yesterday's tennessee

INDEPENDENCE CEMETERY DECORATION 1939

 Amos and Ludie Taylor

June 9, 1939

Lexington Progress

A Happy Homecoming

Little Rock, Arkansas, June 3, 1939

Editor Lexington Progress

I am asking space in your good paper to relate a visit which will long be held sacred in our memory. The truthfulness of the old adage, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," could hardly be more impressively verified than it was in the warm reception accorded us in our recent visit to the old home.

My wife was formerly Miss Ludie Copeland, daughter of the late Audrey J. Copeland, and great-granddaughter of Chesley Copeland, one of the pioneer settlers of West Tennessee, who was born and reared near Law in the old Independence community. I was brought up a poor orphan boy near Juno in the Poplar Springs community.

On Sunday, May 14, being the annual decoration day at Independence Cemetery, we went in anticipation of our seeing a host of friends. For hours we enjoyed the warm handshakes and glad voices we had so long wished again to hear, but the sweetness was mingled with sadness as we looked upon the last resting place of loved ones who once enjoyed the blessings we now have. One grave in particular attracted my attention, that of Effie Taylor Walthall, daughter of Aunt Jincy Taylor, by whom I was reared from early childhood. More than forty years have passed since I last looked into her kindly face. The tears came as I stood by her tomb and thought of the loving care she bestowed upon me.

After a sumptuous dinner, many of us gathered in the little church near the cemetery and mingled our voices in the songs of Zion as we did half a century ago. Later we were whisked away to the hospitable home of our fine old neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Don Williams,where for the next five days we enjoyed a fine fellowship and good eats with them and the Tyler families. I recall that the last time I saw my two former school mates, Mrs. Lonie Anderson Williams and Mrs. Elsa Gill Tyler, they were teenage girls and are now grandmothers.

Saturday morning, the 20th, we caught the bus at Blue Goose station, near the old Daniel Cogdell place, and passing swiftly over magnificent Highway 20, we arrived in Lexington where we were royally received by my wife's two sisters, Mrs. Exie Allen and Mrs. Dorothy Dyer. It was significant that my wife had never seen her younger sister, Mrs. Dyer, the latter having been born after our marriage. On Sunday, we were joined by my wife's only living brother, Lucian Copeland, for a happy family reunion.

Our brother-in-law, Mr. Allen, is a splendid type of our World War veterans, and he left nothing undone to show his appreciation for our coming. We visited the fine CCC camp just outside of town.

While in Lexington I enjoyed a friendly chat with two former school mates, Mrs. W.A. (Berry) Holmes and Mrs. Media Holmes Franklin. As I went about this now beautiful little city, I noted the wonderful transformation that has taken place since the first train over the Tennessee Midland pulled into the town fifty years ago.

On Wednesday, the 24th, cousin Hobart Scott carried us to the home of my former close neighbor, Uncle Joe Corbett, in the Juno community. There in the same house in which he was born nearly four score years ago, this fine type of a son of the Old South, is peacefully passing the evening of life, cheered by the voices of grandchildren and cared for by a dutiful daughter and devoted son-in-law. Though crippled from an affliction incident to advancing age, Uncle Joe walked on crutches half a mile with us to see my old home place where nearly sixty years ago I whiled happy days with Aunt Jincy Taylor and her noble daughter, Effie. The old log walls looked familiar, the old dirt and brick chimney had been replaced with one of brick, but the pretty cedars we had planted in the front yard were all gone.

We finished our visit in the old homeland with two fine old boys, Andy and W.C. (Will) Jackson near Blue Goose.

Bidding all a fond farewell we took our homebound train [boarding at Jackson] at 12:45, Monday, and at 8 p.m., rolled into Little Rock safe and sound, bearing in our hearts a spirit of sweet forget-me-not of the delightful experiences.

Amos and Ludie Taylor

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Taylor, Amos Lawson

The Lexington Progress, December 1, 1944

Amos Lawson Taylor was born August 30th, 1874, and died November 17th, 1944, at the Murfreesboro hospital where he had been for two years. He leaves his wife, Mrs. Ludie Taylor, of Bolivar, Tennessee. Burial was in Little Rock, Arkansas. (Mr. Taylor had many friends in Lexington and will be sadly missed by all who knew him.)