Born on her parents’ farm in Pleasant Township, Brown, Ohio, on the 4th of February, 1826, Mary was the third daughter and fifth child in the family of Andrew Moore and Rebecca Curry Moore. Details of her early life are unknown; however, the influence of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ became a part of her life when “Mormon” missionaries called on her family in 1832. Her parents were baptized the next year, along with her eldest sister and two grandmothers.
When she was age eight, her father sold their farm. After moving to Clay County, Missouri, they bought a farm of eighty acres. She and her family enjoyed comparative peace there for about two years. Mary was baptized into the church in 1836. When mob hostilities commenced in that county, her father agreed, along with other saints, to leave the area. He sold his farm and bought a tract of unimproved land for farming about four miles from Far West, Missouri. The family worked together to develop a farm there.
Mary lived through those difficult days when her father had to surrender his two rifles and a sword to the governor’s militia, then in 1838 sign a “deed of trust of all real and personal property” to defray the expenses of their military enemies. The Moores and others were left to get out of the state the best way they could to comply with the governor’s expulsion order.
On 6 March 1839 Mary’s family left their home in Missouri and about nine days later crossed the Mississippi River at Quincy, Illinois. The family moved to McDonough County, where her father rented a farm.
During the next seven years Mary experienced many of the trials of the Latter-day Saints, since her father’s family participated actively in the work of the Church.
Just three months before the martyrdom of the Prophet and his brother Hyrum, Mary was married in Nauvoo to Joseph Taylor, 24 March 1844. They lived on Lot #126 just across the street south of the printing office in Nauvoo.
Following the death of the Prophet, mob actions and burning of the saints’ property began anew. During those difficult times Joseph and Mary’s first daughter Clarissa Jane was born 4 July 1845. About six months later this couple was endowed in the Nauvoo Temple 24 January 1846. They left their home and crossed the Mississippi River on the ice 8 February 1846 in company with the saints who were beginning their westward trek.
After the family arrived in Council Bluffs in June 1846, less than a month passed before Joseph was enlisted in the Mormon Battalion. On 20 July 1846 he marched off with the Battalion, leaving Mary to care for their small daughter. Mary’s second daughter was born in Council Bluffs 22 February 1847. Family tradition indicates that the newborn daughter was so weak that she was not expected to live. A message, sent to Bishop James Lake, requested him to come and administer to the infant. He gave the child a wonderful blessing; she grew to maturity and outlived all others in her family unit.
Mary no doubt received help from caring relatives and friends until her husband was discharged from the Mormon Battalion and rejoined her in October 1847. There in Council Bluffs their first son, Joseph Allen, was born 3 August 1848. A second son, William Andrew, was born 15 May 1850 in nearby Kanesville, where the saints had been advised to gather for their westward journey.
In the latter part of May 1850 Mary and Joseph and their three small children, the youngest just two weeks old, began their journey across the plains. Filled with difficult and frightening experiences, the journey finally ended with the company’s arrival in Salt Lake City 5 September 1850.
Living for a time in Salt Lake City, the Taylor family moved later that year to a farm east of Kaysvile (now Fruit Heights). They later relocated to the central part of Kaysville near the present main square in town. Together Joseph and Mary began building an adobe house (some accounts indicate this was a log home), Mary carrying the mortar to assist her husband. While working one day, she became seriously ill, went into convulsions, and died 4 April 1852 at the birth of her fifth child, a stillborn son. Her husband made a crude coffin from his wagon box, placed his dear wife and baby in the box, and took them south for burial in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
Mary’s daughter Melvina was told after she matured that she resembled her mother, who was tall, had rather pointed features and gray eyes. This same daughter, who was just five when her mother died, spoke of the special affection and care given by her mother when she was alive. The family recalled events which bespeak her efficient management of her household. Just before her death Mary had washed and ironed and had made enough bread and butter to last a week. Too, those who knew her described her as a neat, clean lady, very noble and refined.
Compiled 1996 by Brian L. Taylor.
REFERENCE LIST
- “Autobiography of Andrew Moore” in possession of compiler
- Christensen, Mary Estella Rawson, “Mary Moore Taylor”.
- “Members of the LDS Church – 1830 to 1848”, Ogden FHC Microfiche # 6031596.
- Wells, Lola T., 1932, “History of Mary Moore Taylor”.
