MABEL SHURTLEFF TAGGART 1874 - 1962

Mabel Shurtleff Taggart was the daughter of Albert Dewey and Ophelia Stoddard Shurtleff. She was born May 31, 1874 in Farmington, Utah. She was the oldest in a family of six children. Her family came to Morgan to live in 1880 when her father purchased a farm in Stoddard, Morgan County. For a time here father managed the post office in Morgan. Some years later Mabel's family moved to live in Ogden, Utah, where she attended school through the eighth grade.

Mabel married George Albert Taggart on April 5, 1894 in Morgan, Utah. The marriage was solemnized in the Salt Lake Temple in January 1895. She spent all of her married life living in Morgan. Mabel's life centered around her home and children. She was an excellent wife and mother, and a constant help to her husband in caring for their young family of eleven children while George took part in public duties. As the children grew old enough to be of help she urged them on to do their part for their church and community, and admonished them to live clean, honest, honorable lives.

In her eighties Mabel still did her own housework and loved to read every day. She was an avid reader, and said she loved to read "anything she could get her hands on."

During the last years of her life, Mabel's younger sister, Laura Shurtleff Eddington, lived right around the corner from Mabel in South Morgan, and rarely a day went by that the sisters did not visit each other. Mabel's oldest daughter, Jessie T. Francis, also had a very close association with her mother and always made it a point to give a daily phone call or pay a visit. Mabel was a sweet, delightful personal who was loved by all who knew her.

Mabel Shurtleff Taggart died on May 8, 1962 in Morgan, Utah and was buried there at the South Morgan Cemetery.