Addie Musette (Chase) Taylor 1873-1967

I have previously written about my great great aunt Addie Taylor of Yarmouth for the Ancient Cemetery Project and use my research findings here in this post.  The flush stone in the Ancient Cemetery appears to lie alone, yet in considering the nearby stones, one discovers she is buried close to her parents Franklin Howes Chase and Julia Etta Covil.  The stone provides a birth and death year which in fact are confirmed in her May 1967 obituary in the Dennis-Yarmouth Register. Mrs. Addie Taylor died 19 May 1967. She was born in Middleborough and lived much of her life in Yarmouth on North Main Street with her niece Mrs. John (Gertrude) Crosby. The Social Security Death Index for Addie Taylor of Barnstable Massachusetts, age 94, also reflects date of death as May 1967; birth date of 23 February 1873.

Pictured from left to right (probable): Mrs. Lila Holway, Violet Morgan,
William Morgan and Addie Taylor.

An entry in my own family records (Birthday Book of Lila Holway, 1913, South Yarmouth, MA) identifies a birth date for Addie Musette (Chase) Taylor as 23 February 1873.  It also provides place of birth as [Rock(land)] Middleborough.

Vital records for Middleborough, Massachusetts finds Ada Chase, born 23 February 1873 to Franklin H. and Julia E. (Covil) Chase of Yarmouth and Dennis respectively. As prior research on this family has found, Franklin H. Chase was involved in the cranberry business both on the Cape and in Plymouth County (Carver and Middleborough), Massachusetts and it is probable that the family was in that area for that reason at the time of Addie’s birth. 

 

Below is the Chase family as it appears in the 1880 Census Record at Yarmouth, Massachusetts including Orinza Covil, Addie’s maternal grandmother. Addie had several siblings: Julia Franklin was born 1864, married Amos Arey, died 1881 aged 17; Lila May born 1865, married first Leston Robinson, second Thacher Holway, died 1957; Winnie O. Chase born 1868, married Willie F. Arey, died 1944; Ezra Franklin born 1870, died 1918; and Violet Estelle Vernon born 1883, married William Morgan, died 1939. 

Addie’s father, Franklin Howes Chase was born to George W. Chase and Nancy J. (Brooks) Chase.  He is identified in the 1861 Earle Report as part of the Yarmouth Tribe. He was a descendant of Thomas Greenough.

Franklin Howes Chase

Julia Etta Covil

    

Addie’s mother was Julia Etta Covil, daughter of Ezra and Orinza (Chase) (Chase) Covill. This was a second marriage for both Ezra and Orinza; they both had children from their first marriages.  Julia’s sister, Adelia Emma Chase married Franklin’s brother, Timothy Taylor Chase.  Addie’s mother Julia died 23 November 1886 of child bed fever.  Her father Franklin married second Mary Percival of Barnstable.  He died in 1903 at Carver, Massachusetts.

In the 1900 census, Addie M. Chase is enumerated at Harwich as a 27 years old servant in the home of Vienna Eldredge, married mother of one, milliner. (Vienna Eldredge was the wife of Ezra Eldredge, and daughter of Cyrus and Ruth Ellis.  Ezra Eldridge was the son of John P. Eldridge and Desire Taylor.)

 

 

In 1910 Addie is the 37 years old housekeeper in the home of Mr. Henry Taylor and his wife Ella in Yarmouth.  Mr. Taylor is a brick mason.  Henry Taylor and Ella are shown as having no children. An 1899 marriage record for Maude L. Taylor identifies her as the adopted daughter of Henry and Ella (Crowell) Taylor (note that a birth record shows Maude born illegitimate in 1889 to Nellie Taylor). Addie Taylor’s obituary names three grandchildren. She did not have any children of her own and current (yet ongoing) research indicates that the grandchildren listed in her obituary are more than likely the children of the "adopted" daughter (Maude) of her husband Henry Taylor and his first wife Ella. Mrs. James Williams, noted as a granddaughter, may be the daughter of her niece Mrs. John (Gert) Crosby. All information points to a very closely tied family. Mrs. Henry Taylor is the informant on Maude (Taylor) Kelley’s death certificate in 1910.  

                          

Mrs. Ella Taylor, wife of Henry Taylor died in 1912.

The next year, 27 April 1913, Henry W. Taylor, 60 year old widowed mason, son of David and Hannah Taylor, married Addie M. Chase, age 40, housekeeper, born in Middleborough, Massachusetts to Franklin H. and Julie E. (Covill) Chase.

Addie and her husband Henry Taylor are living at his home on Station Avenue, Yarmouth in 1920.

Mr. Henry Taylor died in 1926. He is buried with his first wife in the Pine Grove Cemetery in South Yarmouth. No children are mentioned in his obituary. He left two brothers and a sister also named Addie Taylor.

In 1930, Addie M. Taylor, widow, is a servant in the Barnstable home of John and Vernon Bearse on Sea Street.  By 1940 she is living in the home of her sister Winifred Arey, along with sister Lila Holway all widows.  In 1940 Lila and Addie are living at the home of their niece Gertrude Crosby and her family on Station Avenue.

We can follow the long life of Addie M. (Chase) Taylor through the many social items posted in the local newspapers.  These snippets of information thread together family ties through descriptions of social gatherings, trips, and announcements of all kinds.  Addie Taylor was a Methodist and involved with the camps at Yarmouth and spent many years travelling and entertaining with her sisters and neighbors.  She visited her brother Ezra Chase, and her uncle Timothy Chase. She hosted and attended many family gatherings for her niece Mrs. Gertrude Crosby and nephew Vernon Morgan. Addie Taylor had no children of her own and land transactions in Yarmouth might make for interesting research as it appears Addie may have inherited land that was her husband’s through his first wife Ella Crowell Taylor. It is also in the area of Sarah’s Swamp in Yarmouth and the area where descendants lived for many years after Addie’s death. On a personal note, I remember visiting the North Main Street house when I was very young.  It was like stepping back in time – the house was filled with dark furniture, white doilies, and smelled of kerosene. I was terrified at the age of “Aunt” Gert Crosby and Mrs. Taylor and their old-fashioned ways of dressing!   For more information on the many ways Addie Taylor was involved in civic and church organizations in Yarmouth please see my previous post "South Yarmouth's Civic Minded Ladies."

Sources:

United States Social Security Death Index, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J5YT-1X3 : 7 January 2021), Addie Taylor, May 1967; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).

Birthday Book of Grandmother Lila Holway, of Yarmouth, MA, February Birthdays, personal collection, Julie A. Esposito. 

MA, U.S., Dennis, Dennis Births, Deaths Early 1700’s to Date 1890, Ancestry.com.

MA, U.S. Town and Vital records, Yarmouth, Births, Marriages, Deaths 1812-1862, Image 56, Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2495/images/40400_274556- 00584?pId=46687992.

Massachusetts, U.S., Marriage Records, Up Through 1910, Harwich, 1869, Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2511/images/41262_B139179- 00011?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.70376016.1791004480.1645039256- 1279227738.1618859579&pId=16723210.

MA, U.S., Town and Vital Records, Marriages Registered in Yarmouth, 1960-1943 (place of Marriage, New Bedford, MA), Ancestry.com.

MA, U.S., Death Records, 1910, Yarmouth, Maud L. Kelley, Ancestry.com.

Sturgis Library Digital Newspaper Archives. 

Morgan Family Photo Collection, personal collection of Julie Esposito.