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Note: e was born on October 27, 1887, probably on a farm near Nancy, Pulaski County, Kentucky. Carl Lee married Beatrice Belle Dye on September 30, 1909 at “Dolly’s” hometown of Oil Center, Pulaski County, at the home of her parents John L. Dye and Josephine (Mc Daniels) Dye (marriage papers). They raised a fine family of six children. Two of the girls, now ages 89 to 95, are alive at this writing. Aline’s memory is especially sharp and she helped compile much family history. Aline completed the first two years of high school while on a work-study program at Berea. Edna was the only child to finish high school. Carl is believed to have completed the eighth grade; Beatrice may have had less schooling.
About the time he married, Carl acquired what became the permanent family farm on Oak Hill-Saline Road (about 3 miles SW of Somerset, at approximately latitude 84 39’ 31” longitude 37 04’ 12”). The 50-acre or so farm was comprised of fertile, but gummy red clay. Farming was of the subsistence type, producing enough to eat but little cash. Livestock usually consisted of a few cows for milk and cream, Nellie the horse and Jack the mule for plowing and hauling, a litter or two of pigs for salty home-smoked ham and bacon, and some chickens and guineas for eggs and Sunday supper. Cash crops were the allotted patch of tobacco (planting of this crop was government controlled), a few eggs, some cream, and when kids were available for garden maintenance, melons and strawberries (they sold $900 worth of berries in 1920). Some corn and hay were grown, mostly for consumption by their livestock. Harvesting of tobacco in the heat of late summer usually made Carl sick from exposure to oils, dust, and (probably) pesticides. Harvesting consisted of hand-cutting the stalks, loading them on a skid, dragging them to the barn, skewering them on sticks, and hanging them in the loft until the leaves dried and a buyer came by. The barn and livestock were destroyed by fire circa 1930, but restored.
The first house was destroyed circa 1920, during potato planting season, when paper ashes from the stove set the shingle roof on fire. Myrtle Cundiff and other neighbors took the family in while a new shell was quickly built by a work bee of family and neighbors. Carl finished the inside. My recollection of the house (beginning about in 1950, when I was 10) was it never had many amenities:
· water “ran” in the house only when someone carried it in from the well outside of the kitchen
or from the spring at the bottom of the hill; · the outhouse was located 50 feet down a grassy trail that was usually wet with dew or rain;
· the toilet paper really consisted of glossy catalogues until modernized by lavender rolls;
· a galvanized tub in the back porch or smoke house became the bath tub if someone ever got
real dirty; · large barrels under the downspouts collected soft rain water for washing;
· waste water went on the grass or flower beds;
· garbage disposal (now “recycling”) consisted of slopping the hogs or chickens;
· central heating consisted of a wood-fired cook stove in the kitchen and a coal-fired, pot-bellied
stove in the main room; · there was enough electricity to operate about one bare-bulb light per room;
· downstairs there was a formal parlor with the foot-powered organ (who played it?); the
equivalent of a “great room” (which in later years became the main bedroom because of the
stove); a large bedroom; a dinning room; a back porch; and a front porch with swing from
which one could watch for infrequent road traffic; · the upstairs consisted of one large room with many beds- ideal for children and visiting
grandchildren, and for listening to rain thunder on the tin roof when they were confined to
indoor activities. Fond memories were formed during grandson James Schneider's childhood visits to the farm during the 1940s and 1950s. It was an annual event representing an inexpensive two-week family vacation for the Schneider family and a chance for my mom (Aline) to renew her family ties. Grandmother always cried when we (or anybody else) arrived and again when we left. Grandpa was so hard of hearing he hardly knew what was going on. But he thoroughly enjoyed rock candy and going into town (Somerset) to see the Saturday matinee cowboy movies. The young cousins (Richard, Barbara, ‘Tricia, Dean, and Charlie) had a good time playing with each other and with cap pistols and BB guns. There was usually a swimming trip to Fishing Creek (which is now submerged under Lake Cumberland).
A tragedy occurred on July 7, 1958. A rainstorm dropped a locust tree on a power line and across the metal fence that surrounded the farm house. Beatrice, already with a weak heart, was electrocuted when she touched the fence and wet ground. James stayed with grandpa, then age 70, for a couple weeks that summer to keep him company.
A couple of years later, Carl married another widower, Lelia Wilson Redmond, and she moved into the farm house. She died September 16, 1972. Carl Lee Taylor died less than a year later, on July 4, 1973, at the age of 85, at Sunrise Manor Nursing Home.
The farm was sold to Dallas Redmond for $46,000 about March 29, 1974. Carl left an additional $850.04 in assets. The total became his children’s inheritance. At last visit, the old farmhouse was gone and the land had sprouted a very expensive real estate subdivision.
Researched and written by Carl’s daughter, Aline (Taylor) Schneider, and grandson, James Carl Schneider, December 10, 2007.
Note: Carl Lee Taylor was the seventh of eight children born to Henry G. and Florence V. Taylor. H
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