Early Life and Education
Born to Margaret Mackall (Smith) and Zachary Taylor, Sarah Knox Taylor grew up some years in military installations. Her father became a general and commanded forts. She received most of her education from her mother. She had three sisters and a brother. Her father was elected later as President of the United States. Sarah was given the nickname "Knoxie", which originated from her middle name and from Ft. Knox II in Vincennes, Indiana, where she was born. In the early 1830s, her father commanded Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and his wife and children were living with him. He was involved in waging the Black Hawk War. At age 17, Sarah fell in love with Jefferson Davis, a recent graduate of the United States Military Academy and a lieutenant, who was second to General Taylor at the fort. Davis was transferred to St. Louis in 1833, yet managed to keep in contact with the woman whom he wished to marry.
Taylor admired Davis for his soldiering skills, but opposed the romantic match. The Taylors' older daughter had already married Army surgeon Robert C. Wood. They were raising three young children in a desolate frontier outpost. Together with their own experience, the Taylors felt that the military life was too hard and did not want Sarah to be an Army wife.
Read more about this topic: Sarah Knox Taylor
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or education:
““next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims” and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn’s early my
country ‘tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jing by gee by gosh by gum”
—E.E. (Edward Estlin)
“The child begins life as a pleasure-seeking animal; his infantile personality is organized around his own appetites and his own body. In the course of his rearing the goal of exclusive pleasure seeking must be modified drastically, the fundamental urges must be subject to the dictates of conscience and society, urges must be capable of postponement and in some instances of renunciation completely.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“Strange as it may seem, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it.”
—Stephen Vizinczey (b. 1933)