Thus far we’ve seen that Charles P. Vance served on the building committee for the 1891 First Christian Church in Taylor, as did his stepson, James A. Simons. And one of the large windows in the Sanctuary is dedicated to Vance’s wife, and Simons’ mother, Annie Vance. But that’s not the only member of the …
You can trust some of your sources some of the time, but you can’t trust all of your sources all of the time. Finding information about the first Mrs. C.P. Vance was difficult. But that was nothing compared to tracking down the second Mrs. C.P. Vance. While preparing the article I published on Wednesday about …
What would you do if you were a twenty-one-year-old woman with a one-and-a-half-year-old son who had just moved from Kentucky to Texas and then lost her husband… in 1853? That’s just the position in which Mrs. A.D.L. Simons found herself on July 14 of that year. Thus far I’ve mentioned Mrs. Simons twice in my …
For the moment I’m done chasing the Willie County rabbit (but not totally… I’m angling to eventually get one or two historical markers erected in Taylor and Bartlett about Willie County), so I’ve had some time to finish tracking down J.A. Simons, who served on the building committee for the 1891 First Christian Church in …
Y’all have almost certainly seen one or more of the multiple articles I’ve written about Howard Bland and Charles P. Vance, both of who were part of the building committee for the 1891 First Christian Church of Taylor. There’s quite a bit of information out there on both. In contrast, “C. MENDEL” was quite a …
I still remember the first earthquake I felt. I’d been living in Black Mountain, North Carolina (a few miles east of Asheville) for a little less than a year. It was almost midnight, and I was up working. The earthquake in question was centered around Hot Springs, about fifty miles northwest of me. Up until …
Back before Thanksgiving (which somehow already seems an eternity ago) we discussed how Howard Bland was responsible for the construction of the original Howard theater (which was located across the street from the current Howard). But that’s not the only place his name shows up in Taylor! You just might not recognize it… The Hotel …
Next up on our list of men on the First Christian Church building committee is “H BLAND.” Now you might be thinking “Wait… shouldn’t we have another picture of the First Christian Church building then?” Don’t worry, there will be more of those. But Mr. Bland’s name is Howard Bland, and he was responsible for …
While sometimes I wish I’d lived in times past, I can’t deny that I’m fortunate to live in an age where I can dig up an astounding amount of history from the comfort of my own laptop. It would, for instance, be fantastic to see steam locomotives operating on a regular basis, but historical research …
Colonel Charles P. Vance’s ties to Lexington, Texas Read More »
You may have already guessed this, but I really love digging into history! On Friday, I wrote about how another member of Rev. Richard M. Gano’s family served on the building committee that guided the construction of the 1891 First Christian Church building in Taylor. (The stained glass window in the picture is one of …
