Dear Sharon,

I'm sorry to hear that your Dad is in bad health and hope he is improving.

Franklin Pierce Gorham was born about 1851 in Kentucky. Family story has it that he ran away from home at some point, but whether this home was in Kentucky, Arkansas, or elsewhere I do not know. I also do not know whether that story is true because it closely reflects another family story. At any rate, Franklin went to work for my g-g-grandfather William Wesley Taylor in Strawberry, Lawrence, AR. He subsequently married William Wesley Taylor and Francis Elvira Gibson's oldest daughter and child Sarah Ann Taylor (b. 1858 Strawberry, Lawrence, AR; d. 1934, Slidell, Wise, TX). They moved with her parents and siblings in the late 1870s to Texas, first to Denton, where they stayed a short while, then to Wise. By the late 1890s they were in Greer; then they went to Chamal in 1903.

I have communicated with Ana Gorham Maki and Jack Burke (also a Gorham descendant) and have some further information, but none of us has yet tracked down Franklin Pierce's parents. I'm still working on it. I haven't looked at Jack's tree in a while, but I think we've still got several holes where some of FP and SA's children are concerned, so anything you have on your branch of the family is much appreciated, even if the information may be repeated from what we already have--every source is helpful. Any descriptions you have about your grandparents and parents, letters from them and to them to their siblings and mother, birth dates, marriage dates, death dates, burial locations, migrations, children--all that type of stuff.

The Gorhams went to North Powder, Oregon, after they evacuated Chamal in 1913, but they continued to pay taxes on their Chamal property, and it was on one of these tax-paying excursions in 1919 that Franklin Pierce was robbed and visciously murdered by Mexican bandits. One of his sons, Josh, I THINK, went with him and died there of disease. I suspect, but cannot prove, that Josh, or the son, died of Spanish influenza because it had just hit the North Powder area about the time they made their trip south. Franklin is buried in the Chamal cemetery. The son is probably also buried there. Sarah returned to Chamal in the early 1920s and continued to live there. She received less than 10% of what she claimed was lost owing to the Revolution from the U. S. government and had to wait about 20 years to get that. She was poor and worked hard most of her life, especially after they lost everything in Chamal.

I don't know whether Sarah had returned to Wise County, TX, in 1934 or whether she was simply visiting family there when she died.

Hope this provides you with some new information. I still need to get all my Gorham information from Jack and Ana, as well as my own research, into shape. Anything you can add, as said above, is much appreciated. Will send more info to you directly when I get my stuff in shape. Please send me a direct e-mail at KJTHerrick@aol.com.

Oh yes, I'm descended from WW and FEG Taylor's youngest son, Ashley Taylor (1880 Wise-1963 Chamal) and Silva Penix (1887 Denton-1971 Chamal) (both original Chamal colonists) through their second oldest son and child Glenn Allen Taylor and his wife Renetta Turner Taylor (both first-generation Chamal descendants, b. 1910 and 1913, respectively, in Chamal, still living, now in Katy, TX), through their oldest child and only son Glenn Allen Taylor, Jr. (born Chamal 1939, died Houston, Harris, TX 1995) and his wife Ruth Arlean Whitenton. I'm second-oldest of four. So, I'm a cousin of some sort to you and your Dad. Take care and please give my best to your Dad and the rest of your family, Kimberly