Digging once again through Ackley records that I inherited, new information surfaced about the parents and siblings of Elizabeth Taylor (1793-abt 1875), wife of Lot West Ackley (abt 1788-abt 1854).

The new materials are confusing; one list appears to be the wrong Taylors and as I sort through that, the materials I had originally posted are no longer available.

The one sibling who can be traced reliably is the youngest, Abigail (1796-1864). It was her 12-year-old daughter Lura Ann Baker who wrote a letter in 1842 to her Aunt Elizabeth’s daughter Catherine Ackley, then 18. The letter contains clues about the family, and reveals a girl intrigued by the landscape but also missing friends and family from Sand Bank.

“Montrose, Lee Co, Ioway Terr, May 1, 1842 . . . Father has got 80 acres of prairie land 1 mile from Montrose, 11 miles above the junction of the Des Moines [River] with the Mississippi River. The [Mississippi] river is a mile and a half across at Montrose . . . The prairies now look like great meadows covered with grass and flowers of all colors . . . Send me some pinks seed [a flower] and Sweet Williams [a flower] of all sorts and colors . . . We should be very glad to see any of you or any of our neighbors.”