Jesse Taylor (1791 - 1860)

When I found these photographs I thought all the information on the back would make them easy to trace.  I didn’t take two things into consideration, (1) Taylor is a common last name, and (2) I had no location.

It took me 3 years to find a Jesse Taylor that fit the information on the reverse, and even then there is still one “major” discrepancy.

I can find no evidence that Jesse Taylor (2) was a major.  He did fight in the War of 1812.  He did have a son who was known and buried as Major Jesse Taylor.

I believe the first photo is Jesse Taylor (2) (1791 - 1860), taken shortly before his death, and not Major Jesse Taylor (3) (1831 - 1903).

Two reasons …

I think the photograph of Jesse Taylor was taken circa 1860.  Jesse (2) would have been 69, his son, Jesse (3) would have been 29.

And “Major” is written by a different hand and appears on both photographs as if it were added later.

The information written on the reverse fits Jesse Taylor (2), the father.  His son, Major Jesse Taylor, didn't have any children.

It has been an interesting journey.  Its taken me from the Civil War to the War of 1812, and into the world of the southern elite, a world where wealthy planters formally presented their daughters to potential suitors at debutante balls.

A world where slavery existed.  Records indicate Jesse Taylor (1768), Jesse Taylor (1791) and Asa Watson were all slave holders, but the records are too vague, the names too numerous, and so I have included mention of only one slave; one I found specific reference to.

This is the story of Jesse Taylor (2), the son of Jesse Taylor (1) and Phoebe Moody / step son of Charles Campbell … grandson of Kichen Taylor and Elizabeth Ridley Browne … great grandson of Etheldred Taylor and Patience Kinchen.

Jesse Taylor (2) was a Virginian by birth, the only child of Phoebe and Jesse Taylor (1) who married June 17, 1789.  Jesse (2) would never know his father.  On Sept. 5, 1791 when he executes his will Jesse (1) is just 23 years old.  He has been married just over two years, and his wife Phoebe is pregnant with their first child.

In his will, it is written,  “I lend unto my loving wife Phebe Taylor One Negro Man Named Cattoe During her Natural life and I leave it in the power of My Executors if they think it proper to Sell the said Negro and to buy another with the Same Money that will Sute [suit] her Better to do it and after her Death I Do Give unto her Child that She is now pregnant with, the said Negro and all the profits that arises from the Estate to it [the child] and its heirs for ever …”

Jesse Taylor (2) was born the following month, on Oct. 26, 1791.

On Sept. 23, 1793, shortly before his 3rd birthday, Jesse’s mother Phoebe marries a second time to Charles Campbell in Lincoln County, KY.

As a young man Jesse fought in the War of 1812, seeing action in the Battle of New Orleans under Gen. Jackson.

In 1819, at the time of his marriage to Lydia Harris Williams, the daughter of Marmaduke Williams and Ede Harris, Jesse was living in Spring Creek, Madison Co., TN

Jesse’s wife, Lydia died Nov. 16, 1831, age 31 in Madison Co., TN

In 1834 Jesse Taylor (2) became a resident of Henderson County. The following year he became clerk of the county court, a position he held until 1859.

Jesse Taylor (2) was married twice; his second marriage on Aug. 15, 1835 was to Mrs. Mary May Newsom, a widow with a young daughter.

All of Jesse’s children that survived to adulthood appear to have married and married well.  The children of Jesse Taylor are …

• Elizabeth Ridley Brown Taylor, eldest daughter of Jesse and Lydia, born 1822, died Dec. 28, 1827 in Lexington, TN, at age 5.

• Ede Tennessee Taylor (1824-88), daughter of Jesse and Lydia, married Dec. 5, 1842, Asa Watson (1812-86), a wealthy Mississippi delta planter and world traveler.  Formerly a merchant in New York, Asa came south, married Ede Taylor, a cultivated, refined Southern lady and became a planter who identified himself thoroughly with the people of the South.  In the 1850s Asa bought 3,840 acres including the Sulphur Springs tract and built the famed Seven Gables Hotel at Montvale Springs in Tennessee.  Seven Gables was a two-hundred-foot-long, three-story frame structure with 125 rooms, and porches that ran the full length of each floor.  In addition there were 60 cottages, and throughout the property he planted trees that he collected in his travels.   Known as the "Saratoga of the South," the hotel attracted a clientele of southern planters and urban elites who sought to escape the malarial lowlands during summer.  London newspapers touted the Seven Gables as having an atmosphere pure and invigorating, scenery that was romantic and picturesque, and one of the most magnificent views in the United States.

• (Major) Jesse Taylor (1831 - 1903), son of Jesse and Lydia.  A Confederate soldier, Capt. Jesse Taylor, commanded the heavy artillery at Fort Henry during the bombardment February 1862, and was surrendered at that place.  He married Lucy Browning of Kentucky.  Lucy, a teacher, had nursed soldiers during the war.  After the war she resumed teaching near Mifflin, Tennessee.  She married Major Taylor in 1864.  In the 1870’s Jesse and Lucy Taylor founded the Springdale Institute, a school for young ladies.  Lucy’s pupils came from Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, and she was said to have instructed some of the first ladies of the old commonwealth of Kentucky.

• Mary Leticia Taylor (July 18, 1836 - July 28, 1913), daughter of Jesse and Mary. She married Nathaniel Terry Buckley (June 25, 1834 - July 17, 1892).   In 1880 I find Nathaniel Buckley with 233 acres /100 tillable / total value $3500.

John May Taylor

• (Judge) John May Taylor (1838 - 1911), son of Jesse and Mary. He was described as 5’6”, with a fair complexion and blue eyes.   He was a Confederate soldier, judge, and politician.   John M. was educated at Lexington Academy and Union University at Murfreesboro. He enlisted Aug. 7, 1861 at age 23.  In the same year he took part in the organization of Henderson County Sharpshooters, Company K., 27th Tennessee Regiment of infantry and was elected First Lieutenant and upon the organization of the Regiment was made Captain.  He was wounded three times, including the shattering of his right thigh bone, an injury that left him with a limp.  He surrendered with Gen. Richard Taylor’s command May 12, 1865.

• Catherine Ann Taylor, daughter of Jesse and Mary,  (June 8, 1842 - July 12, 1925) married Dr. Patrick H. Mallory (1837 - 1873) and moved to Bell Co. TX.  She was widowed at age 30, in 1873.  Dr. and Mrs. Mallory had 2 sons who survived to adulthood;  Patrick and Jesse T. Mallory. In 1908 both of her adult sons and her two grandsons died.   Her youngest son Jesse died of typhoid in September of 1908.  Shortly after Jesse’s death, Patrick’s 2 young sons, Pat Jr. 8, and his younger brother, Marcus, also died of typhoid.  It was said to be typhoid fever of the most violent form. And that “the poison got into their systems through the drinking water, surface drainage having likely seeped into the well.”  Ann’s oldest son, Patrick died 2 months later in November, 1908.  His cause of death is listed as exhaustion / paresis.  Patrick was survived by his wife, Jeanette.  Catherine Ann died July, 1925, at age 82 after being hit by an automobile while crossing the road near her home in Denton, TX.  Her physician (who was also a  friend), Dr. Batte  filled out her death certificate and across it he wrote in heavy script, “Murdered by a driver.”

Charles Campbell Taylor

• Charles Campbell Taylor (named for Jesse’s stepfather), born 1845, was the youngest son of Jesse and Mary.  Charles was a Confederate soldier.  He served with Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.  He was married Nov. 30, 1875 to Mary Penn, a sister of Baptist evangelist William Penn.  After their marriage they moved to Temple, TX and in 1892 to Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  They had one daughter, Corrie.

• (step-daughter) Nancy Tennessee Newsom (Sept. 7, 1828 - May 25, 1911), daughter of Mary and her 1st husband Nesbitt Newsom married Rev. Benjamin Allison Hayes Dec. 22, 1847. In 1870 B. A. Hayes is found married to T. Hayes, with 3 servants, $20,000 in real estate and $2000 in personal property.

Jesse Taylor died of heart dropsy at age 69.  At the time of his death in 1860 he was considered one of the town’s worthiest and most esteemed men. He and his wife Mary, their son, John M. Taylor, and other members of the John May Taylor family are buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Lexington.