My own dear Ollie…
Correspondence of Oliver Hazard Perry Taylor & Kate (aka Catty) Dewees Taylor:
March 5, 1853 to August 17, 1857
Written by Karen Summers for Fort Walla Walla Museum
A portrait of O.H.P. Taylor.
Oliver Hazard Perry Taylor married Catherine Dewees of Maysville, KY in August 1853. After aa abbreviated life together Ollie was stationed at Ft. Leavenworth, KS while Kate returned to her family home in Maysville, KY. After that time they rarely spent time together, pined for their dreamed of married life, and maintained a faithful correspondence. Delivery time for letters was anywhere from one month to three months.
A letter filled with the excitement of new love was sent by Ollie (Ft. Leavenworth) to his sister, Harriet Saunders, (Boston, MA) on March 5, 1853.
Particularly private & confidential
‘Eureka’! Don’t be too much agitated but I am in earnest & have found her. In saying that she fully realizes all my hopes & wishes you must not suppose I speak wholly from my own partiality. I will quote from other people who have known her as long & perhaps longer than I…. One says “a sweet amiable girl just suited to the Army”. Another, “beautiful but what I like her for she is so good, oh Capt Taylor you don’t know how good she is”.
……She is young amiable lively & has the most bewitching eyes you ever saw in a mortal. I know but little of her acquirements, but phenology & physiognomy are at fault if she does not possess a more than ordinary capacity. …..We have been engaged since the 12th February. deep pure devoted love. I know that I am not mistaken for I have never felt in this way before. ……I strive now to restrain all my feelings except one & this thought that I love her & am trying to render myself worthy of her, quiets my uneasiness when separated from her & gives me sort of calm happy feelings which becomes a species of exultation when I think that she also loves me.
“To Miss Kate
In dreams I think thy form I see,
The music of thy voice I hear,
And Fancy fondly whispers me
That thou art ever near & dear.
My heart has often lightly played
As bee coquets each pretty flower,
At last too near its Fate it strayed
Nor has the will to leave, nor power.
If thou will only think of me
Will sometimes greet me with a smile,
My thoughts shall ever turn to thee,
O! let me love thee then, the while.
My song is sung, forgive the rhyme,
I’ve strived to give thee joy
You said you wished a Valentine
Tis from …….
‘A bold soldier boy’”
Several months before their fall wedding, Kate (Maysville, KY) sent the following to Ollie (Ft. Leavenworth), June 1,1853.
Think of it Olly, how long I will be from my dear mother and the rest of my family, when I leave them, dear Olly. I will in a manner give them up for ever. At least I will never feel so dependent on them for advice and sympathy. It is entirely different a lady and a gentleman leaving their homes. There is so many little ties a gentleman knows nothing about. Olly excuse this, but I can hardly write now for crying. This is the first time I have ever let myself think anything about leaving my dear sweet home. …You must not think I do not love you, it is only because I am so childish; you must forgive me for my great sickness, but I have been so petted and spoiled all my life that now I cannot control my feelings. I cannot write anything more on this subject just now.
Ollie (Ft. Leavenworth) to Kate (Maysville, KY) on June 9, 1854 sent the following letter eleven months after their wedding and the birth of their daughter, Mae.
Dear precious Catty,
Oh darling my heart fairly aches when I look round & see familiar things associated with our dream of happiness…My own precious darling I knew ‘twould be hard to be separated from you but my angel I did not realize, could not, that ‘twas so hard.
Catty I am thinking of you all the time, I take a sort of grim satisfaction in hugging my own misery, getting off by myself & thinking at times darling in the same minute I am very much depressed & then again a feeling of wild delight steals over me when some pleasant thought of you & our mutual happiness comes like a sunbeam struggling through a dark cloud. Dear, dear darling I will come to you as soon as I can, I must or I – never mind – Catty I am giving away too much to my thoughts. I’ll stop God bless you my precious wife & our darling baby.
Sharing his low spirits upon his departure to his new assignment in Ft. Yamhill, OR, Ollie (leaving Ft. Leavenworth in a matter of days) writes the following to Kate (Maysville, KY) on June 22, 1854.
My precious wife
I was made very happy & at the same time very sad this evening on the receipt of two letters from you. I was rejoiced to hear from you but it makes me feel very low spirited when I think of the distance between us & that it will soon be greater.
Dear darling Cathy, this is one of our trials. …..All my ideas of future happiness or bliss are connected with you. You are my guiding star & I feel that to live without you I should be like a traveller(sic) lost in a desert, bewildered & groping about without any aim in life.
A letter written March 31,1857 by Kate (Maysville, KY) to Ollie (Ft. Yamhill, OR) continues an ongoing discussion in regards to Kate and their two children, Mae and William, making the trip west to live together as a family.
O my own dear Ollie you do not know how hard it is for me to give up going. I have lived on the hope of going this spring ever since you left me. All my friend(sic) disapprove of my going. I know it is a very long trip and would be a very great undertaking for me to start with two little babys(sic) – but Ollie if I knew I was going to a place where I could always depend on having you with me – the trip would be nothing - but if you should be ordered off and me be left alone – how badly I would feel – and then my own dear Ollie if anything should happen to you I would be so far from friends. Can I must I give up seeing you for one long year – how long long(sic) it will be. It is very trying. I have been for months getting ready. …..I now feel like all hope is gone. Ollie I have made so many little arrangements about what and how we would do this Summer – but maybe it will all turn out for the best. Ana thinks I ought to stay at home this summer and let Willie get through teething. Ollie I give up a great deal for our dear little (sic) – it is only for their good that I can consent to stay so long. I do wish so much you could see them. …….Oh! They are so sweet I love them for us both. I know you love them but you cannot see any of their sweet little ways that make us all love them.
Aug. 17, 1857 Kate (Lexington, KY) writes to Ollie (possibly at Yamhill, OR). At this point it isn’t clear at which location Ollie is posted. During the winter he would transition to his final posting at Ft. Walla Walla.
My, own, dear. Ollie,
It is fifteen months the 25th of this month since you left me. Did you remember our wedding day. We have been married four years and only been together once in that time on thatday. Then we spent it in a buggy going to and from St. Louis. But never mind Ollie if we have good luck we will spend many wedding days together yet. ………Ollie some days I feel just like you you(sic) were coming. If I should not get a letter Tuesday I should think you were certainly on the way. Ollie you do not know how well I do get along – make the best of everything and am just so happy as a bird only when Willie is sick but think I need not feel anxious about him anymore.
With promises to make the trip west with the children in 1858, Kate continues to share plans and prays that she and Ollie will soon have a home together.
Oliver Hazard Perry Taylor was killed May 17, 1858 at the Battle of Tohotonimme (Steptoe Butte). No evidence was found in the letters transcribed in regards to whether Kate and the children joined him at Ft. Walla Walla.
This is the second installment of three chapters in the life of Oliver Hazard Perry Taylor, as taken from his letters.