From “Family History of the Joseph Taylor, Jr. and Sarah Best Family”
By Shari H. Franke
Thomas Best Taylor, born 9 July 1823, near Richardsville, Warren, Kentucky, married 27 February 1851, Mary Elizabeth Runner, at Warren County, Kentucky. M. J. Evans performed the ceremony. Her father, William Runner was bondsman for the marriage.
Thomas Best was a very handsome young man and a good farmer. Thomas must have felt a great responsibility when the Civil war started, for we know he joined the Union Army. He was a member of Company B, 38th Kentucky Infantry. He was shot in the arm accidentally by his own men while returning from a patrol. He was then taken to the Union Hospital at Evansville, Vanderburgh, Indiana, where he remained several months to recuperate. His arm had to be amputated and gangrene set in. Unfortunately, Thomas Best Taylor eventually died as a result of his wounds on 29 September 1862, at Evansville, Vanderburgh, Indiana. He was only 39 years old. He was buried at the U.S. Military Cemetery at Evansville.
Mary Elizabeth Runner, born 17 March 1827, near Richardsville, Warren, Kentucky, was the daughter of William Runner and his first wife, Margaret Penner. She was a devoted wife, who loved her husband very much. We understand that she rode horseback in the rain, from Richardsville, Warren, Kentucky to Evansville, Vanderburgh, Indiana to see her injured husband at the Union Hospital. How hard it must have been for Mary Elizabeth to lose her husband at such a young age! She was left with two little boys to raise alone. They were only eight and five years old when Thomas B. died.
Mary Elizabeth died on 18 November 1893, near Richardsville, Warren, Kentucky, where she was buried at the Green River Union Cemetery.
Thomas Best Taylor and Mary Elizabeth Runner’s children were: Reverend William Irven and Joseph Nicholas Taylor.
