-1900]. Microfilm, 1185 rolls. New York State Archives, Albany, New York. ↩︎
  2. Portrait and Biographical Album of Fayette County, Iowa: Containing Full Page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County (n.p: Lake City Publishing Company, 1891). ↩︎