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The Histories of the Children of Thomas Taylor

From Pennsylvania to Ohio to Iowa

Thomas and Nancy / Agnes (McClelland) Taylor spent at least that part of their married life before moving to Ohio in Beaver County, PA, probably at least from 1800-1825. It is just to the northwest of the metropolitan area of Pittsurgh, PA today, in the far western part of the state. (See Map). This, no doubt was very rural country back then, however. The biography of James Taylor says the parents of James were natives of that state, they may have been natives of Beaver County.

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.

We are indebted to McClellan researchers who have made available to us four letters written by the wife and daughter of Johnson Taylor, indicating that there were a total of sixteen children. One of the letters, dated 1895, mentions that Johnson was the last of sixteen children to be living at that date.

See the Will of Thomas Taylor


Samuel Taylor

I am guessing Samuel Taylor was the oldest son, as he was named the executor of Thomas Taylor's will and was to farm the farm until the wife of Thomas died. We don't know much about Samuel Taylor at this point, but are guessing that he was single. The main reason for this guess is that the inscription on his tombstone said "Son of Thomas and Nancy", not "Husband of so and so". He died on July 13, 1849. There is a certain degree of uncertainty about whether he was unmarried, however, as there were several Samuel Taylor's in Richland County, and it is hard to exclude our Samuel from being one of the married ones. We have a list of persons who received a share of his estate, and there were 15 people listed, including 3 in-laws. If he had not been married (and no single female is listed with a Taylor surname) and there is no extended family here, that would indicate 12 brothers and sisters alive at the time of his death. (Note, there were 13 heirs to his father's estate, but we have no names.)


Alexander Taylor

The only thing we know about Alexander at this point is that he was listed in his father's will, died in 1855, and is buried in the family plot in Clay Lutheran Cemetery, Richland Co, Ohio, with his parents. We suspect he was not married because he was buried in the Taylor plot without anyone else associated with him (ie stones saying w/o Alexander, s/o of Alexander, etc.), but that is speculation at this point.


Robert Taylor

Robert Taylor was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania in 1807, according to Graham's History of Richland County, Ohio. He was married twice, having 11 children, and lived in Richland County his whole life. He died on April 12, 1890 at the age of 83, and was buried in the family plot with his second wife, Mary, and his mom and dad and two brothers, Sam and Alexander.

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.


James Taylor

James Taylor was born in Beaver County, PA in 1811, and, according to his biography, was mostly raised in Richland Co, Ohio. He married Sarah McCart in 1843, and moved to Iowa in 1856. See the Biography of James Taylor.


Thomas W. Taylor

Thomas W. Taylor first appears on his own in the 1850 census with wife Barbary (Walkup) and their two children, Barbary E., b 1844 and Andrew Frank, b 1849. Thomas W. was born in 1815 in Pennsylvania, calculated from census records.

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.


Johnson Taylor

Johnson Taylor, born in 1823 in Beaver County, PA, married Emma, also known as Amy, McClellan. They had a daughter, Alfretta, who married William Leonard. William's brother, Charles Leonard, was staying with the family in the 1880 census. Graham's History of Richland County relates that Charles Leonard was mysteriously murdered in 1881 at the age of 20, and the mystery had not been solved at the time Graham's History was printed. William and Alfretta had a son, William F. Leonard in 1878. Johnson Taylor appears to have worked in town most of his life.

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 A. (Taylor) and John C. White

We first learn of the existence of this daughter from an 1895 letter provided to us by a McClelland researcher from the daughter of Johnson Taylor to a McClelland aunt in Illinois. In it, she mentions that Johnson had just returned from Norwalk, Huron Co, OH, to attend his sister's funeral. In researching in Huron Co, we find a John C. and Nancy (Taylor) White, which matches the names of a couple listed in Samuel Taylor's list of beneficiaries to his will. This, matched with the fact that John C.'s dad was in the same township in Richland Co, OH in 1830, indicates that this couple is a sibling of Samuel, and thus a child of Thomas.

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.


Mary (Taylor) and Oliver Tennis

We first learn of the existence of this daughter of Thomas from the list of beneficiaries to her brothers's estate. We believe that Samuel died intestate (without a will). We know that some of the beneficiaries are siblings. Under the laws of succession in Ohio at the time, it would thus follow that all the beneficiaries of his estate would be siblings. We find in that list Oliver and Mary Tennis.

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.


The Other Children

Other siblings of Samuel, and thus children of Thomas Taylor, listed in his beneficiary list are: J. M., John, Milo, Ann (Taylor) Robertson (husband: James C. Robertson), Jane (Taylor) Strong (husband: Thomas Strong). We know nothing more about them than their names at this point, plus guesses on their birthdates, based on census records. All would have been born before 1825. According to a letter from Amy (McClelland) Taylor, wife of Johnson Taylor, he was one of 16 children. If this is true, and census records, although not exact, seem to bear this out; there are an additional three children, who probably died at a young age. They, at least, died before Sam died, or they would have been on his beneficiary list.


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



Related Links
 
See the time-line biography of Thomas Taylor (Ohio Pioneer in the 1820's).

Richland Co, Ohio Gen Web Page
 


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