William Richard Taylor Taliaferro

William Richard Taylor and Alice Taylor Taliaferro
 

by Margaret Strebel Hartman-Campbell County Historian and the Taliaferro family files at the Campbell County Historical & Genealogical Society in Alexandria.
 

            William Richard Taylor Taliaferro, Richard as he is so often referred to in the records of Campbell County, was born November 8, 1802 in Caroline County, Virginia, the son of Richard Taliaferro and Anna Hubbard Taylor and died in Highland Heights January 17, 1893.  He moved to Kentucky with his mother and siblings in 1812 and settled near Newport.  For a time their home was a popular preaching place for the circuit preacher till the Old Buckeye School house was built.

On April 21, 1824 he married his cousin, Alice Berry, the daughter of Washington and Alice Taylor Berry.  A home was built by slaves in 1830 for them in Ft. Thomas which still stands today. She died March 18, 1838.  On April 16, 1840, William Richard married Harriet Louisa McGrew, daughter of Thomas McGrew. Harriett died 1 Mar 1847.  Richard then married Cassandra (Paulding) Stiff, a widow, in July of 1850. She was born in 1826 in Kentucky, the daughter of Elizabeth Paulding, and died 8 Aug 1892 and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

Children of William Richard Taliaferro and Alice Berry

1. James Richard Taliaferro b-1829 in Highland
2. John Taylor Taliaferro b-1830 in Highland
3. Alice W Taliaferro b-1832 in Highland
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Children of William Richard Taylor Taliaferro and Harriet McGrew

1. William Richard Taliaferro Jr. b-1840 in Highland
2. Lydia Belle Taliaferro b-Oct 1843 in Highland; married William Wright Southgate; d-April 1931 in Orlando Florida; br-Evergreen
3. Thomas F Taliaferro b-1 Mar 1847 in Dayton; m-Mary J Summers 30 Oct 1872; became a Methodist minister
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Children of William Richard Taylor and Cassandra Paulding

1. Mary Elizabeth Taliaferro b-14 Sep 1850 in Jamestown; d-25 Feb 1950 in Ft Thomas; br-Evergreen; m-Caleb Ives
2. Laura E Taliaferro b-1854 in Jamestown
3. Edward Kavanaugh Taliaferro b-17 Oct 1855 in Mt Pleasant; d-26 Apr 1944 in Ft Thomas; m-Florence Hills 1 Feb 1900
4. Emma Taliaferro b-1858 in Jamestown
5. Charles Robert Taliaferro b-6 Nov 1861 in Highland; d-5 Jan 1911 in Dayton; br-Evergreen
6. Estella Lee Taliaferro b-4 June 1864 in Highland; m-Fred N Gordon; d-23 June 1943 in Ft Thomas; br-Evergreen
7. Emma M Taliaferro m-Webster
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Children of Edward Kavanaugh Taliaferro and Florence Hills

1. Ernestine Elizabeth Taliaferro b-22 Dec 1900 in the Highlands; d-29 July 1982 in Cincinnati; br-Evergreen Cemetery; never married
2. Cassandra Taliaferro b-7 June 1903 in Ft Thomas; m-1 Thornton Sinclair; 2-Charles J Brick; 3-Seaman; d-New York
3. Mary Vaida Taliaferro b-17 Sep 1908; m-John Weber in Ft Thomas
4. William Richard Taliaferro b-26 July 1910 in Ft Thomas
5. Louise Gibson Taliaferro b-5 Feb 1914 in Ft Thomas
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Children of Lydia Belle Taliaferro and William Wright Southgate

1. Eva H Southgate b-1868 in Highland
2. Harriet D Southgate b-Apr 1869 in Highland; m-Weiner; 2-George B Usner
3. Katie Southgate b-1871 in Highland
4. Richard Taylor Southgate b-25 June 1873 in Highland; d-12 May 1930 in Ft Thomas
5. Gertrude Southgate b-1875 in Highland
6. Lydia Belle Southgate b-June 1877 in Highland
7. Lucia Wilomine Southgate b-17 Nov 1880 in Highland; d-20 Feb 1969 in Orlando Florida; never married
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William Richard Taliaferro was a charter member of the Mt. Pleasant Church which was organized in his home in the 1830s. Their home was built by slaves in 1830 and still stands today on Ft Thomas Avenue in Ft Thomas.

Nathaniel Southgate Shaler referred to Richard Taliaferro in his autobiography.

"From the many sturdy old men who were about me in my youth, I had many stories of the pioneer stages of the settlement of Northern Kentucky and the neighboring parts of Ohio.  I remember best a certain Richard Taliaferro, a remote kinsman, a very gentle giant, who as a lad of fifteen had captained a party of women, children and some slaves from eastern Virginia to their destination on the Kentucky shore just above Cincinnati.  They traveled by horse and wagon to the Monongahela River and then built a broad horn on which they floated down the Ohio, seeking for the sign of their landing place, a white flag on a tree-top.  They found it and established nearby the home of his long life.  When I last saw him about 1888, he showed me over the place.  Of his house, which he dearly loved, he said, 'Here were raised eighteen children and there never was a quarrel among them.'  He was himself the
embodiment of peace."

William Richard Taylor Taliaferro died 17 Jan 1893 in Highland and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate.

 

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