Sallie Merele Turner

This information was copied from The Cass County Genealogical Society, 1974, Vol. 1, No. 3, pg. 15-16.

JOHN SANFORD TAYLOR & SALLIE MERLE TURNER

SEVENTY YEARS TOGETHER

Mr & Mrs John Sanford Taylor, residents of Cass County for the past 46 years, observed their seventieth wedding anniversary at Pine Lodge Nursing Home on Aug. 3, 1974.

John Sanford Taylor was born in Iuka, Mississippi, April 7, 1879. He was the son of John Henry Taylor who was born in 1851 in Corinth, Mississippi, and was ordained as a Baptist Minister in San Jacinto, Mississippi, in 1876. He was married to Lou Ellen Bowie, a kinswoman of James Bowie of Alamo fame in 1871. She was born near Corinth in 1855 and died at the birth of their tenth child in 1893. There were five girls and five boys, one of whom died in infancy. The family lived in small communities near Corinth in the extreme northeast corner of the state where the father preached in small rural churches until 1893 when he was called to preach at Honey Grove, Texas, and brought his family to Texas. He then married Matte Ellen Henderson in 1894 and had two more sons and two more daughters. They lived in various towns in north central Texas until his death in Arlington, Texas, in 1928. The family home was maintained there until the death of the second wife in 1950.

John Sanford Taylor was the fourth child. He went to Sam Houston Normal at Huntsville and graduated with the class of 1904. While there, he met his future wife, also a student. He and Sallie Merele Turner were married Aug. 3, 1904, in Paris, Texas.

Miss Turner was born Aug. 27, 1882, in Lamar County, Texas, near Petty and lived withy her family on the farm for twenty two years. Her mother, Sarah Adaline Orton, was the daughter of Samuel Orton, who headrighted two hundred acres near Noble, Texas, when he came to the state from Louisiana. Sarah Orton was also born in Lamar County in 1845 and died there in 1910. During the Civil War her husband, who was born in Fulton, Missouri, in 1841 came to Texas with Price's Cavalry in search of houses. He returned after the war to marry his sweetheart and farmed in Lamar County until his death in 1890. The couple had three boys and four girls. Sallie Merle was the youngest. Her mother ran the farm and reared the children alone after her husband's death.

The John Sanford Taylors immediately after their marriage moved to Sherwood, Texas, where he taught school. West Texas was strange and new. Terms were arranged so as not to interfere with work for parents, and many of the students were older boys who tried to intimidate the teacher. This one refused to be bluffed and finished out the term which his predecessors had not done.

But the couple longed to return to more familiar places and to be nearer their own relatives. They came to Frisco, Texas, where their first son died in infancy, and where the father was ordained as a Baptist Minister in 1906. Realizing the need for more education, he entered Baylor University and was graduated in 1913, supporting his growing family by pastoring nearby rural churches. After 1913 he was the preacher at Richland and Groesbeck, and then was county missionary for Navarro, Cherokee, and Limestone Counties. At first he traveled over dusty country roads with horse and buggy. Later he had a Ford with curtains for use during rain and cold weather. To keep it running he became a fair mechanic. He was away from home much of the time. He now had three boys and three girls who needed his presence.

In 1928 he moved to Linden in Cass County as pastor of the Baptist Church. The depression was a difficult time for all people and especially for preachers. To supplement small salaries, Mr. Taylor not only preached but taught school for the next ten years in Linden, Queen City, Cass, and Bryan Mill. In 1939 he became pastor at Redwater and stayed there until 1946 when he retired and moved to thirteen acres at the edge of Atlanta. There he gardened until he broke his hip as he was attending a Baptist meeting in 1966 at the age of 87. The town has grown toward his acreage and it is now almost completely covered with houses.

Mrs. Taylor was converted when she was twelve and was a member of the Methodist Church when she married. She joined the Baptist Church with her husband and helped faithfully through the years. She has taught at every level in Sunday School, taken all the study courses available, and worked in all phases of women's work. During WWII she felt it her patriotic duty to work at Red River Arsenal and made a host of friends there.

The couple lost one sixteen year old son in 1934 in Queen City and one thirty six year old son in 1948. The remaining son is Ralph Turner Taylor. The three daughters are: Lou Adaline Reid, Juanita Merle Ward, Sue Well Grauke. There are 10 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.

On Dec. 28, 1967, the couple decided to enter Pine Lodge where they have been active participants in everything. She has done much handwork for sale and for gifts, and enjoys visiting and having company. For a time she wrote a column about Pine Lodge for the Citizen's Journal. They say often that Pine Lodge has been good to them. They are members of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, but they attend services at Pine Lodge now, read the Bible regularly, and share reading matter with others.

"Pa and Ma Taylor", as they are called affectionately by many, have touched many lives in Cass County, have been blessed by long years, a devoted family, and countless friends. May we wish them the best in this life, that they share.