Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-03-25
MOSES TAYLoR's WIDOW.

Her One Remarkable Whim Of Extrava-
pance Diagnosed by Correspondent.
Tbere is a wealthy New York widow who
has a church and a chaplain OF her oWn'
,,,rites a New York correspondent. She is
Mrs Moses TAYLOR. The church was built
bv her at Long Branch at a cost Of about
$4,000. II is Presbyterian, and there IS
nominal board Of trustees, but Mrs Taylor
maid every dollar Of the cost and IS the
owner outright. 1t is an ornate editce, and
one of it's features is memorial stained
glass window inscribed to her dead hus-
band. "Blessed are they that die IN the
Lord" it says. The sinner might add tnat
tbev are considerably blest who live possess
ors of the enormous wealth accumulated by
Moses TAYLOR. He was rather loose and
LUXURIOUS in his earthly methods of blessed
ness, but he professed Christianity little
while before he died, and so the witness Of
the window is not TO be impeached. Mrs.
Taylor's chaplain is Rev. j. II. Young, who
conducts the services in the church during
the summer months, but it is at her COM
mand the year round, for she pays his sal
ary Of $500 out of her own pocket This
religious, benevolent and amiable lady does
not put on airs over being the richest widow
in America The fact is, she and every
body else were astonished by the amount
of fortune left to her. One of the execu-
tors Of the will has just been telling me
about it, The document did not enumerate
the testator's possessions, but merely
Jumped the personal property, " consisting
of bonds, stocks and other securities The
general impression had been that Taylor
was worth fifteen to twenty millions. He
had made a great property by i'm
porting foreign goods in his own
ships, but as to his investments he had
never been communicative. On an ap-
pointed day the widow and the executors
opened the doors of the particularly soliG
vault which the old man had built into mis-
office. This structure was bank-lilke in vul-
nerability, and the investigators expected
to find the proofs of ownership to the ex-
tent of many millionssin it. But they were
not prepared for what they found. The in
nermost compartment was large enough to
hold certificates of stock and the like Sc
clrities without folding. There was high
stack of these papeFs, lying nearly top Of
one another, unwrinl1led and increased
They represented Taylor's investments in
hundreds of railroads, banks, insurance
companies and all manner of the soundest
financial ventures. The amazed finders of
this store of wealth handled them over in a
half-dazed way for an hour or two. Then
they set about making an inventory. When
they came to add the totals it was seen that
the market value of the lot was about thirty
millions, and when other property was
added to this the aggregate reached forty
millions, or more than double the current
estimate. Taylor had disliked to figure as
a superlatively rich man, and, therefore,
without any of the miser's instinct, had
concealed the facts from even his most in
innate friends. AS to the widow and
heiress, she denies herself nothing that her
fancy demands, but she is as unostenta-
tious as her late husband, and her indul-
gence in a church and chaplain of her own
| constitutes her one remarkable whim Of ex-
traVaPance