L&N Employee Killed by Falling Cow? Trying to Document a Family Tale.

From 1859 until the day he died, George Overton Taylor worked for the Louisville & Nashville (L&N) Railroad maintaining a 390 foot run of track in the cut between two train tunnels that give South Tunnel, Tennessee, its name.

All my life I've heard family lore about poor ol' great-great-grandpa Taylor's ignoble end. He died, they say, from a broken neck, the fatal impact having been delivered by a calf tumbling head over hooves from the top of the cut's 40 foot limestone wall.

Grandpa Taylor owned farm land directly above the cut, and it was his own calf, they say, that ended his life and his long career with the L&N.

Before grandpa George checked out, he had plenty of time to raise a family with Mary Van (as her name is spelled on their marriage bond and license, both dated February 18, 1860). One of their offspring, Henry Dulin Taylor, married Vera Inez Hassell and their brood included my grandfather, Dulin Hassell Taylor.

The story of George's less-than-dignified demise is so Monty Pythonesque, one has to wonder if it's true.

For me, his one-in-a-million odds of dying from a falling cow has always bumped up against my natural skepticism. But the story does have supporting evidence.

In June 2010, I discovered, in the personal archives of Sumner County Museum curator Allen Haynes, an undated photograph of George Taylor standing on the porch of a railroad shack. Accompanying the photo is a note that reads:

Geo Taylor father of Henry Taylor
Grandfather of Frances T Gregory
Henry Taylor II

George Taylor was 33 years at His Post as
Watchman of the Tunnels at South Tunnel
in the 1800 - Was killed by calf falling off cut
breaking his neck - year unknown.
--F.T.G.

This note from Frances Taylor Gregory, who was two generations closer to the story than I, adds credibility. It's difficult to believe that a granddaughter would not know the real story of her grandfather's death, especially an unusual death. (FTG, by the way, was my grandfather's half-sister - one of the children from Henry Taylor's second wife. My grandpa Dulin, from Henry's third wife Vera Inez Hassell, told me he thought Henry's second wife's maiden name may have been Bloodworth. I have verified this through a marriage license dated January 15, 1896. Her full name on the license is "Susie G. Bloodworth.")

The only part of Frances' story that stokes my skepticism is that she did not know what year her grandpa died. She apparently could not come up with even an approximate year.

Next piece of evidence. A photo dated May 1895, shows a work crew with a magnificent steam locomotive (L&N number 143). Lisa Taylor writes on rootsweb that the man in the white jacket is her great grandfather, John Albert Taylor. "He apparently took over as Tunnel Watchman from his father George Overton Taylor... the first watchman for the tunnels at South Tunnel."

There's reason to believe both the George Taylor photo and Lisa's locomotive photo were taken in the same era because both photos bear the same photographer's imprint.

We can estimate George's photo was taken around 1892, by doing the following math: The L&N railroad was completed in 1859. George worked for L&N at least 33 years, according to the photo caption.

During a trip to the Sumner County Archives on June  25, 2015, I found two court documents that get us much closer to a death date for Grandpa George. Minutes from the County Court session of November 18, 1895, show that John A. Taylor was appointed "administrator of all and singular the goods and chattels rights and credits of the estate of Geo. O. Taylor dec'd."

I also found an intriguing reference in the Circuit Court minutes for March 6, 1896. In a case titled "J.A. Taylor Admr vs L&N R.R. Co.," the judge dismissed Taylor's claim against the L&N and ordered him to pay the railroad for "the costs of this cause." The court minutes do not detail the original claim. But it's easy to imagine it was related to George's death.

My search for documentary evidence of George's cause of death has so far been fruitless.[See update below.] The exact location of George's grave is unknown. Family stories say only that he was buried "in the Indian cemetery," presumably the unmarked Indian burial ground east of the North tunnel. Meanwhile, area newspapers from the period are frustratingly missing from the Archives and the History Museum. The archivist at the L&N archives at the University of Louisville told me the railroad's personnel records were lost in the 1933 flood. And the court records that might detail the reason for the lawsuit against the L&N have so far eluded me.

August 26, 2015: Success!

I have found a news item about grandpa George in the July 28, 1895, edition of the Atlanta Constitution. Here's the clip. Case closed.

Here's another article, this one published in a Nashville paper:
Found on Newspapers.com