Obituaries (August 25)

Sarah A. Taylor

 

 

Sarah A. Taylor

1842 - 1915

 

Obituary

Binghamton Press, May 5, 1915

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  Mrs. Sarah A. Taylor died suddenly at her home on Guernsey street last evening, aged 72 years.  Pleuro-pneumonia was the cause of death.  Mrs. Taylor had been for many years active in the church and social work of the city. Funeral services will be held at the home Thursday afternoon at 4 o'clock and at the Methodist church at 4:30.  Burial will be made in Mt. Hope Cemetery the Rev. Alfred Burke officiating.

 

Will Contested

Utica Saturday Globe, October 1915

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  Mrs. Sarah A. Taylor, who died last May, left a will which is being contested before a jury.  The hearing was commenced at the Court House Wednesday afternoon, the morning being consumed in choosing the jury.  By the terms of the will Mrs. Taylor disinherits an only sister, whom she had made her beneficiary in several previous wills, which she revokes and makes Mrs. Norah Miller Morse her sole legatee.  The latter bears no blood relationship to the deceased, but was a very intimate friend and made her home with Mrs. Taylor from November, 1914 to February 1915.  The will was drawn in December last and was witnessed by Rev. and Mrs. A.R. Burke.  Mrs. Morse has since married a Dr. Walters and removed to Pennsylvania, where her husband conducts a rest cure.

 

Portions of the will read by counsel to the jury disclosed that Mrs. Taylor cut off her sister apparently because of her indifference, she having refused to come and live with her, preferring to stay at the O.E.S. Home in Waterville and never doing anything for the devisor during her life time the latter felt under no obligation to provide anything for her at her death.  The property, including 4,000 acres of land in West Virginia, was given in total to Mrs. Morse-Walters to be used by her "as the Lord directs," excepting a few personal gifts mentioned in the will.

 

Mrs. Taylor was a prominent church missionary and temperance worker and all concerned in the case are agreed as to her Christian character.  Mrs. Walters shared her religious zeal.  Undue influence is alleged as the grounds of the contest.  The witnesses to the will, Rev. and Mrs. Burke, testified to their belief that Mrs. Taylor was sane. Counsel contested for an hour over some doctrinal questions and the matter of religious belief and influence.  Mrs. Taylor's signature and writing were identified by William Mason, cashier of the Chenango National Bank.

 

Mrs. Dimmick, the sister of Mrs. Taylor, testified to certain occurrences in the Taylor home while the witness and Mrs. Morse-Walter were among the occupants. She told of her departure for the O.E.S. home in Waterville.  She further told of finding some documents and papers which may have an important bearing on the case.  Mrs. Harvey Trass, at whose home Mrs. Morse-Walters had apartments previous to going to the home of Mrs. Taylor, told how Mrs. Walters related to her, the manner in which she had met Mrs. Taylor at church and later showed her a cameo ring which she said Mrs. Taylor had given her remarking that she would not "marry the old thing but it was just a vow."  She told of a marriage certificate in Mrs. Taylor's possession revealing her "marriage" to another woman several years ago. She stated that Mrs. Taylor had about $4,000 and a diamond pin valued at "1,300 which should be sold and the proceeds given to missions. 

 

Mrs. Fannie Garrison proved the star witness.  She was an intimate acquaintance of both Mrs. Walter and Mrs. Taylor and related how the former had claimed the divine power of healing and had prayed three carbuncles from under her own arm in one night and the next night prayed that the scars might be removed and they disappeared.  Witness told how her own rheumatism had been relieved by prayer.  She testified that previous to her death Mrs. Taylor had told her there were rumors that she had made a will in Mrs. Morse-Walter's favor, but here was no truth in the reports. She had known Mrs. Taylor since girlhood and resisted many incidents in a manner that brought down the house. 

 

A male boarder at the Taylor home testified that Mrs. Morse-Walter always had cream in her coffee at breakfast, which the other borders, were served milk, showing the high favor in which she was held by the boarding mistress.

Parker child

DeRuyter Gleaner, December 18, 1930

Pharsalia [Chenango Co., NY]:  The eight months old daughter of Mrs. Rebecca Parker died Thursday, December 11th of pneumonia.  The funeral which was private was held from the home on Saturday afternoon with interment in South Otselic [Chenango Co., NY].  Much sympathy is expressed in Mrs. Parker, who seems to have been called to go thru with so much having buried her husband late in September and her grandmother last March.

The youngest child of Mrs. Rebecca Parker of Pharsalia was buried in Valley View cemetery Saturday.

Ellen R. Stearns

DeRuyter Gleaner, May 17, 1934

Mrs. Ellen R. Stearns aged 82 years, mother of Mrs. Ray B. Brown of Columbia street, passed away at the Oxford Community hospital Tuesday of bronchial pneumonia, which developed following a cerebral hemorrhage five days previous.  She was a resident of South Otselic [Chenango Co., NY] and had come to Oxford six months ago to be cared for by her daughter.  She was born October 12, 1851, at North Brookfield, the daughter of Joseph R. and Sarah A. Bennett Marsh.  She married William A. Stearns who died several years ago.  The funeral will be held in the church at South Otselic Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock and burial will be made in the cemetery there.  Besides the daughter mentioned, she is survived by two sons.--Oxford Times

Shirley May Brown

DeRuyter Gleaner, July 9, 1936

Shirley May Brown, youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Brown of Pitcher [Chenango Co., NY] died Thursday, July 2, 1936.  at Cortland Hospital following a brief illness with cerebral meningitis.  She was born January 13, 1936, and during her short five months on earth, endeared herself to all who met her by her sweet, bright baby ways.  She is survived by her parents and one sister, Norma, four brothers, Richard, Leonard, Donald and Martin; besides her grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Grover Loomis and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Brown, three uncles an aunt and several cousins. The funeral was held Sunday from the C.B. Heath home in Cincinnatus with Mr. Heath in charge of arrangements.  Many lovely flowers testified silently to the sympathy of relatives and friends for the bereaved family. Burial was made in South Otselic cemetery, Rev. R. DeWitt Stanley of So. Otselic officiated at the services, choosing as his text these words from the songs of Solomon:  "My beloved has gone down into his garden to gather lilies."  He compared the baby to a lily and told the saddened family that God has only transplanted this little lily to his more beautiful garden in Heaven, there to grow under ideal conditions and come to perfection of bloom without having to undergo the hard experiences of life on earth.