THE ROSEHILL HORROR - A POSTSCRIPT

I posted my story of the horrendous accident that took place at the gates of Rosehill Cemetery on January 23, 1890 last Friday morning - April 29, 2016, and promptly forgot about it because I am working on the next story I will be featuring in my blog.

So you can imagine how shocked I was to receive the following email today, Monday, May 2:

Hello!

I am the great grand daughter of Grace Taylor of your blog, Under Every Stone, The Rose Hill Horror.

I almost fell out of my chair.  But as has been the case in every instance where I have been contacted by a family member of someone featured in the blog, Grace's great granddaughter was most gracious. As it turns out, Grace did not relate the events of 1890 to members of her family - or if she did, it had not trickled down to the present generation.  Reading my blog story was the first time that Grace's descendant got the whole story of that terrible day and its aftermath.

Like so many people of that era, the way they dealt with painful situations was by not talking about them - by keeping them hidden. Years ago when I started the genealogy research of my own family my mother said, "Why are you doing this?  Let the dead rest in peace." 

Grace's great granddaughter put it this way:

"Unfortunately Grace passed away eleven years before my birth. Neither my mother nor my grandmother spoke about Grace's childhood, and both are now gone as well. I'm sorry to say, my grandmother never passed down any family stories."  

But the purpose of this blog is to save the old stories so they are not forgotten, nor are the people who lived them.  And to finally tell the stories so their families know what happened to their ancestors and sometimes to know why.

Now for a surprise.  Grace's great granddaughter mentioned in one of her emails:

"I have a photo of Charles Taylor and a couple of Grace."

I immediately asked if she would share those photos with me and allow me to post them to the blog, and luckily she said yes.

So first, here is a photo of  Chrisman Toll (Charles) Taylor (1852-1917):

Charles Taylor

  

and here is the little girl from that terrible day, all grown up, Grace Taylor Trendley Middeke (1881-1951):

Grace Taylor Trendley Middeke

I cannot thank Grace's great granddaughter enough for contacting me and for being willing to share her family photos.

So who knows - next time I may tell an unknown story about YOUR family!