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Anne Taylor (Elliott) Irvine

 

1849 - 1913

Sandford and Martha (Crossthwait) Elliott married on May 30th, 1841 in Callaway County Missouri.  I have found an Anna Taylor Elliott born in 1849 with them in Estill County Kentucky at age 1 with her sister Mary P. and brother Levi P. on the 1850 census.  I later found a Jo Elen born in 1853 to Sandford and Martha.

 

Sandford died on October 25th in 1858 when Anna was just 9 years old and Martha remarried Harrison Blackwell the next year in April.  He was 14 years her junior.  I found Harrison (21) Martha (35) Levi (13), Anna (11) and Emma (9) on the same census page in 1860 as David (71) and Elizabeth (37) Irvine (Anna’s future husband’s family).  In the neighboring Garrard County I found Elliotts and Irvine ’s right next to each other on the1850 census page.  Were these cousins?  Is this how she and Andy met?  Was she a pigtailed tomboy who chased after Andy while he and her cousins played?  They were just 6 year apart in age.  Did she follow them to school?  Was he her protector or was he annoyed by her?  Did she have a crush on him early on?

 

In Madison county during1850 I found David (60), Sarah (60), Elizabeth (26), Miranda (23), William (7), David (8), Thomas (6), and James (5) Irvine .  According to Andy’s obituary he joined the service very young … at the beginning of the war in 1861 he was 17-18.  I found both a Private Andy and Thomas Irvin who enlisted on 7/25/1862 in Kentucky’s 2nd Cavalry Co. F under Duke who road with Morgan’s men, who later served under Capt Quirk who scouted for Morgan.  During the Indiana-Ohio Raid (dubbed The Longest Raid) they were captured and imprisoned on August 20th, 1863.  He was sent to Camp Morton in Illinois .  He signed the oath of allegiance and was released January 11th, 1865.

 

Did Andy return at once to the family farm … was there a farm to return home to?  Had his Father and brothers gone off to war … or returned?  Anna by this time was sweet 16.  Did he find and approach her rag tailed and starved.  Did he find her working in soiled clothes hoeing the garden, or did they meet at her cotillion where she was dressed in a corseted low neck gown where she took his breath away?

 

All of this I am just surmising, but I do know they married 3 years after his release in Madison County on Jan 6th in 1868.  Their first baby girl Eunice (Nonnie) T. (Taylor??) was born that same year.  From there they moved to Kansas where according to Anna’s obituary she was one of the first white women in Pawnee Rock, although I haven’t confirmed that yet.  I also found that a railroad in Pawnee Rock was named The Anna ??

 

They lived in Fort Scott where their other children Mattie born in 1872, Mary Emma in 1875, Annie in 76, William in 79, Kittie in 1886 and Joe Shelby in 89.  Andy died in 1898 while in Ennis Tx .  Anna was at his bedside and accompanied his body back to Kansas where he is buried in Evergreen Cemetery at Ft. Scott .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mrs. A.T. Irvine, the mother of Mrs. W.C. Lansdon of this city died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Robert Stack in Woodworth , La. , last night at twelve o’clock of heart failure.  She had been in very frail health for a long time and a fatal termination of her illness was not unexpected.

 

Mrs. Irvine was the widow of Colonel W.A. Irvine, a distinguished confederate soldier who was an officer in Morgan’s famous cavalry corps.  Col. and Mrs. Irvine came to Kansas in pioneer days and were among the first settlers at Pawnee Rock in Pawnee County , Kansas .  For many months Mrs. Irvine was the only white woman at Pawnee Rock.  Colonel Irvine died about 10 years ago and is buried at Fort.  Scott.

 

Mrs. Irvine left five children to mourn her death; Mrs. W.C. Lansdone of Sailna, Mrs. Robert Stack of Woodworth , La. , Mrs. A.S. Reed of Cushing Ok., William Irvine of Kansas City, Mo., and Miss Katheryn Irvine of Woodworth, La.  She was a woman of remarkably strong character, great intellectual ability and extremely lovable disposition.

 

 

 

 

 

The postmasters of Pawnee Rock

[August 29]   I practically grew up in the Pawnee Rock post office. Mom worked behind the counter, selling stamps and helping postmaster Roger Unruh sort the mail. Before Dad got the permanent job of carrying the rural mail, he was the fill-in guy behind Virgil Smith.

Occasionally -- and this was long before the super-serious-security days in which we live -- Cheryl and I would get to help sort the mail into the mailboxes and the outgoing bags. (If you got the wrong mail in those days, I apologize.)

During a visit to the post office this month, I wondered aloud who all the postmasters had been. And lo, Merita Rice pulled out a framed list.

Here they are. Note that the post office has been open for 134 years and 1 day.

  • George M. Jackson -- August 28, 1872

  • Annie T. Irvine -- April 24, 1873

  • Dennis R. Logan -- April 6, 1875

  • Simon P. Leitner -- December 22, 1876

  • William M. Jenks -- March 14, 1879

  • Alfred W. Metcalf -- August 25, 1880

  • Joseph N. Barrett -- May 14, 1883

  • Job M. Miller -- August 25, 1885

  • Joel Miller -- March 31, 1886

  • Charles W. Vosburg -- July 3, 1889

  • Andrew Daniels -- May 20, 1893

  • George A. Francis -- June 23, 1897

  • Sam H. King -- November 28, 1914

  • Nancy M. McKetchnie -- May 2, 1916

  • Edmond Houdyshell -- August 19, 1921

  • Charles Dean Ross -- March 4, 1936

  • Margaret K. Converse -- January 20, 1940

  • Virgil L. Smith -- August 6, 1957

  • Roger R. Unruh -- May 22, 1958

  • Mary Joan Smith -- October 6, 1979

  • Doug Smith -- February 23, 1991

  • Kathy A. Pechanec -- May 4, 2002

www.pawneerock.org/wind/wind6.html