To: The Sasser List From: Glenn E. Perry Someone recently asked about the reasons so many of Henry Sasser's descendants migrated to places such as Oklahoma. In the case of my great grandparents, Susan Sasser Taylor (daughter of Jesse) and Isaac Taylor, the destination was Nebraska--in 1911. It may seem odd that they left home at their age--when he was about 61 years old and she was about 54. Three of their children were already grown up, although one of them--Nan and her husband, John Hale--at some point also moved to Nebraska. Their youngest child--Rebecca, who, as I once heard, rode behind her mother on the horse as they left Blackwater to board the train at London--went with them in 1911. As for the reasons for this move, I have heard that they had "friends" who already had gone to Nebraska. Presumably the availability of land there had attracted such people, thus confirming the economic explanation which one member of our list has said is the reason for migration. But the story of Isaac and Susan shows how people with diverse, non-economic reasons for leaving followed in the footsteps of the others. Maybe I shouldn't be so compulsive about telling the truth in such a case as this, but the story has been handed down to me that my great granfather left to avoid being arrested and prosecuted. He had testified in a court case involving--what else for a Taylor?--land. I understand that his son, my grandfather (Claiborn), was a party to the dispute. I suppose there are court records that would further elucidate the story. Anyway, my great grandfather was accused of going beyond the truth in some of his testimony, which I guess means he was about to be charged with perjury. (Lest anyone take this as a basis for questioning the veracity of any of the traditions from earlier generations that I have related, I hasten to point out that all of them came via my great grandmother, not the person who was so accused--if only in this one instance--of stretching the truth, and in any case no claims to land depend of the acceptance of stories that I pass on.) My understanding is that Isaac left to avoid having the warrant served and came back for the family after the situation had cooled down a bit. Eventually he and Susan came back home for extended visits, even once spending a couple of years with their son Claiborn. But both died in Nebraska--he in the 1930s and she living until 1954. A special irony is that this man for whom--like others in his family--land was such an obsession was reduced to renting a farm in Nebraska. I hear nevertheless the two were able to save $10,000. Before leaving Blackwater, Isaac and Susan lived across the bottom--close to the foot of the other hill--from Henry Sasser's.grave Their house later burned down, my mother tells me. Now a nice, partly log house (or possibly several separate buildings?) is located at that spot. Does anybody know who lives there? I suspect that this is the very spot where Henry Sasser's house was located and even that Isaac and Susan lived in Henry's house(?). This is hardly more than a stone's throw from where my grandparents lived and where my mother was born, and that in turn is almost as close to the spot where Jesse and Nancy lived further up the road. Only recently have I realized that it was the Sasser--not the Taylor--connection that pulled my grandparents to that place. The Taylor connection at Blackwater was further down the road, near the place the Taylor Graveyard is located, and in any case Isaac--like me much later--grew up across the hill on Big Richland Creek, in Knox County. Isaac obviously remained in spirit where he lived as a child. There is an oft-repeated story about him as he was feverish and lay dying. In this delirous condition, he believed that he was on Bull Creek (the tributary of Goose Creek that lies just across another hill from Big Richland--and across two hills from Blackwater). "We'll just go across that hill, Susan," he insisted, "and we'll be in Pap's [Claiborn Taylor, b. 1823] old chip yard." That, I guess, was the same chip yard where I played and sometimes tried to chop a little firewood when I was a little boy. ***************************************** Glenn E. Perry Department of Political Science Indiana State University Terre Haute, IN 47809 USA E-Mail: psperrg@scifac.indstate.edu (812)237-2505 (office) (812)234-5661 (home) ****************************************