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The Nancy Matilda Taylor - Prior P. Reed Family
by
Jo Walker Ligget

The biography of Prior P. Reed in the 1888 Goodspeed's History of Southeast Missouri stated that his wife was Matilda Taylor, daughter of Abraham Taylor, one of the early settlers of Stoddard County. Confusion seems to have developed because she sometimes went by the name of "Nancy" and at other times was called "Matilda." [Editors note: Abraham Taylor was son of Benjamin Taylor and Christina (Fulbright), daughter of Johann Wilhelm Volbrecht and Christina (Schuck).]

According to the Reed family Bible, Prior and Nancy M. Taylor were married August 3, 1848. On the 1850 Stoddard County census, they were listed as household #312/family #316 as: Prior Reed, 23, KY; Matilda, 20, MO; and William, 1, MO (my grt-grt-grandfather). One source of confusion is that Abraham Taylor's household (#306/family #310) also contained a young Nancy at the same time: Abraham, 57, NC; Nancy, 45, NC; Martha, 14, MO; Nancy, 18, MO; John Hasler, 11, MO; Jacob Taylor, 25, MO. Has anyone identified this younger Nancy?

On the 1860 Stoddard County census, Prior and Nancy Matilda are household #692 and are listed as: Prior P., 33, KY; Matilda, 30, MO; William J., 11, MO; James A., 6, MO; Nancy, 1, MO; Ruth York, 13, TN; John Hasler, 21, TN (presumably the same James who was living with Abraham in 1850). Next door in household #693 is the James Taylor family. In the same year, household #1149 is Riley Reed, 27, IL; Matilda, 29, TN; and 2 children. This would provide the added confusion of a second Matilda Reed!

In Register D of Deeds, Stoddard County, 1853, John Link and Nancy Link, his wife, late Nancy Taylor, vs heirs of Benjamin Taylor on petition for partition of land, Nancy Matilda Taylor is listed as Nancy Reed in sequence with her siblings-Jacob Taylor, James Taylor, Caroline Cato, Nancy Reed, Christina Bess, and Betsey Taylor-children of Abraham Taylor deceased son of Benjamin.

In Stoddard County Probate business, April Term 1855, the 3rd annual settlement of the estate of Abraham Taylor, Nancy Taylor administrator, grants $54.30 each to Caroline Cato (wife of Grandison Cato), Jacob H. Taylor, James M. Taylor, Christina E. Bess (wife of Andrew Bess), Matilda Reed (wife of Pryor Reed), and Elizabeth Taylor. It also grants $18.10 each to James M. Taylor, Margarett Taylor, and Nancy Taylor, all minor children of Abraham's deceased son Benjamin.

Prior Reed, who was the son of John and Eda Lowe Reed, had a sister about the same age as his son William. This sister was named Nancy ("Nan") Matilda Reed-perhaps after her sister-in-law Nancy Matilda Taylor Reed? She married John M. Denny, son of James W. and Mary A. Reed Denny, in 1877. (John's first wife, Sarah C. Ferrell, had died in 1876.)

Prior and Nancy Matilda had 6 children-Wm "Billy" Jackson Reed, who married Elizabeth Anna Walker; Sarah Jinsey Caroline Reed, who died at the age of 2; James Alvada "Vadey" Reed, who 1st married his stepsister Zella Cook and 2nd married Sarah Louisa "Wisa" Welborn (whose 1st marriage was to a McGee, 2nd marriage to Reed, 3rd marriage to a Barham); Anderson Gatwod Reed, who died at the age of 2; Nancy Virginia "Jennie" Reed, who married Thomas Proffer; and Clarindy "Clara" "Classinda" Isabella Reed, who married Alfred Cox. I have lists of the children of some of these marriages if any reader is interested in that information.

Nancy Matilda Taylor Reed died young on April 10, 1866, and was buried at North Antioch Cemetery a few miles from Bloomfield. The name on her tombstone is N. M. Reed. She is buried next to N. C. Reed, who could possibly be Nancy Caroline Taylor who married William H. Reed, also buried nearby. On the other side of N. M. is Myrlie Reed, her grandson, son of William Jackson and Elizabeth Walker Reed. Myrlie died at birth; his twin sister was my great-grandmother Bertha Reed Scism.

The Stoddard County marriage records show that Prior remarried in February 1867 to Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Oaks Cook, who had 3 daughters-Zella Cook who later married stepbrother Alvada Reed, Beatrice Cook who married Silas Right Harper, and Mary Cook who married Ephraim E. Kelley. Prior and Mary Elizabeth had one daughter, Ida May Reed, who married Samuel Davis Skelton. Ida and Sam had 2 daughters-Dorotha who died in childhood and Ethel Skelton of Bloomfield who provided this information shortly before her death in 1978. Other information was provided by LeAnn Kelley of Dexter and by Ethel's cousin (and my father's cousin) Rita Skelton Pounds of Bloomfield (now deceased) who served as administrator of Ethel's estate and had to locate a number of Ethel's relatives.

From a photocopy of Marriages, Births, and Deaths pages of the Reed family Bible, I have transcribed the following information:

Marriages

Prior P. Reed Nancy M Taylor Reed was marid the 3 day of August 1848
Prior P. Reed and Mary E. Oaks Cook was married Feb 16 - 1866 [actually 1867!]

Births

Prior P. Reed was bornd March the 26 1827
Nancy Matilday Reed was bornd August the 11 1830
William Jackson Reed was bornd May 13 1849
Sarah Jinsey Caroline Reed was borned April 22 1851
James All Vader Reed was born Jinuary 18 1854
Anderson Gatwod Reed was bornd November 2 1854
Nancy Virginia Reed was born the 18 of January 1859
>Clarindy Isenbeler Reed was bornd April the 15 1861
>Ida Reed was born September 27 1868

Deaths

>Sarah J C Reed died the first of Oct 1853
Anderson G. Reed died the first of April 1857
Prior P. Reed died March 17th 1889
Mary E. Reed died May 7 - 1915
Ida Reed Skelton died Nov. 17 1939

Prior Reed was the clerk of the Lodebar Church and its ledger was found in the attic of Ethel Skelton following her death. Rita Pounds related that this church was near Aquilla, MO and later merged with the Antioch Church. There was no date on the ledger, but it was probably written around 1850. Following is the list of members which I also provided for the October 1997 quarterly of the Stoddard County Genealogy Society: (male members) Abram. Taylor, Benj. Taylor (decd), James M. Taylor, Henry Stafford, Nelson W. Condray (dec), James M. Taylor (line marked through his name), John A. Taylor, Absalom Linkhom, Prior Reed, Daniel Long, Nathaniel Purtle; (female members) Nancy Taylor, Jane Taylor, Permetta [?] Taylor, Esther Taylor, Anne Stafford, Susaner Tanksley, Nancy Stafer, Elizabeth Taylor, Mary Linkhorn, Matilda Reed, Martha Long, Elizabeth Ross, Mary Tankersley, Margaret Stafford, Nancy Ann Babb, and Sarah Pirtle.

----Submitted by: Jo Walker Ligget; 2706 S. 25th Street,
Terre Haute, IN 47802-3402; (812) 235-2988;
[email protected] [note: 3 letters, then the no. 2]/align