George & Mrs. Taylor

TAYLOR THOMPSON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/18/2010 at 22:10:47

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

George and Mrs Taylor
By Julie Taylor

George Taylor was born March 5, 1835, in Lincolnshire, England, and arrived in the United States in 1850. His wife, Elizabeth Thompson, was born January 26, 1835, in Brown County, Ohio. They were married in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1857.

With Mrs Taylor’s mother, Mrs William ‘Mary’ Thompson, and their four children, Ella, Annie, Clarence and Jessie, they moved from Cincinnati, to a farm in Madison County, Iowa, near Earlham, in 1874.

In 1882 they moved to a farm in Rutland Township, Section 10, Woodbury County, Iowa, Iowa, known as the Erb farm. Located on this farm was the Lozier post office which was a mile and one-half west of the present town of Pierson, Iowa.

Their trip from Earlham was by train via Omaha, Nebraska, Sioux City, Iowa, and LeMars, Iowa. From LeMars they journeyed by their own wagons with livestock and household goods.

As a youngster of ten years, Clarence would drive and herd their cattle to pasture on land where Pierson, Iowa, is now.

Clarence and his sister, Jessie, attended the rural school, Rutland No. 2, and remembered walking home a mile in the blizzard of 1888.

Ella married Melvin Bricker of Earlham, on April 30, 1882, and returned to Earlham to live on a farm.

Annie married Seth Brown on December 28, 1892. He was a storekeeper in Kingsley, and they owned eighty acres in Section 3, Rutland Township.

Clarence married Elizabeth Lancaster on January 14, 1901, and lived and farmed in Rutland Township, Section 4.

Jessie married George Woods in 1897 and lived in Rutland Township, Section 9, and later moved to Plymouth County near Kingsley.

Mrs Taylor’s mother, Mary Thompson, died February 23, 1883, at the age of 83 years, 9 months, and 21 days as is recorded on her tombstone. On February 25 she was buried at Good Hope Cemetery on the Ridge Road in Union Township, Woodbury County. The funeral procession traveled six miles by horse-drawn wagons and buggies.

On May 29, 1891, Mr and Mrs George Taylor bought the northwest quarter, 138.52 acres, of Section 4, Rutland Township, from Mr and Mrs H C Ballau, for the sum of $3,460. With son, Clarence, and daughters, Annie and Jessie, they moved there to live.

Mrs George Taylor died July 2, 1901. George Taylor died October 9, 1908. Both were buried at Good Hope Cemetery. Rev F W Whitford of the Methodist Church of Pierson, Iowa, officiated at the funeral of George Taylor.