Waynesburg Republican - Article - Taylor Talks (10 April 1890)

Name/Title

Waynesburg Republican - Article - "Taylor Talks" (10 April 1890)

Entry/Object ID

2018.1.96

Scope and Content

"Taylor Talks" article, Waynesburg Republican, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, 10 April 1890. Microfilm archived at the Cornerstone Genealogical Society. Transcribed by Candice Buchanan. "Taylor Talks. His Story of His Whereabouts on the Morning of the McCausland Murder. He Was 'Sellin' Whiskey,' And Had Not Been in Greene County For a Month Before. On visiting the jail a few days before his execution Taylor made the following statement to a representative of the Republican. It was written down at a walnut table in front of his cell, just as he told it. The question was asked him, 'What is your story of your whereabouts and what you did on the day of the McCausland murder, the day preceding and the day following it?' and here is what he said, which will go down in history as Taylor's version: Lays In A Stock. 'I had been sellin' whiskey over there in Fayette county. There was a meetin' goin' on, and Friday morning, the day before the murder, I started down to Millsboro after whiskey. I left home about six o'clock, went to the rive and got in George Clark's boat. I rowed down to Rice's Landing and pulled up on the Fayette county side, locked my boat and walked down the Fayette county shore. It is 15 miles from Masontown to Millsboro. It was twelve o'clock when I got to the distillery. Mr. Emery was eatin' his dinner and I had to wait on him. I got two gallons and a half of whiskey, two gallons in one jug and a half gallon in another. I was getting' the half gallon for George Clark, the two gallons I was goin' to sell. I didn't get any dinner. I took a drink of liquor at the distillery and then left, and was ferried across the river. I went up on the bank and sat down under a tree at the forks of the road, where the road turns off to go up to Easterburg. While there, a stranger was ferried across. He came up and sat down with me. I give him a drink. We got to talkin' and he said he had some friends at Masontown. I told him if he ever come up there to come around to my house and I would give him a drink. He asked me 'if I kept liquor' and I told him 'yes, that I sold it.' We took another drink. I started up to Rice's Landing about three o'clock. Got to the Landing and got in the boat and started up the river. Gets Gloriously Drunk. I begun to feel the liquor. The sun was hot and I thought I was rowin' all right, and here I wasn't up stream at all. I was just rowin' 'round, part of the time I got to rowin' back down the river again. I would 'come to' a little and pull onto the shore and go to sleep. John Fuller come along in a flat boat and found me. He woke me up. I told him I was drunk and he told me not to drink any more whiskey that day. I was very sick. It was about two or three o'clock in the morning when I got to Provins' Ferry. I pulled the boat ashore and fastened it, and walked up into Jim Sterling's bottom and lay down and went to sleep. It was just daylight when I wakened up. I picked up the jugs and started to Masontown. His Neighbors On To His Game. On the way I passed George Halfin's house, saw him in the door and spoke to him. In sight of town I met John Taylor, my brother. He was on his way to Sterling's to cut corn. I asked him what he would take to carry my whiskey into town the back way. People had been blamin' me with sellin' whiskey and I didn't want them to see me carryin' it home. He said 'I don't know.' And I told him I would give him a drink. He then took the jug and started. I took the half gallon. I went by Bob Temple's and give him a drink. I then went on to George Clark's and left the jug. I started home. On the way I met Chris Sterling. He asked me if I would be up town again and I told him I would. They All Took A Drink. I went on home. My wife had breakfast about ready. Zaddock Clark, my father-in-law, and his housekeeper, Mary Wilhelm, were there. John had then come. I give them a drink all around. I filled up a half pint bottle and give it to John. I asked him to sit down and eat his breakfast, but he said he would go on to Sterling's. He left, but in a little bit came back and said he had sold the half pint of whiskey and wanted some more. Just as I got through my breakfast Jasper Bice rode up. He had come to see if I would cut corn for him that day. I had promised him the Thursday before that I would. He knew where I had been as I told him I was going to Millsboro. I told him I had been out all night and had been sick. Told him I would cut corn for him on Monday, that I couldn't work that day (Saturday). Just as Bice was going away Jim Aultman come up. I give him a drink of whiskey. He had been there before inquiring if I had got back. After Aultman left I went up to town and saw some young fellows on the corner by Chris Sterling's. Aultman was there and asked me to go and have a game of seven up with himself and Jeff Ache. Jim Aultman was on the corner and John Clark was on the 'up-on' block. Ache was on the drug store corner. Jim told me to go over and ask Ache if he would play. I went over and asked him and he said he would. Ache went over with me to Sterling's corner. I asked John Clark if he would play and he said 'no, he hadn't any money.' Jim then wanted me to go and play with him and Jeff Ache, but I told him no, I wouldn't play 'three-handed.' I told him if they would get another fellow we would all meet up on Canon's hill and play after dinner. Ache Denies Seeing Him. Jeff Ache afterward denied seeing me that forenoon, at all. I turned around then and went back down home again. I don't know how long I stayed. I went home to find a pint bottle, I wanted to take some whiskey upon the hill with me that afternoon. I then went back up town. Mack Newcomer was working on Sutton Wood's house, helping to put on a tin roof. I called to him to come down, I wanted to see him. He come down and I asked him if he wanted to buy a pint of whiskey. I wanted to get some money to play 'seven-up.' He said he would see me that night. I went on down to George Clark's then. I went there after a pint bottle, I couldn't find any at home. I saw George, he was out in the lot. He said he hadn't any bottle empty, he had two bottles but they were full. I went back home then. When I was going down home Jim Sangston hollowed me 'to hold on he wanted to see me.' He asked me if I had anything to drink and I told him I had. He said 'he would go down and take a drink.' I went in the house after the whiskey and my wife asked me 'who I was takin' it to?' It was between ten and eleven o'clock. My wife was getting dinner. His Witnesses Don't Testify To Suit Him. Sangston swore on the witness stand that it was twelve o'clock when he got the drink of whiskey of me. [Jas. Sangston was Taylor's own witness at his trial. Taylor, a few hours before his statement was taken down in mentioning about being at George Clark's and going from there down home said that his brother John Taylor and Calvin Clark were lying drunk in George Clark's yard and that he tried to get them in the house and couldn't, and that he went down home to tell Zaddock Clark to go up and to get them in the house. He did not mention anything about meeting Sangston, or that he had gone with him to get a drink. He stated then that he thought some people were going to the church as he went down, where they were to meet before going to the river to baptize.] Some (his own witnesses) wanted to make out that I was drunk that day, but I wasn't any drunker than I am now. If I get tight today, tomorrow I can't drink any whiskey. I got drunk every time I went to Millsboro for whiskey. I told my wife I wanted an early dinner. I wanted to go away. I told her I wanted to go with some of the boys. I didn't go anywhere then till after dinner. George Clark's Strange Manner. Just as I was sitting down to dinner George Clark come in. He sat down in the cradle. I asked him if he had been to dinner? He said no. I then said you had better sit up and eat some, but he said he didn't want anything. After I got through dinner I started up town. Saw Jim Aultman and hollowed to him to to come on. Him and me went up on the town hill together. Then Jeff Ache come up, and Jim Sangston, John Clark and Tom Walters. Four of us, Jeff Ache, Jim Aultman, Jim Sangston and myself sat down and played 'seven-up.' We busted Jim Sangston up and he quit. Another one dropped down and we played till we broke him, then just whoever wanted to play would sit down. I only had 60 or 65 cents when I went up on Canon hill. I drew $10 on Thursday eve, give Lib (his wife) six dollars and took four dollars to Millsboro. We played cards as long as it was light enough to see the spots. It was about dark when I went down home. I found George sitting in the cradle just as I left him. He had his head down resting between his hands. George's wife was there then. She and George left together about eight o'clock that evening. After I eat my supper I went up town. Went into Alex Mack's store. Heard Ambrose Bradley telling there about a man named McCausland being murdered. Bradley was working at shoemaking in Carmichaels. I had heard, a while after I went up on the hill that a man had been killed, over on the McCann's Ferry road. There was a Dunkard meeting going on. I was down to the church once. I sold some whiskey to several parties that night. I sold all I had. I sold to everybody who come along. It was about eleven o'clock when I went home. Visits The Scene Of The Crime. I was not in Greene County until Sunday a week after the murder. The Sunday after the murder, I was down where some boys were playing marbles, somebody proposed going over to where the murder was committed, but it rained. On Sunday a week after the murder I went over to Greene county by myself. At the river I was crossed over by Charley Provins and Frank Sterling. After we got across the boys went into an orchard and I went on up toward the scene of the murder. I stopped at young Frank Clark's. Went over to the scene of the murder after two o'clock. I overtook Wm. Sangston going up along the ravine. I saw Thos. Hoover, John Hartley, talked to them both, saw Charley Smith, Alex. Mack, Wm. Sterling, Wm. Tanner, talked with him, saw Sam'l Bice and many others. Stayed there until close five o'clock. Went from there down to Zaddock Clark's. Thos. Hoover, Jesse Hoover's daughter, Jno. Sterling's daughter and Charley Smith all went down with me that far. I stopped at Zaddock Clark's. They asked me 'if I had eat my supper yet?' and I said 'no, but that I would go on home and get my supper there.' They insisted on me staying for supper and after supper, as I hadn't been there for a good while, they wanted me to stay all night, and I did. Next morning I started home. I passed Neil Gray's house and asked him if 'he was going over to Masontown?' He said 'he would go as soon as he did some chores.' We went down to the river and got in a boat and rowed up to Ben Provins' ferry. Got out there and went up to the bridge. Ben was just coming down. He hollowed to me and I just merely spoke to him. Ben and Neil did all the talking. Ben Provins never spoke to me about the whiskey getting me into trouble. That was the last time I was in Greene County until I was arrested. His Last Trip For Whiskey. I made trips to Millsboro for whiskey regularly about every week. The last time I was down there was the day before Christmas in 1887 - that was just a week before I was arrested. The river froze up on me and I had to stay all night. I stayed at Abe Frank's. I took Cal. Clark with me that time and brought up five gallons of whiskey. Had to walk all the way home. Had George Clark's boat. That was the last time I ever saw it. I had to leave it and walk home. A freshet carried it off down the river afterward but it was recovered. I have the key that belongs to the padlock I always locked the boat with. I hardly ever got back the same day. None of my whiskey ever went to Greene County. I didn't even sell to a person who came from Greene county. Sylvanus Areford had wanted to get whiskey of me when he was over at Masontown, but I wouldn't sell him any. [Taylor said in a conversation, previous, that the last time he had been in Greene county before the murder, was in August. He had attended a picnic at Sugar Grove church, and sold whiskey. Several persons threatened to prosecute him, but they did not know him. They tried to find out his name. He was afraid to go back to Greene county, for fear they would get a warrant out for him.] Every thing I told 'Bub' Mount Joy was that I was innocent and didn't know anything about the man who was murdered and never heard tell of him until after he was murdered. Everything he swore to against me was false. I knew nothing of the whereabouts of either Jim Neff, Frank Clark Sr., Frank Clark Jr., or Ben Clark, on the day of the murder. I never was intimately acquainted with old Frank. Never was in his house, all told, more than half a dozen times in my life. I used to go there to parties before I was married. I never saw William McCausland in my life and never knew there was such a man living on earth. I was not inside of Greene County on Sep. 10, 1887. I am innocent. My hands are clean of any man's blood. I have no ill will against anyone and forgive all who swore against me falsely, and I would like to see them all and take them by the hand."

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Publications Collection

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Search Terms

Clark family, Criminal, Murder, Newspaper, Taylor family, Waynesburg Republican

Archive Details

Creator

Waynesburg Republican

Date(s) of Creation

Apr 10, 1890

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Clark, George W. [1854-1890]

Person or Organization

Taylor, Zacharias [1851-1890]

Provenance

Provenance Detail

Waynesburg Republican - Publications Collection

Notes

Source Citation: Waynesburg Republican - Article - "Taylor Talks" (10 April 1890), item no. 2018.1.96, Publications Collection, shared by Candice Lynn Buchanan, Greene Connections Archives Project (www.GreeneConnections.com).