I can walk you to Anderson Wright's gravesite in a northeast section of the Chariton Cemetery. But there is no tombstone and for that, and other reasons, it can't be guaranteed that Anderson Taylor isn't buried there instead.
Anderson Wright --- or Taylor --- was in his late 30s when he died of a heart ailment on Feb. 14, 1902, and The Chariton Democrat of Feb. 20 reported his death as Anderson Taylor.
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Anderson Taylor (colored) died at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Shelton in this city on Friday evening, February 14, 1902, after an illness of about two weeks with dropsy and heart trouble. Funeral services conducted by Rev. W. H. Kephart were held at the Shelton home on Sunday afternoon at two o'clock after which the remains were interred in the Chariton cemetery. The floral emblems were profuse and beautiful and bore testimony to the high regard of many friends.
For many years, he had resided in Chariton and for some time was employed by the Improvement Association. He was a most faithful and efficient employee and his place will be hard to fill. The streets were kept clean and neat and our citizens hardly realized how much they were indebted to Anderson Taylor. He was quiet and industrious and was esteemed by all who knew him. He had a large circle of warm friends who deplore his death.
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The Chariton Herald, published on the same date, also reported the death of Anderson Taylor:
Anderson Taylor died Saturday morning after a brief illness from dropsical trouble. Funeral services were held Sunday afternoon, interment in the Chariton cemetery. Mr. Taylor had been a faithful employee of the City Improvement Association for some time, and was a popular young man in colored circles. He had no relatives here and roomed on the west side of the square with Manuel Spears, who cared for him during his illness. Funeral services were conducted by the Latter Day Saints, to which organization his people belonged.
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But The Chariton Patriot, published like The Democrat and The Herald on Feb. 12, reported the death of Anderson Wright:
Died, Friday, Feb. 14, 1902, at 8:30 o'clock p.m. at the home of Mrs. M.A. Shelton in this city, Anderson Wright (colored), after an illness of two weeks with dropsy of the heart. Funeral services were held from the Shelton home Sunday at 3 o'clock p.m. conducted by an Advent minister from Lucas and his remains were interred in the Chariton cemetery. The funeral was attended by a number of Chariton's best citizens, who manifested their respect for the deceased by bringing flowers and extending other little courtesies. When Mr. Wright was taken sick, kind white friends for whom he had worked had him removed to the Shelton home, where Mrs. Shelton cared for him as for a son, and his every want was supplied.
For over two years, Mr. Wright had been a faithful employee of the Chariton Improvement Association and kept the public square and adjoining streets clean of debris and looking neat and clean. He was an industrious law abiding citizen and had many friends among the citizens of Chariton who will mourn his death.
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The Chariton Improvement Association, led by the redoubtable Jessie Mallory Thayer and her mother, Annie, had been organized some years earlier by prominent women of Chariton who had become frustrated because the males in charge of city governance at the time had little interest in such things as clean streets, public sidewalks, parks and general maintenance.
So once organized, they raised funds to handle some of these issues themselves and to lobby for attention to others that required public expenditure.
They employed Anderson, as well as Emanuel Spears, with whom Anderson was living when he became critically ill.
The Patriot of July 12, 1900, reporting the aftermath of the city's annual July 4th celebration, noted that these events in previous years had left behind a mess, including "unsightly and health-endangering heaps" of garbage.
"The Chariton Improvement Association has happily changed all of this," The Patriot reported. "Following the noisy explosion of the last 'cracker' on the 4th came an employee of the Association in the person of Anderson Taylor who in a few hours worked a complete transformation. For all this, and more, the public spirited ladies of Chariton, who have stimulated the spirit of village improvement and given it practical expression by an efficient organization are entitled to the most generous commendation."
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Anderson appears first in Lucas County records during 1880 when he was enumerated in the English Township household of Clark and Milley Taylor who were farming due north of Chariton. They had a daughter, Belle, age 8, and next-door as a separate household, two "sons" --- Edward and Anderson Wright. Anderson's age was given as 16. It seems likely that these were Milley Taylor's sons from a previous marriage.
The Chariton Patriot of Jan. 3, 1883, reported that "Clark Taylor (colored) died last week after a few days illness."
At about that time, Alfred and Amanda Wright brought their large family north from Lexington, Missouri, and settled on a farm that may have been available because of Clark Taylor's death.
When the 1895 state census of Lucas County was taken, Anderson Taylor, age 33 and a farmer, was living alone next-door to the Alfred Wright family in English Township.
So it would appear that Anderson used both surnames at various times. I'm guessing that "Wright" was the name at birth and "Taylor," adopted in honor of his stepfather. But it seems unlikely we'll ever know for sure.
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The entire Wright family, including Anderson, was affiliated with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), now Community of Christ. W. H. Kephart, who conducted Anderson's funeral service, was an RLDS minister.
Chariton Cemetery records give Anderson's surname as "Wright" and show that Alfred Wright, identified as a cousin, made the arrangements needed to bury him on the Wright family lot where his remains rest today with nothing to mark their location or to tell us which of his two surnames he preferred --- and why.
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