Mary L. [Cook] Taylor was a dressmaker and entrepreneur in Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania from at least as early as 1940 and continuing into the mid 1970s. She was born September 3, 1910, in Elizabethville, the daughter of George Cook (1883-1950) and Sallie Verdille [Snodgrass] Cook (1877-1958). She was married to Sherman A. Taylor (1904-1970) and with him had one son, Eugene S. Taylor. While additional research needs to be done on her career, a preliminary analysis indicates that she has not been given credit for the full length of time that she operated a business in Elizabethville.
An advertisement that appeared in the Elizabethville Echo, December 20, 1956, showing that Mary Taylor was operating a dress shop from her home at 78 Vine Street, Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
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Previously, on November 8, 1956, Mrs. Taylor posted a notice in the Echo, indicating that her new line of dresses was available – and she invited the ladies to see the new stock at her 78 Vine Street address.
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However, in checking the 1940 Census, Mary Taylor and her husband, Sherman Taylor, were living in the household of Mary’s mother, Sallie V. [Snodgrass] Cook on South Market Street, Elizabethville. Mary gave her occupation as “Seamstress – Own Home,” indicating that she was working for herself, not one of the many garment factories in the area.
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In the 1950 Census, Mary and her husband Sherman (and mother-in-law Sallie Cook) are located at 78 Vine Street, Elizabethville, and Mary’s occupation is again given as “Seamstress – Dress Making” She also noted that this was her own business and she was not working for anyone but herself.
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Sallie Cook died on November 27, 1958. Two years earlier, Mary Taylor had started advertising in the Elizabethville Echo.
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The first advertisement for Mary Taylor‘s new location at 25 S. Market Street, Elizabethville, was in the Elizabethville Echo, December 8, 1960, and is shown above. “Mary Taylor Invites You To Visit Her NEW DRESS SHOP….”
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Mary Taylor continued to advertise in the Echo until it ceased publication. Then she advertised in the Lykens Standard, starting on July 28, 1966, with ads appearing up to November 4, 1971:
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The Elizabethville Bicentennial Book, published in 2017, gave the following statement about the Mary Taylor Dress Shop (p. 101):
TAYLOR DRESS SHOP, located at 25 S. Market Street, was opened by Mary L. Taylor on December 3, 1960. A full line of ladies’ apparel, costume jewelry, and similar articles were sold. The store closed in the mid-1970s.
Technically, the statement in the book is true – pertaining to the South Market Street location. However, what the book fails to mention is that Mary Taylor was in business for herself as a dressmaker as early as 1940 (per the census), continued in the dressmaking business in 1950 (per the census), and operated a store in her home on Vine Street as early as 1956 (per ads and notices in the Elizabethville Echo).
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Mary L. [Cook] Taylor died on May 29, 1999. Her obituary appeared in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, March 31, 1999:
MARY L TAYLOR, 88, TOUR GUIDE FOR SENIORS
ELIZABETHVILLE — Mary L. Cook Taylor , a retired dress-shop operator and a founder of the Senior Citizens Club here, has died.
She retired as owner/operator of the Mary Taylor Dress Shop here; was a charter member, co-founder and past president and a former tour guide of the Elizabethville Senior Citizens Club; and a former officer of the local Democratic organization.
‘She was a very likable person, very pleasant to be around,’ said Hester Deibler of Elizabethville, a friend and fellow Senior Citizens Club member. ‘She ran the [club’s] bus trips. We went to Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts, Tennessee, South Carolina, for a week at a time, and took a lot of day trips, too.’
Taylor, 88, formerly of 78 Vine St., [Elizabethville] died Monday in Manor Care Health Services, Lower Paxton Township, [Dauphin County, Pennsylvania].
She was the widow of Sherman A. Taylor. Surviving are a son, Eugene Taylor of Elizabethville; two sisters, Eleanor Lisi of Millersburg and Faye Cooper of Harrisburg; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in Hoover Funeral Home, Elizabethville. Burial will be in Maple Grove Cemetery.
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Ads obtained through Newspapers.com. Census information from Ancestry.com. Obituary from the on-line resources of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.
Thank you for honoring my grandmother! She was way ahead of her time and honestly never got credit for it until now.