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    "localId": "170103821",
    "label": "Report from Special Agent James H. Griffith",
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    "id": "170103821",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report from Special Agent James H. Griffith",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 22,
            "logicalDate": "1952-07-22",
            "month": 7,
            "year": 1952
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{
    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602208/976342/976342-02-002.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "CO-1-3264\n-2-\nThe reporting Special Agent, during the interview with Judge Embrey, attempted to\nexpand upon the information contained in the Judge's original letter to the President,\nand it was the thought of the reporting Agent that the Judge showed reluctance to pur-\nsue the subject. Aside from showing the sale and purchase of land by Pershore and So-\nlan Taylor in periods ranging from 1901 to 1913, little information was obtained. The\nJudge remarked that Solan Taylor had once owned a small piece of property south of\nFredericksburg.\nMr. c. S. Hunter, Postmaster, Fredericksburg, Virginia, was interviewed on July\n2, 1952. Mr. Hunter stated that he has been in the Fredericksburg Post Office nearly\n40 years and vaguely recalled that Solan Taylor had been a mail carrier there. On\nchecking his records, Mr. Hunter disclosed that Solan Taylor was appointed rural mail\ncarrier on May 16, 1907, and resigned on October 14, 1916. Mr. Hunter referred the\nreporting Special Agent to Sonny L. Powell, retired mail carrier, who was associated\nwith Solan Taylor.\nSonny L. Powell, who is 75 years of age, was interviewed at his home, five miles\nwest of Fredericksburg on the Culpeper Pike. Mr. Powell readily recalled the Taylor\nfamily and particularly Solan Taylor. He stated that all of the Taylors, except Solan,\nhad\nmoved\nto Washington, D. C., some time before Solan resigned from the Post Office.\nSolan married a woman named Ruth Chewning and shortly afterward moved to the West Coast.\nMr.\nPowell\nsaid\nthat he understood that Solan died shortly after going West, and that\nhis\nwidow had remarried and is still living, probably in California. Mr. Powell said\nthat the Taylors kept to themselves and had no close friends in the neighborhood.\nMr. E. 0. Pates, 73 years of age, a retired farmer, of Five Mile Forks, Virginia,\nwas interviewed on July 2, 1952, in regard to the Taylor family. Mr. Pates stated that\nhe\nwas fairly well acquainted with the Taylors and recalled that, in addition to the\nsenior Taylor, who was named George, the sons and daughters included Pershore, James\nHenry,\nSolan, Blanche, and Marie. He stated that all of the family, except Solan, had\nmoved to Washington, D. C., probably more than 40 years ago, and he believed all of\nthem were now deceased. He was of the opinion that all of the family, except Solan,\nwere buried in the Salem Church Cemetery on the Culpeper Pike, west of Fredericksburg.\nMr. Pates said that he believed Solan's wife was still alive, and stated that she had\na sister, Mrs. Lizzie Kube, living in Fredericksburg, who might give further informa-\ntion.\nMrs. Ethel C. Kube, 179 Mansfield Street, Sylvania Heights, Virginia, was inter-\nviewed on July 2, 1952. Mrs. Kube stated that her older sister, Ruth Chewning, had\nmarried Solan Taylor about 40 years ago and had moved west where Solan had died shortly\nafter. She said her sister is remarried and is now Mrs. Benjamin Kirk, 11402 East\nFairview Avenue, El Monte, California, (as of December 21, 1950). Mrs. Kube was\nquestioned concerning any possible knowledge she might have of a china set belonging\nto the Taylor family, but she could recall nothing, as she had been very small when\nthe Taylor family lived at Fredericksburg,\nA stop was made at the Salem Church Cemetery. The Salem Baptist Church, histor-\nically famous, was built in 1844 and was immortalized as the scene of the final action\nin the battle of Chancellorsville, May 3-4, 1863, fought between General Robert E. Lee\nand General 'Fightin' Joe\" Hooker."
}