This area of Pennsylvania was heavily populated by Scotch-Irish, but this is no guarantee that our Taylor/McClelland ancestors were Scotch-Irish. The area is steeped in history, as it was the center of the French-Indian War of 1754-63. (Fort Duquesne, in the history books was where Pittsburgh is today.) See a history of Beaver County, PA. and also, the history of Pennsylvania.
We believe that Thomas, Nancy / Agnes and family moved to Richland County, Ohio, about 1825. Richland county, Ohio, is almost due West of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and a tad north, about 125 miles by a rough estimate. So, compared to other migrations it wasn't a long one, and was probably done by land over an overland route.
Richland County, Ohio is in the 3rd tier of counties south of Lake Erie in the north central part of Ohio. Thomas appears in the Franklin Township census of 1830, then he, Robert, and James appear in consecutive lines in that township in 1840, and then Thomas disappears in 1850 (he died in 1847), and the three families of Robert, Thomas W., and James appear on consecutive lines in 1850.
Richland County is in NorthCentral Ohio, in third row of counties below Lake Erie. See map here and also here. It was one of the locales in which Johnny Appleseed planted orchards.
He was first married to Elizabeth Bristow in 1833 and had William, George, Margaret Jane, Nancy Ann, John, and Thomas W. at various dates until 1842. His first wife, Elizabeth, died in 1843. We are in contact with a living descendant of this Thomas W. Taylor (not to be confused with his uncle, also Thomas W. Taylor.)
He was then married to Mary Robison in 1844, and had five children with Mary: Elizabeth, Franklin, Marion, David, and Ida May.
Robert is shown in the census still on the farm through the 1880 census, when his son David and daughter, Ida, are shown as being on the farm. Ida married John W. Hafer in the 1880's. Nancy died at a young age, in 1865 and is buried in the family plot in Clay Lutheran Cemetery. David married Mary Bush. David and Mary are shown on the farm through the 1910 census. Then, in 1920, they are shown in town. So, the Taylor farm appears to have been in family hands until at least 1910.
Mary died Oct 18, 1884 at the age of 64. Robert died April 12, 1890, in Richland County, Ohio, at the age of 83.
Barbary must have died sometime before 1855, as he married a lady who's first name was Abigail in 1855. She apparently was married earlier as her name shows in the marriage records as "Mrs. Abigail Osbun". We do not know her maiden name.
He had Cordelia, whose birth is listed in the 1860 census as 1856 and in the 1870 census as 1853. If she was born in 1853, she is possibly a daughter of Barbary, as Robert and Abigail were not yet married. If she was born in 1856, she is most likely a daughter of Abigail. Then, Robert and Abigail had Carrie, b 1859.
Andrew Franklin and Barbary are still shown on the farm in the 1880 census. We then lose track of them. We believe Thomas W. and Abigail died before 1900 and are buried in the town cemetery. We don't know what happened with Andrew and Barbary at this point. Carey and Cordelia are in the 1900 census in Mansfield.
We are indebted to a McClellan researcher through whom we have learned of four letters still in the possession of the family: one from Amy to her sister, and 3 other letters written by Alfretta. Through these letters and the mention in them of Robert and Thomas Wilson's names, we learned that this Johnson Taylor was our Johnson Taylor and also gave us the clue to find Nancy A. (Taylor) White.
Nancy Taylor married John C. White, a neighbor's son, in 1840. They then moved to Huron County, which was wilderness at that time. Huron County is just north of Richland County. They had at Mary b 1842, J. S. White b 1844, Sarah b 1848, and Maggie b 1852. J. S. was a Civil War Veteran. He retired from a successful farming career in the late 1880's to move into town and run for Huron County Auditor. He was the Huron County Auditor for at least two terms in the late 1880's and early 1890's. He married Marrieta Barre in 1869 and had three children: James Edgar, Blanche, and John Gaylord. J. S. became a banker after serving as Huron County auditor, a profession that his son, John Gaylord continued in the same county until his death, in 1937.
We have located an Oliver and Mary Tennis in the 1850 and 1860 census of Beaver County, PA, the PA county from which Thomas and family came in the 1820's. Further, a Samuel Tennis, who we believe is either the father or grandfather of this Oliver was in the South Beaver Township census with Thomas Taylor and family in 1810. We have lost track of this family after the 1860 census. They are not in the PA census in 1870, and we suspect they moved, but know not where at this point.
Her age in these censuses indicate that she is surely the youngest of Thomas Taylor's children, born approximately 1825/6 in Pennsylvania.
Their children listed in those censuses were: Robert b 1846, Martha b 1849, Margan b 1851, Samuel b 1854, and Elizabeth b 1857.
Hopefully, as time goes on we'll learn more about this branch of our family.
Following is a time-line, mixing events of the family with events of our country's history:
1836.. Remember
The Alamo. Texas becomes an Independent Republic. Texas remained an
independent country for 10 years.
1841.. Col
John C. Fremont begins his expeditions of the West. He becomes a figure
akin to current day astronauts or Charles Lindbergh in our century. The
number of placenames named after him in the west, from parks to schools,
to mountains to streets rivals Washington's. He figured prominently in
the taking of California from the Mexicans during the Mexican-American
war
1843.. James Taylor and Sarah McCart marry.
1844.. James Polk was President from 1844-1848.
1846.. Polk annexes Texas, starting The Mexican-American
War where the United States "appropriated"the southwestern states,
from Texas to California. The Mexicans objected to President Polk annexing
Texas, and ended up losing California and more.
1846-47.. The Donnor
Party perished in the California Sierra's in the winter of 46-47.
1847.. Samuel Taylor, Phillipsburg, KS pioneer, born.
1848.. Iowa was admitted as a state in 1848.
1848.. Zachary Taylor, Mexican-American war hero, was elected President
in 1848.
1848.. Edwin Maxwell Taylor, Kansas Pioneer, is born.
1849.. The California Gold Rush.
1856.. John C. Fremont is the first candidate for the new Republican
party, paving the way for Lincoln to run, and win, as a Republican in 1860.
Then, Fremont is one of the many generals Lincoln "fires", as Fremont issued
an Emancipation Proclamation of his own in Missouri, not only on his own
without Lincoln's approval, but "jumping the gun", as Lincoln considered
it.
1856.. The James Taylor family pickup and move from Ohio to a farm
near Keota, IA, in Washington County, Iowa.
1860.. The Civil War
See the time-line biography of Thomas Taylor (Ohio Pioneer in the 1820's).
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