My Family Tree on My Mom's Side of the Family-Taylor Line

So while my dear mommy (who knows more about our family history than any other living person) is here visiting me...I am going to pick her brain and find out some things about my family.  To those of you that are not part of my family, this post will probably not hold any particular interest to you, but I cannot think of anywhere else to write it that I won't lose it!  : )

My mom was born on October 15, 1947 to Stanley Junior Taylor (or Stanley James Taylor, depending which records you look at) and Marjorie Ilene (Curry) Taylor.  She had an older brother, Dale Stanley Taylor, who was born in July of 1938 (mom thinks).  He lived for a few hours and then passed away due to a brain hemorrhage that happened during birth.  After Dale was born Grandma Marge (Marjorie) had a couple of miscarriages and some difficulty getting pregnant before my mom was born.  After mom came my aunt, Anne Louise Taylor.  She was born on June 3, 1951.

My mom-Helen Ilene (Taylor) Rowe married my dad, Garald (Gary) Edwynn Magee on April 20, 1968.  While married to him my brother, Dale Charles Magee, and I were born.  Dale was born on October 6, 1968 and I was born on December 5, 1970.  Mom and Dad divorced in early 1981. Mom remarried Martin Richard (Buzz) Rowe on May 5, 1981.  Martin was born April 2, 1940 to Alice Clarissa (Brown) and Elmer Rowe. Mom and Buzz had my sister, Rebecca Sue Rowe, on September 14, 1982.  Mom and Buzz were married for 29 1/2 years until Buzz passed away on January 10, 2011due to a heart attack.  Martin's siblings were Ruby Griffith, Gary Francis (born 4/7/1939), Ronald (lived to 3 months of age...died of patent foramen ovale (hole in heart), Francis, and Mary Alice (born 4/1/?).

Grandma Marge's parents were Edna Lyons and Elmer Edwin Curry.  Grandma Marge had a brother that was about two years younger than her named Herbert Dale Curry.  Herbert died in 1968 and was buried in New Jersey (mom thinks Ridgewood, NJ, but she isn't sure).  Grandma Marge was 16 years old when her mother, Edna, died as a result of a car accident.  Her father later married Martha (Marty) Levan (who was only 7 years older than Grandma Marge).  Elmer and Martha never had any children together.  They were married for about two years or so and then Elmer died of peritonitis secondary to a ruptured appendix.  He was in the hospital, but they weren't able to get his appendix out quickly enough.

Stanley Junior Taylor (my grandpa)'s parents were Stanley Morgan Taylor and Amanda Louise Petersen.  They had four children, Stanley J., Dawn Hope (Taylor) Reiser, Elaine (Taylor) Tippe, and David Charles Taylor.  Dawn married Harry Reiser, who was career military.  Dawn and Harry Reiser had two sons, David  Eric and James (Jimmy).  Elaine's first husband Delbert Casteel "Scotty" died in Guam during World War II.  A mortar landed in his foxhole.  They couldn't even find his dogtags, but somehow two years later they sent her a casket that supposedly had his remains in it.  Elaine never opened the casket according to Grandma Marge.  Later Elaine married Leo Tippe, with whom she had two sons, Lee Judson Tippe and John Tippe.

Stanley Morgan Taylor was the oldest of siblings: Hilda, Blanche, and Clifford.  Mom doesn't know their birth order.  Clifford married a woman named Julia.  I have a quilt that was made by her.  Stanley Morgan and Clifford Taylor both worked for Carr-Adams and Collier (a sash and door company/woodworking, etc.).  Stanley Morgan was a salesman for the company.  Clifford worked in the office there.  At some point during his work there he lost all of the fingers of one hand except for the thumb.  Mom says whenever there was a "dad/daughter date night" that both she and her sister, Anne, needed to go to, their father, Stanley J. and their Uncle Clifford would be their dates.  Stanley Morgan Taylor (mom's grandpa) died on Easter Sunday, 1946,  at the Masonic Temple.  He left an Easter service at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dubuque, Iowa, because he wasn't feeling well.  He walked a block to the Masonic Temple and was found in the men's lounge (card room) dead.

Most of mom's ancestors were Methodist.  However, Jacob Schwind and his wife Maria, parents of Anna, Emma, Wilhelmina, and a couple of sons (mom can't remember their names) Schwind, were Catholic. He was a brewmaster from Germany and co-owned the Schwind-Tsurgie Brewery.  That brewery combined with four other breweries to form the Dubuque Malting Company shortly before prohibition.  He apparently donated a stained glass window to St. Anthony's Church in Dubuque, Iowa...Mom thinks his name is on it, but she has never investigated that.  Emma Schwind never married.  She is buried next to Anna Schwind at Linwood Cemetary in Dubuque, Iowa.  Min (short for Wilhelmina) is buried at Linwood Cemetary near her two husbands, Titus Schwinn(?) and Albert.  Mom can't remember which husband came first.  They were brothers.

Jacob Schwind disowned his daughter, Anna, for marrying a protestant (methodist).  Anna married Landon James Taylor.  They were the parents of Stanley Morgan Taylor, as well as Myrtle, Blanche, Clifford, and Lyla.  Landon James Taylor was the son of James Wallace Taylor and Eliza Beth (Morgan) Taylor.  Landon James Taylor had approximately 8 siblings, including his brothers: Thomas J. Taylor, George W. Taylor, and a James Taylor, Jr (who died as an infant) .  Landon James Taylor eventually became the "black sheep" of the family and disappeared.  No one really knows what happened and no one really talked about him after that.

James Wallace Taylor was in the Blackhawk Indian War with his father, but we don't know his father's name. They were originally from Olympia, Tennessee.  The two of them were part of the Illinois volunteers and may or may not have served with Abraham Lincoln, who was a captain among the volunteers.  James Wallace Taylor wrote an autobiography which my mom has a copy of.  Note to self I want to get a copy of that.  James Wallace's father was a carpenter and made grist mills (grinds wheat into flour).  James Wallace was also a talented woodworker.  He had a farm in the Asbury, Iowa, for a while til he moved to the rural Dubuque area.  He spent a winter cutting wood for Asbury Methodist Church and also made wood plow blades.  He built, lived in, and died in the Hillcrest House (coincidentally, my sister Rebecca now works in that building teaching troubled youth).

Before James Wallace Taylor was living in the Hillcrest House, the Methodist evangelist Landon Taylor (not the same as Landon James Taylor) was in the area.  We believe they are related, but aren't sure how.  Landon (the evangelist)'s father and James Wallace's father may have been brothers or cousins...we aren't sure.  Both family lines eventually trace back to New York and both families have the name Landon throughout the family line.

Almost all of the Taylor line relatives are buried on a hill at Linwood Cemetary in Dubuque, Iowa.  A few that are not:  Stanley J. Taylor (Asbury Cemetary; Asbury, Iowa), James Wallace Taylor both Senior and Junior (also at Asbury Cemetary).  We don't know for sure where James Wallace Sr.'s wife, Eliza Beth is buried.  It's not clear if she is buried next to him or elsewhere.  Her name is not on the stone, but the stone says "Mother and Father".