Molly (Sherwood) Taylor (1760 - 1825)

Born 1760 in Danbury, Fairfield, Connecticut Colony

Ancestors

Wife of Phineas Taylor — married 11 Sep 1783 in Danbury, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States

Descendants

Died 20 Aug 1825 at about age 65 in Bethel, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States

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Biography

In August, 1825, the aged grandmother [of P. T. Barnum] met with an accident in stepping on the point of a rusty nail, which shortly afterwards resulted in her death. She was a woman of great piety, and before she died sent for each of her grandchildren-to whom she was devoted-and besought them to lead a Christian life. Barnum was so deeply impressed by that death-bed scene that through his whole life neither the recollection of it, nor of the dying woman's words, ever left him.

From "Struggles and Triumphs or, Forty Years' Recollections of P. T. Barnum, written by himself." The Courier Co.: Buffalo, NY, 1882. "In the month of August, 1825, my maternal grandmother met with an accident in stepping on the point of a rusty nail, and, although the matter was at first considered trivial, it resulted in her death. [N.B., apparently from tetanus]. Alarming symptoms soon made her sensible that she was on her death-bed; and while she was in full possession of her faculties, the day before she died she sent for her grandchildren to take final leave of them. I shall never forget the sensations I experienced when she took me by the hand and besought me to lead a religious life, and especially to remember that I could in no way so effectually prove my love to God as by loving all my fellow-beings. The impressions of that death-bed scene have ever been among my most vivid recollections, and I trust they have proved in some degree salutary. A more exemplary woman, or a more sincere Christian than my grandmother, I have never known."

Name

Molly Sherwood

Residence

Bethel, Fairfield, Connecticut

Marriage

11 Sep 1783 Danbury, Fairfield, Connecticut (Barbour Collection)

Burial

Congregational Church Cemetery, Bethel, Fairfield, Connecticut (Find A Grave)

Sources

• Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County (Higginson Book Co., 1899) Page 1
• Hill, Susan Benedict. History of Danbury, Conn. 1684-1896 (Burr Printing House, New York, 1896) Page 538-539
• The Connecticut Magazine (Connecticut Magazine Company, Hartford, Conn., 1897) Vol. 3: Page 237
• The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records - White, Lorraine Cook, ed. (Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1994-2002) Vol. Danbury.

• Page 98: "Sherwood, Molly,m.Phinehas Taylor,Sept.11,1783 Vol. 1 Page 387"

• Marriage Returns, 1820-1852 (Danbury, Connecticut, Town Clerk) Image 40 & Image 122.
• DAR Lineage Book (Daughters of the American Revolution, 1915) Vol. 47, Page 51: #46113
• Brownson, Lydia (Phinney) & McLean, Maclane W., Ezra Perry of Sandwich, Mass. (c. 1625-1689), The American Genealogist (The American Genealogist, Barrington, RI, 1961) Vol. 115, Page 288.
• Manual of The Congregational Church in Bethel, Conn., May 16, 1887 (Case, Lockwood & Brainard, Hartford, Conn., 1887) Page 21.
• Find A Grave: Memorial #142877987