(On Stationery, which had the following pre-printed heading:)

Logan, Kansas, August 18, 1889

Dear Brother and Sister:

After some delay I write you. Wife is still poorly. Hope how soon she may be well. Hoping this may find you all well. We are having fine weather here with a prospect for the biggest crop this co. has ever raised. Crops on my farms are looking fine indeed. Will surely have a big lot of corn. Did the hailstorm strike you folks? I see by Eastern papers Cloud had a big hail storm a short time ago. Hope you were not damaged any.

About going home this fall, I do not know just when I can go and I have not learned in what shape the old homestead was left in. I want to take wife along when I go and will be some little time before I can go. And I don't suppose there need be any great hurry about the matter. Only I think if there is any business to transact that the children should all be there if a final settlement of the estate is to be made. Let that be when it may. Perhaps brother Jim will hold the place until next March but I suppose settlement can be made any time prior to that. All we want is a mutual settlement of the estate.

Well, boys, why can't you come and see Uncle Sam? I have got some fine young mares and horses I would like to have rode. Fred come out and stay with me. I have got a spotted Arabian mare for you. She is wild as a deer and hansome as one. Robby, I have some big Normans. You come out and have one of them. And George, come out and run my big farm for me - a wild horse here for you too. And those big girls come to (too) and you can help herd the boys while they are breaking their horses.

All join in sending love to all

From Sam, Jane & Ella Taylor

Notes:

Sam and Edwin Maxwell Taylor came to Kansas together c1771. They then went back to Iowa to marry childhood  sweethearts. Sam moved after a short stay in Cloud County to Phillips County. The brother and sister referred to are Edwin and Huldah (Beaty) Taylor, of Concordia / Jamestown, Cloud Co, Kansas.

The boys referred to: Fred, Robby, and George were Ed & Hulda's boys. The girls referred to were Aurie (Taylor) McBride and Sara Myrtle (Taylor) McRae.

Another reference here to brother Jim. Aunt Lois remembers an Uncle Jim and Aunt Nan. We have found an 1889 wedding announcement for a James Taylor (without a Jr.) and Nan Jackson. The announcement indicates this was not the first marriage between these families, but I have not found what other marriages may be referred to. We now know that brother Jim and Brainard were the same person: James Brainard Taylor; he was not referred to as James Taylor, Jr.

Another letter showed Phillipsburg, KS as the return address. Sam moved to Phillipsburg after first settling in Logan. Both are in Phillips county, Kansas.

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