Notes for Raymond Lewis Taylor: My personal memories of Uncle Raymond are limited. I have heard a number of stories about him, but they're not very complementary and I'd be reluctant to repeat them (particularly in writing). I have been told innumerable times that he didn't have much luck farming, but that he was a terrific mechanic and could make any motor vehicle run. I also remember him constantly chewing tobacco and spitting with absolute accuracy for what seemed like fifteen feet or more. Hillis tells the story about Uncle Raymond chewing tobacco in his parents' kitchen and spitting from across the room into a small waste hole on their stove. He says it would drive Aunt Pearl crazy. submitted by Roger Taylor
Grandpa Taylor is most often characterized as eccentric, however unfair that generalization may have been. His behavior seemed more of an outward manifestation of the British "stiff upper lip" that contributed to public display of extreme convictions. Events controlled Grandpa, not the reverse. Often victimized by adversity, he never stopped trying to do the best for his family. Helen was embarrassed when he covered the school house window with a gunny sack to protect her from a draft and when he made her wear Mildred's old fur coat to school that the other children mistook for a bear. These stories may seem funny now but do not seem odd when viewed in the context of a man who deeply cared for his children and did his best for them. Religious as a young man, he may have turned against religion out of anger nevertheless he remained a student of the Bible his entire life. He thought his daughters vain when they applied make-up to their faces and plucked their eyebrows and was not reserved about expressing his opinions. He was also playful and teasing but his judgment wasn't always the best when he spat tobacco juice at the bare feet of his granddaughter. To my cousin Jim and me, he was and will always be the ideal grandpa. submitted by Brian Harvey (Grandson)
Stuff about Raymond and family when they lived in Neche and before: At the end of the road heading southwest from the grain elevator was an acreage consisting of a grove of white birch. Grandpa Taylor moved his family to Neche in 1925 from Big Fork, Minnesota. In 1938 he built a flat-roofed log cabin in a small wooded acreage from the birch trees cleared from the cabin site. It was not a traditional log cabin. The trees were sectioned into little round logs about a foot long, then stacked in cords to form the outside walls. An exterior coating of stucco was then applied. The front door was positioned in the middle of the house facing to the south and east, with the kitchen area and its wood-burning cast iron cooking stove to the right and the living area to the left upon entering through the front door. Bedrooms were located at the rear. Several years later a low, peaked roof was added providing attic space for storage and additional sleeping quarters, accessible by a ladder from the bathroom. Grandpa Taylor's original flat roof design was the object of local ridicule, however based on his personality, the decision to add the peaked roof was more likely the need for additional space a than a response to public criticism. The Taylor home north of Oriska was a very nice, large, white two-story, square wooden frame house with a cupola on top of a peaked roof. The kitchen had some running water and Grandma had a "hired girl" who worked for just room and board. Grandpa had a hired man, a Hungarian immigrant named John Bolvary. The farmstead had a chicken coupe and a two story elevator for threshing grain: oats, wheat, and barley. There was a red barn for the livestock which consisted of cows, a bull, and six work horses. The horses had names: Fred (a white horse), Nig (a black horse), King, Queen, May, and a horse whose name has been forgotten. A dog looked after things on the farm. His name was Shep. Grandma Taylor had an organ that she loved to play and Grandpa would accompany her with song. He also sang in the Methodist Church choir. This bucolic existence ended unhappily when the family was overcome by excessive debt, and the farm, machinery (a threshing machine), and many possessions were sold at a farm sale in 1920. When Grandpa Taylor ceased farming in Barnes County, he kept possession of his six large draft horses. He hoped to support his growing family with the help of the horses to haul logs for the northern Minnesota logging industry, so around 1920 he moved his family to near Big Fork. Arrangements were made with Mr. Pouge, owner of a large logging concern that operated around the Big Fork area to rent the horses at $3.00 per day. Their home was a log cabin owned by Mr. Pouge and located very close to the Big Fork River about 8 miles west of town. The house consisted of a single, large room towards the front with two bedrooms at the rear partitioned from the main room. The family was dealt another heavy blow within the first year when all of Grandpa Taylor's beloved horses died, because they were unable to adapt to the change in feed from the prairie grass of North Dakota to the meadow grass of the timber country. The horses stomachs swelled and they suffered. Grandpa tried to save them by supporting them with heavy leather harnesses, but to no avail. For the next four years, the family eked out a living by living off the land in ways other than agriculture: picking berries, fishing, hunting, and trapping. Berries were plentiful: cranberries, strawberries, and blueberries. Bullheads and pickerel could be taken from the Big Fork River. Mildred Taylor recalls easily bringing down partridges with her .22 rifle. She also recalls helping the family by trapping muskrat and mink when she was about 13 years old, providing a lesson in early trapping methods. Our log house was no more than 40 or 50 feet from the Big Fork River but it was much higher ground where the house was located. I could just start the traps right there and didn't have to go far. I only had four traps, steel ones that were hard to get. I set them close to the water - a few inches - in the evening and looked in the morning to find dead muskrats. The minute they stepped in the trap they immediately dove in the water and drowned themselves. The mink were hard to get. Still alive, they would put up a fight, so I had to push his trap in the water and drown him. No one helped me skin the animals. I made a thin board about 18 inches long and pulled the skin over it, skin-side out, fur next to the board. I remember one time Dad went to Big Fork, took the dried hides of one mink - $6 and four muskrats - $3 each - $18 total. When he came home, he had 100 lbs of flour and some sugar - 100 lbs. The back seat of the old Ford was just full of everything we needed with the $18 - oatmeal, prunes, peanut butter. It was a big event when the Wannigan tied up by the Taylor home. The Wannigan was a floating bunk and cookhouse that followed the logs down the river during the log drives. Helen recalls the Taylor children getting pastries from the cook bringing a little cheer back to the home. On the other hand, there were moments of fear from the wild animals that lurked in the north woods, particularly the black bear and the grey wolf. There is a story concerning Marion who failed to return home from town one evening, bringing with him some groceries. Grandpa found him perched in a tree that he had climbed to escape wolves, bears, or a moose, depending upon which version of the story is being told. One version has him being rescued by Grandpa swinging a lantern to frighten away the wild animals. The school that the children attended was a short distance from their home but on the opposite side of the river. It was also a log structure like their home and was owned by an elderly bachelor who was a well-known moonshiner, for this was during Prohibition. One day the children arrived at school to find corn and other related products scattered about the school grounds, a result of a raid by "Revenuers" for apparently moonshine had been stored in the school house. By 1925 Grandpa Taylor decided to move back to North Dakota, but not to Barnes County, instead, he chose Neche for some unknown reason, perhaps he heard that he would be able to find work. He found seasonal employment with several large, Neche-area wheat farmers operating and maintaining their machinery, tasks at which he was very adept. They lived first in a house on the farm owned by Bill Trenbeath who became one of Grandpa's long-term employers The farm house was located a mile west of Neche. Later the family moved to a house in Neche on the north side of town. When they lived on the Trenbeath place, the children had to walk into Neche to attend school. Mildred believes that Edna save her life one winter when she thought she was freezing to death and could not walk home. Edna dragged her home over the snow. Earning money to help support the family came at an early age to the Taylor children, often beginning as young as age 12 when they would hire out to other farm families for house work or farm labor. Helen and Marion worked for the Les Trenbeath family, living at their farmstead. Helen's life was saved by the onset of mumps which kept her home with her mother the night a terrible fire destroyed the Trensbeath home. No trace was ever found of Mr. and Mrs. Trenbeath and their child. Mildred began working during the summer for her Aunt Pearl, Mrs. Whitfield McKay, who lived near Luverne, North Dakota. Raymond Lewis Taylor (Grandpa Taylor) came from a prominent Barnes County farm family, his father having arrived in North Dakota in 1889 moving from Minnesota where he had farmed for nine years. Before that the Taylor family had lived near Le Roy, Wisconsin where Raymond's brothers Jessie and Herbert were born. Their sister Pearl was born in Minnesota. These were the only children of Lewis and Henrietta Taylor to survive to adulthood. Lewis and Henrietta came from New York; Henrietta's family lived in Springfield Township, north of Otsego Lake and Lewis' family lived in Genesee County. Lewis was born in 1841 and Henrietta in 1849. Joel Taylor, the father to Lewis, came from the Berkshire area of western Massachusetts, born in 1814. He apparently was a very skilled craftsman. It is not known when the first member of this family of Taylor's came to America from England. It is unclear what events led to Grandpa Taylor's cessation of farming north of Oriska, but records suggest that he may have been in partnership with his brother Jesse though family oral history relates that his father gave him a farm. The 1910 plat book for Barnes County shows that 320 acres of land had been purchased on contract from William Flint by R&J Taylor. The nearness of the property to the Lewis Taylor farm and the initials on the land in the plat book suggest that Raymond and Jessie were the buyers. Furthermore Jessie's biography implies that he became more involved in banking and education than farming, therefore Raymond may not have been the only one affected by the failed farming operation. According to Mildred, Jessie also lost his bank and Herbert too lost his farm but somehow he was able to get his farm back. Even though the Great Depression years are generally thought to be the 1930s, Dakota farmers were experiencing depression-like conditions in the 1910s and 1920s. There may have been factors other than bad judgment that led to the disastrous end of the Minnesota venture as well. The decision to return to North Dakota was probably motivated by the security of the familiar, yet Neche provided a home distant from, yet close to his immediate family. His knowledge and skill with the operation of heavy farm machinery and knowledge of Dakota farming techniques would have provided him with employment options that were unavailable in northern Minnesota. Grandpa Taylor once told me that his father had wanted him to be a farmer and prevailed on him to leave college after his freshman year. My mother believed that her father's heart was not in farming, that he should have pursued his education, and perhaps he may have become a successful engineer. Having married at 25 and starting a family would have limited the options available at the time he quit farming. His brother Jessie was never burdened by a large family, had obtained his education, and was engaged in the banking business prior to investing resources into farming. The specter of failure was undoubtedly a heavy load for Raymond, not being the equal to his own brothers and sister. There exists a photograph of Leora and Raymond, his two brothers, and other relatives taken around 1950. The photograph was taken in the front of Grandpa Taylor's Neche home looking east. Scrawled on the back of the photograph are the words "Valley City big shots."
Raymond married Leora Stillman July 21, 1909 and they farmed ten miles north of Oriska, on the E ½ of Section 25 in Grand Prairie Township. The farm appears to have been purchased under contract by R&J Taylor from William Flint and was located one mile west of the Lewis P. Taylor farm in Section 30, E ½ E ½, in Minnie Lake Township. The Herbert Taylor place was in the W ½ W ½ of Section 31, so all three farms were within a mile of each other. The 1910s were difficult years in the Dakotas and even more difficult for a young farm family getting started having to assume debt. By 1920, Raymond was forced off the farm because of mounting debt and he moved his family to Big Fork, Minnesota to support them in the logging business. That failed too and by 1925 the family had relocated in Neche, North Dakota where Raymond and Leora lived the rest of their lives. Leora died February 16, 1957 and Raymond died three years later on October 6, 1960. Together they had the following children: Mildred Pearl, born 8/13/1910 in Oriska, married Roy Albert Platt 6/24/1935 in Fargo, Jay D'Andrea 11/17/1946 in Kellogg, ID, Albert Ernest Lucier 7/28/1962 in Glendale, CA, Albert Lucier died 10/5/1985. Edna Leora, born 12/22/1911in Oriska, died 12/8/1966 in Waverly, IA, married Cecil W. Harvey in Pembina 10/22/1929. Marion Raymond, born 9/12/1913 in Oriska, died 9/19/1975, married Opal Irene Shipley 8/26/1949. Elsie Leona, born 6/24/1915 in Oriska, married Albert M. Amburn 8/23/1950 in Oakland, CA. Marnie Belle, born 4/15/1917 in Oriska, died 10/31/1986, married Arthur L. Jay 2/22/1942 in Oakland, CA, Laurence Huel Evans, 12/23/1948 in Reno, NV. Asher Clayton, born 1918 and died 1919 in Oriska of the flu. Probably these dates are off a year because Asher is listed in the 1920 census taken in February as 9 months old. He was named for his great-uncle. Helen Alice, born 7/2/1921 in Big Fork, MN, married James Thorstein Freeman 10/28/1939 in Hallock, MN. George Lewis, born 1924 in Big Fork, MN, died by drowning 6/14/1935 in Neche. Frank Luverne, born 7/29/1926, died 12/5/1991 in CA, never married. Leslie Ray, born 7/20/1928 in Neche, died 5/16/1991 in Pembina, married Ramona Delores Lembke 7/8/1950 in Neche. Gloria Ramona, born 11/3/1930 in Neche, married Ingwald Lund Larson 11/29/1952 in Las Vegas, NV. Edna Leora Taylor married Cecil Harvey, son of Charles and Cecelia, on October 22, 1929 at Pembina, ND. Cecil and Edna had two sons: Clayton Duane (Born 7/21/1930 at Pembina, ND and died 4/24/1968 at Waverly, IA) and Brian Lee (born 11/22/41 at Grafton, ND). In 1945, the Cecil Harvey family moved to Waverly, Iowa where Cecil assumed a managerial position with Gamble-Skogmo, Inc., a Midwest based general merchandise chain. Edna died December 8, 1966 and Cecil died January 11, 1998. Both are buried in Waverly. Duane married Beverly Gambaiani on October 19, 1952. Her parents were Frank and Carrie Gambaiani who farmed near Waverly. Brian married Janadene Radke (born August 9, 1942), daughter of Walter and Lorine Radke of Aurelia, Iowa on August 21, 1965 and they reside in Iowa City, Iowa. Jan, like Beverly, had also grown up on a farm.
According to family legend, the early American history of the Taylor family parallels that of the Stillman Family. They fled England around 1660 after Charles II was reinstated on the throne because they had been supporters of Oliver Cromwell and the execution of King Charles I. Though promised amnesty by Charles II, they left fearing for their lives. In America, they were forced to hide from the "King's Agents" (bounty hunters) in the Berkshires until the Revolutionary War. Biographical information passed down by Great Uncle Carl Taylor suggests that they were gentry. submitted by Brian Harvey
More About Raymond Lewis Taylor and Leora (Ora) Blanch Stillman: Marriage: July 21, 1909
Children of Raymond Lewis Taylor and Leora (Ora) Blanch Stillman are:
Raymond Lewis Taylor (b. August 24, 1884, d. October 06, 1960)
Notes for Raymond Lewis Taylor: