Zacharia Taylor ANDERSON ²

   Another name for Zacharia was Taylor.⁷

  General Notes:

In a letter to the author's mother, the author's Aunt Ruby provided the following family stories about Taylor Anderson:
"He [Taylor Anderson] must have been, with all the tales Mama [Tilitha Bowers nee Anderson] told of him, a Holy Terror! Mama said if the coffee was too hot he would throw cup and all across the room. She said her mother, Bettie [Nancy Elizabeth Anderson nee Branscomb] was very patient and gentle and he never was mean to the family but his very own mother (I can't remember her name) could take him by the ear and calm him down in a hurry and she but a slip of a thing. He raised cattle and cut walnut timber in the Choctaw Nation. He was a great friend to the Indians, Cherokee and Choctaw and Chikesaw. They had great respect for him. He, as she told it, went on periodical benders! However, he took good care of his family and they always had plenty to eat and wear. Mama said all the girls helped in the fields and they grew most of their own food. The tales Mama told of their trips to Fort Smith. One story in particular, I remember. She said she and Mary and Rose always went with him to get supplies about once every two or three months. Once they went and put the wagon in the wagon yard (like our motels). Then they all went shopping and bought all their supplies and bolt after bolt of dress goods (all those girls). Then Pa [Pap per later conversations with Ruby] banked all his cash except enough to get his drinks. Mama said he came to the wagon yard late at night where they were camped and went to bed. She said everything was loaded on the wagon and they loaded him up too and the girls, as young as they were drove the wagon and Pa back to their home. He didn't wake up until they got nearly there then he took over and they went sailing on in. He was good to his kids but he had a whopper of a temper."

There are two versions of how Taylor died. Aunt Ruby recalls her mother telling her that he had ridden his horse to a place where he could hop the train to town. He left his horse in the care of a young boy and went to town on business. On his return trip, an accident occurred. Apparently, when he hopped off the train he got caught up in its wheels and his leg was severed. He was found dead by the boy who had been tending his horse. His leg was buried with him. Ollie Baker nee Spence, based on information from her mother, Rosa Lee Spence nee Anderson, said, "[h]e had sold some cattle and got some money. They thought he was pushed from a train and robbed of his money." ^{8 9}

  Research Notes:

The 1870 census for Sebastian Co., AR initially raised questions about whether my family's Taylor Anderson was the Taylor Anderson of the cited census records and thus a child of Richard and Martha Anderson. (That the Taylor Anderson of the 1870 census is the same person of the 1860 and 1850 censuses is established by the consistency of census data and by the fact he resided next door to his sister, Sophia, and near his brothers, John and Green Berry, in the 1870 census.) The primary problem was that the 1870 census listed his presumed spouse as Bertha, age 20, born in MO, which doesn't match Bettie Branscomb in any respect. Facts that nonetheless led me to conclude these Taylor Andersons were one and the same were (i) family records show he was born in Mt. Vernon, Lawrence Co., MO and no other Taylor Anderson can be identified in the 1850 census for Lawrence Co., MO, (ii) one child, Flora, was enumerated in the 1870 census for Sebastian Co., AR, which would seem to be the Flora who was the first child of Taylor and Bettie, and (iii) Bettie identified Berry Anderson as Taylor's brother in her application for a Civil War widow's pension.

In her application for a widow's civil war pension in 1908, Bettie stated Taylor died in Cameron, I.T., and that Cameron was also the birthplace of the children still at home when he died, namely Isabel, Arradia, Rosa Lee, William and Etta. Note that the family records of George Johnston indicate these children were born in Culley [Cully], I.T., a common name for Kully Chaha. Cameron is about 8 miles northeast of Poteau in present day LeFlore Co., OK, and Kully Chaha was (it no longer exists) about 3 miles south of Cameron and due west of Hall Cemetery. It seems likely the Anderson farm was in none of these communities per se, but was instead located in their vicinity, and that thus all the children were born in the same place, but differed on which community they chose to identify with, some choosing the nearest community, no matter how small, while others chose larger nearby communities. While Bettie's identification with Cameron would seem to be the best evidence of the community to which the family farm was most connected, she also may just have been opting for a larger and more identifiable community for her pension application. Accordingly, I have decided to continue to list the specific recollections of the children as to their birthplace. (Similarly, Taylor was probably born in the vicinity of Mt. Vernon, MO.)

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Census: 1850, Lawrence County, Missouri. ¹⁰

Household of Richard Anderson: Taylor, 2, M, MO

2. Census: 1860, Lawrence County, Missouri. ¹¹

Household of Martha Anderson: Taylor, 12, M, MO

3. Military Service: 1864, Mt. Vernon, Lawrence County, Missouri. ^{1 2}

Zacharia T. Anderson was enrolled as a Private in Company A of the 76th Reg't E.M.M. on 30 Apr 1864 at Mt. Vernon, MO. He was under the command of Captain Roper. He was ordered into active service by Gen. Holland on 25 Sep 1864 at Mt. Vernon. He was relieved from duty on 15 Nov 1864, after only 49 days of actual service.

The family records of George Johnston indicate he was classed as "too young to fight." Since he turned 16 during his short stint of active service, he may well have been too young for military duty, but this information is not noted on his roster card. Moreover, he was not alone in serving for only a short time. His comrades as named in Bettie Anderson's pension application, namely Aaron B. Curtis and William Woods, enrolled on the same day, were ordered into active service on the same day, and were relieved from duty on the same day. This short period of service was thus not atypical and so was probably not related to Taylor's young age.

This is the only known instance where Taylor used his given first name. He was presumably named after Zachary Taylor, having been born one day after his election as the twelth President of the United States (the vote in Missouri favored Lewis Cass, the Democrat candidate). That this Zacharia T. and Taylor were the same person is established by the facts that (i) Bettie identified this unit as the one in which Taylor served in her application for a Civil War widow's pension and there is no other Anderson on the roster that could be him, (ii) three of the four comrades named in Bettie's pension application (Aaron Curtice, William Woods and William Springer) are also found on the roster of Company A, 76 Reg't, E.M.M., and (iii) the only other Andersons in Company A were Green B. Anderson and John Anderson, brothers of Taylor Anderson, the latter having enrolled on the same day as Zacharia T. Anderson. (The roster information involving Taylor and his comrades has been confirmed by Archives Reference at the Missouri State Archives. The roster information for Green B. Anderson and John Anderson has been confirmed by Dale West, who in 2001 was in the process of writing a history of Company A, 76 Reg't, E.M.M. Dale's e-mail address is dwestcw@aol.com. His postal address is 7 Summer Creek Way, Longview, TX 75604. His telephone number is 903-759-5872.)

Bettie initiated her application for a pension on 18 Nov 1908. It was rejected on 9 April 1909 because the government could find no record that this regiment was ever mustered into the service of the United States.

4. Census: 1870, Sebastian County, Arkansas. ¹²

Anderson, Taylor, 23, M, W, Farm Hand, 0/200, MO, Can't read or write, No Right to Vote*, 13 Sep 1870
Anderson, Bertha, 20, F, W, Keep House, MO, Can't read or write.
Anderson, Flora, 1, F, W, MO.

*Column 20 is so marked for Green Berry Anderson, Isaac Shipman and Taylor Anderson, but not John Anderson (John should probably be checked again), in the 1870 census for Sebastian Co., AR. That column's heading reads as follows: "Male Citizens of U. S. of 21 years of age and upwards, whose right to vote is denied or abridged on other grounds than rebellion or other crimes." Perhaps, they had not lived long enough in Sebastian County to satisfy a residency requirement. Note that a pro forma 1870 census form indicates a mark in this column signified the person was eligible to vote. Query.

Zacharia married Nancy Elizabeth BRANSCOMB, daughter of John Wesley BRANSCOMB and Eliza C. LAIR, on 14 Jun 1868 in Huntsville, Madison County, Arkansas.¹ (Nancy Elizabeth BRANSCOMB was born on 8 Mar 1852 in Mineola, Wood County, Texas,^{7 13} died on 21 Mar 1929 in Talco, Titus County, Texas ⁹ and was buried in Midway Cemetery, Talco, Titus County, Texas ^{6 14}.)