Person:James Taylor (281)

Sources

Text originally from FamilyPedia

Overview

James married Sarah Melvin in 1817, in Madison Co, OH. Her parents, Joseph Melvin and Phebe Van Vactor, were originally from Berkely/Jefferson County VA/WV, where Phebe was born, but moved to Greene Co, TN just before the turn of the century. Initially, James and Sarah probably settled near her parents "in the Glade" area of Madison County, but relocated to Parke Co, Indiana, about 1823 (Beckwith, 1880:b320). Here they settled, in Wabash township, and seem to have remained there the rest of their lives. Over the course of their marriage James and Sarah raised thirteen children. Sarah was just over forty at her death in 1839. James remained in the same area until his death of "fever", in 1850, at about age 55. ^[2]

James and Sarah were buried in the Hixon Cemetery a few miles outside of Mecca,

Census

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Gravestone. Hixon cemetery, gives DOD as 23 April 1850, at age 55 yrs 6 mo, 14 days.
2. ↑ It seems likely that James died of cholera. In 1849-1850 a cholera epidemic ravaged the American midwest.

   In 1849, cholera was in Vincennes, Indiana, again. It was an important commercial site on the Wabash River, part of the canal system between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. Cholera was there again in 1849 and, again, businessmen attempted to suppress its recognition. The doctor who diagnosed cholera in 1849 was forced to leave the town.(22,23) By August 1, 1850, the Vincennes Gazette admitted there had been seven deaths in Vincennes. The Gazette stated that numbers had been exaggerated and one should not believe rumors. On August 8, 1850, the Gazette reported that the disease was subsiding. It noted with considerable pride that deaths in Vincennes had averaged 11/2 per day. This, it said, was “the best in the United States where cholera had existed.”(24)
   
   Lafayette, Indiana, also a Wabash river town, attempted to hide the cholera problem in 1849. On August 15, 1849, Millicent Ann Stratton of New London in Howard County wrote: “The cholera is in Lafayette, about 10 miles distant. It has not reached our settlement yet, but we do not know how soon it may please our Heavenly Father to send it over our land and call us from this unfriendly world to appear before our final judge. We have heard about Salem and the little town of Boston that have suffered greatly.”(25) The cholera survey conducted by the Indiana Medical Association (1853) reported 300 deaths in Lafayette in 1849 from “diarrheal diseases.”(26)
   
   Salem, Indiana, an inland village, on a stagecoach route, about 25 miles from the Ohio River and New Albany, was one of the most severely affected towns. In July and August, 1833, there were 113 deaths in and around the town. Its population was a few hundred. The newspaper stopped publication. Most individuals fled. A local minister later wrote that all fled the town except “a donkey and a drunken grocery keeper. The Black Cholera Comes to the Central Valley of America…(Trans Am Clin Climatol Assoc. 2008; 119: 143–153. )

References

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