In Search of the Elusive Clara

The name Clara A Taylor in the previous article was supplied along with her dates as a director from a very reliable source. Initially researchers looked at a Clara Arletta Bragonier Taylor (1856-1946). She lived in the State of Pennsylvania, but had a husband who was a railway man and also had children. It seemed strange that this Clara would work in Bible House for so long without mention of other family members. I managed to make contact with descendants of this Clara, some of whom remembered her in person, but had no knowledge whatsoever of any WT connections.

Then I went to the trial transcript for the 1906 divorce/separation hearing. And there was our Clara – as a witness. And she was single. Taylor was not a married name. As the article describes, she worked in the Bible House before Maria left, and she knew Ernest Henninges and others. Crucially, she was there in 1897 but not in 1896, and didn’t live in the Bible House under normal circumstances. She was also still around in 1906 when the hearing took place, and is in group photographs from 1906/07. And they show a much younger person than one would expect for the above mentioned Mrs Clara  A B Taylor.

Perhaps our Clara got married? Could that be why the name Taylor disappears from the record? Checking sources from that era, there was a Clara Phillips who wrote in to say that she had taken “The Vow” in the August 15, 1908 WT. No connection could be found. And when they moved to Brooklyn, the 1910 census had a Clara Tomkins working at the new headquarters. However, Menta Sturgeon’s testimony in a 1913 hearing (the “Miracle Wheat” case) showed that this Clara was also single, so again there was no connection.

And there are a great number of Clara Taylors in the records for that time.

The only recourse possibly left that I can think of, is to check the death notices in the Bible Student publications over the decades since then. They tended to record the death of anyone once connected with any branch of Bible Students, including those who stayed with the Watch Tower Society. But life is too short. I wave a white flag and leave that task to others.