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ALMIRA TAYLOR PALMER
Crown Point Star 5⁄10⁄1935
ETHEL A. VINNEDGE reads an interesting
paper to D. A. R. members.
The following paper, an interesting
biography of ALMIRA TAYLOR PALMER, an early settler of Lake County, born in 1800, was read
to the members of the OBADIAH TAYLOR Chapter, DAR, at a meeting held
in the home of MRS. CARL MILLER in Lowell on April 23, 1935 ALMIRA TAYLOR was born in 1800, in
Rensselaer County, New York, one of eleven children born to ABIGAIL WILLIAMS and OBADIAH
TAYLOR. HER MOTHER, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, of Deerfield, Massachusetts,
was doubly descended from ROBERT WILLIAMS, the first WILLIAMS to
arrive in America. Her father was DR. THOMAS WILLIAMS,
a cousin of the founder of Williams
College. ABIGAIL was a granddaughter of MAJOR ELIJAH WILLIAMS, son
of REV. JOHN WILLIAMS, Puritan pastor of Deerfield, Mass. who was
carried away by the Indians.
Her father, OBADIAH TAYLOR, was a son of
ADONIJAH TAYLOR and RACHELLE SAWTELLE of Deerfield. OBADIAH and five
brothers served in the Revolutionary War, as did their father,
ADONIJAH, who was a first lieutenant at Fort Ticonderoga, and later
was in command of a block house at Lake George Landing. He was also
one of the Minute Men of April 19, 1776.
While still a young girl, ALMIRA moved
with her parents to Erie County, Pa. Here in 1818, she was united in marriage to JAMES
PALMER, who was born in Connecticut. Her husband served in the War
of 1812. He was in the battle of Lake Erie. Some of their children were born in Pa.
and some in St. Joseph County, Ind. where they migrated in about 1830, in a covered
wagon drawn by a team of fine horses. Other relatives came at the same time, including her
aged father. Her mother died in Pa. On the way to Ind., they experienced many adventures
plus plenty of hardships. One day they stopped at a cabin and
ALMIRA went with her husband, JAMES, to an open well full of water. Just as JAMES had drawn
out two pails of water to carry back to the wagons, a man came dashing out of the cabin and
shouted: "Stop! I'm not giving any water to any travelers or their stock!" JAMES talked
to him, but he still refused them any water, so JAMES PALMER, who was very tall and so
strong that he could carry sixteen bushels of wheat across a
grainery floor at one time, grabbed the man's gun, then picked him
up and ducked him into the well, repeatedly, until he begged and
begged to be free. After he had promised always to give water to any travelers
desiring it, he quit ducking him.
The prairie on which they settled, south
of South Bend, was given the name of Palmer's Prairie, and still bears that name, Then
DR. CALVIN LILLEY, a brother-in-law of ALMIRA, sold his inn in South
Bend to JAMES and ALMIRA PALMER. They had it for a while then moved
back to their Palmer's Prairie farm. Their South Bend tavern was
located on the main road to Chicago, so their business was a good
one. If a lady stopped with a baby, ALMIRA, who had quite a sense of
humor, would say, "JIM, you take the baby, while the lady eats her
dinner. You know, babies always like to look at your lovely eyes."On
the prairie, the soil was very sandy, and ALMIRA used to remark that
there were so many fleas that she could almost catch a handful
between her thumb nails while crossing the kitchen floor. Her aged
father and other relatives had come to Lake County in 1834, but
ALMIRA and JAMES PALMER did not bring their family until
1846. As they were afraid of prairie fires, they did not locate with their relatives at Cedar
Lake, but settled in the timber along West Creek.
Here the father and sons cleared a space
and built a snug log cabin of several rooms and also a barn for
their stock. There cattle were allowed to run for miles, mingling
with those of other settlers. At night, they would
locate their own herd of cattle by the bells on their necks. Riding on horseback each owner
soon rounded up his own herd to drive them home to be milked. The deer were so thick that there was
always a plenty of venison. One morning, ALMIRA looked out of her back door and saw a
drove of thirty-seven deer in single file, crossing West Creek, a few rods from the house.
One time, a large buck deer came running through their yard and her son, ADELBERT, caught
it by the horns, and with assistance from the other boys, shut it in
the barn. It escaped during the night, but the next day some dogs
chased it back. This time they caught it and shut it in an enclosure
by a rail fence. Here it became vary tame and was quite a pet.
One morning ALMIRA went out to see it and found it had broken its neck from a fall off a
hay stack. The Pottawatomie Indians did not bother
them much. Occasionally several would stop at
the home for a night's lodging, or a
meal, to which they were always welcome. They and their neighbors
had more to fear from the lack of doctors and medicine than from
friendly Indians. ALMIRA faithfully nursed her family through a
siege of smallpox, from which many others in the neighborhood died.
There being no doctor available, to each mother fell the lot of
being nurse and doctor and making her own medicine from local herbs.
ALMIRA sent her children, on horseback,
seven or eight miles to attend the daily summer school at Cedar Lake. They carried their
lunch in a large basket. Her children assisted their mother's
cousin, OBADIAH TAYLOR III, helping pick many bushels of cranberries
each year, in his cranberry marsh south of Cedar Lake. Here a plank
road, one half mile long, was laid across the swamp, so that a wagon
could be driven from Cedar Lake to Creston. This road was extended
by the government to the lake's south edge and out on the North edge
of the lake. This road is still in existence, but has been so
neglected that it is impassable. ALMIRA canned many quarts of the
cranberries, also of the wild strawberries and blackberries, growing
in abundance in this land of plenty.
On Sundays, ALMIRA, with her husband and
children, drove, in their wagon, to the Cedar Lake school house to attend the Baptist
Church. Later they went to the newly organized Cedar Lake Sunday
school which a few years later was transferred to the Tinkerville
school house, then to a room in ALMIRA'S son ADELBERT PALMER'S house
and store in Tinkerville, one mile south of Cedar Lake and one half
mile east of what is now known as Creston. TIMOTHY BALL was one of
the preachers at these meetings.
ALMIRA AND JAMES PALMER had moved to
Tinkerville from their West Creek farm, as they had bought a farm,
one half mile south, across from the OBADIAH TAYLOR III homestead,
now the FEDDE CARSTEN farm, and on what is now part of the HENRY
CUTLER farm. Tinkerville had obtained its name from a tinker shop
owned, by a man named FRED MILLER, who was a blacksmith, to whom
people brought their tinkering jobs. The village also included a
store and the Cedar Lake Post Office, and several houses. It was a
center for evening and Sabbath gatherings, for schools, and
religious meetings of twenty or more nearby families. The school was
located one half mile south on a corner of the OBADIAH TAYLOR III
homestead, east across the road from the home of ALMIRA PALMER and
north of what is now the SCHUYLER STILLSON home in Cedar Creek
township. Here is where in 1849 the Cedar Creek Baptist Church
transferred their meetings, the second Baptist center in Lake
County.
Here in Tinkerville, she enjoyed her
later life. Her grandson, CHARLES PALMER, of Lowell can vaguely remember her as a tall thin
woman, very energetic, with a sun bonnet and gingham apron to match,
carrying a basket of eggs to his father's store to exchange for
groceries, or cloth to sew or to piece into a new quilt from a
pattern one of her many friends had brought her. CHARLES PALMER can
also remember that his grandmother, ALMIRA PALMER, always had plenty
of the best sugar cookies and sweetest jam for her little grand-son,
who enjoyed going to grandma's house. ALMIRA TAYLOR PALMER was a
very competent manager of her home and family. She had few idle
moments and was never ill. Neighbors always found her busy at her
spinning wheel or sewing, as she made all of the clothes for her
large family, after spinning and weaving the cloth. Cooking,
cleaning, washing, plus the other numerous tasks of the pioneer
housewife, still left her time for studying with her children and
reading to them from the family Bible. After her family was grown,
she devoted most of her time to piecing many beautiful quilts, some
of which are now treasured heirlooms in the homes of her
grandchildren.
After the death of her devoted husband
in 1863, ALMIRA made her home with her daughter,
DOROTHY, wife of AMASA EDGERTON. Here
she passed away in 1869 during the only illness she ever had. Her
funeral was held in the Creston school house, as the church was not
built until 1875. She was especially interested in the plans for the
new church and would have been pleased to know that her son,
WILLIAM, assisted by REUBEN WOOD and JAMES VINNEDGE, built the
Creston Methodist Episcopal Church a few years after her death, one
half mile west of Tinkerville, in Creston, so named by the new Monon
Railroad Company. She was buried beside her husband, in the central
part of the Cedar Lake cemetery, now called the Creston cemetery.
The children born to ALMIRA TAYLOR and JAMES PALMER were:
SYLVESTER, married ANN, of the
STUDEBAKERS of South Bend, moved to California.
ADELBERT --married MARIETTA BURCH.
Bought store of AMOS EDGERTON in Tinkerville, and the Cedar Lake
Post Office, which changed to the Creston PO in 1882, when he build
a store in Creston.
GEORGE W. --married ANN TAYLOR, daughter
of OBADIAH TAYLOR III. Owned water front on south end of Cedar Lake,
now owned by COFFIN and others. Had ice business. Later in Palmer
and Taylor lumber yard at Creston, also a farmer. WILLIAM -- married
ELSIE STRONG and moved to Nebraska, a county officer. LOUISA --
married DE WITT CLINTON TAYLOR who was a farmer near Lowell. The
grandparents of LYRELL TAYLOR MILLER.
DOROTHY -- married AMASA EDGERTON, a
farmer, one mile south of Creston.
ELVINA --married JOHN WILKENSON. The
research work and paper was prepared by ETHEL A. VINNEDGE of
Creston. She received much data and details from ARTHUR G. TAYLOR of
Crown Point, and from the following grandchildren of ALMIRA PALMER:
CHARLES PALMER of Lowell, MRS. ELMER RAGON of Crown Point and MRS.
MARTIN PALMER of Heglar, Idaho. Her picture is among the possessions
of the late BEN PALMER of Lowell. MRS. ELMER RAGON owns the
shirtwaist worn in the picture, and MRS. EMIL VALLEE of Creston has
a sugar bowl and wash stand which ALMIRA brought from PA. in a
covered wagon.
Submitted by Mary Vance Thompson Phelps
E-mail mvtphelps@aol.com
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