TAYLOR
TAYLOR
Calvert county. Her ancestor came from Eng-
land to Maryland in 1649, and held the appoint-
ment of attorney-general from Oliver Cromwell
in 1655. Her grandmother Mackall lived on one
of the family plantations named by her ancestor,
"God's Graces." One of her brothers, Richard
Smith, belonged to the U.S. marine corps, two
of her brothers removed to Mississippi, where
they were extensive planters, and her two sisters
removed to Kentucky and married two brothers
of the Chew family of Maryland. Margaret
Smith was married toCapt. Zachary Taylor, June
18, 1810, and at once went with him to the
frontier of the Northwest territorj-, and she
thereafter shared the hardships and dangers of
army life up to the time he was ordered to
Mexico, when she remained with lier cliildren at
the home they had established at Baton Rouge,
La. The temporal and spiritual needs of the
sick and wounded soldiers were her chief solici-
tude, and the rude hospital accommodations of the
day were made more attractive and restful
through her ministrations. Mrs. Jefferson Davis
records an incident at a White House dinner in
1849, at which all the parties interested were pres-
ent, when President Taylor, speaking to Sen-
ator Davis of his army life said: " You know my
wife was as much of a soldier as I was." She
had four childi-en, Anne, Sarah Knox, Elizabeth
and Richard. Anne married Dr. Robert C. Wood,
surgeon-general, U.S.A., and had four children,
John Taylor, Robert C, Anna Dudle\", and Sarah
Knox Wood. Sarah Knox Taylor married Jeffer-
son Davis, at the time a lieutenant in the U.S.A.
Elizabeth married Colonel Bliss, adjutant on the
staff of General Taylor, and after his death she
was married to Philip Dandridge of Virginia.
When the family removed to Washington, in
February, 18-49, Mrs. Taylor was in feeble health,
and physically unable to take part in the state din-
ners and receptions at the AVhite House, but she
was always at the private table and in the home
circle, leaving the cares of official hospitality to
her daughter Elizabeth, wife of Col. William W.
S. Bliss. Mrs. Taylor did not long survive the
shock incident to her husband's sudden death
and the excitement of a martial funeral. She
removed, upon her husband's death, to the home
of her son. Col. Richard Taylor, near Pascagoula,
La., where she died, Aug. 18, 1852.
TAYLOR, Richard, father of President Taylor (familiarh' known as " Dick Taylor"), was born in eastern Virginia, March 22, 1744; a descendant of James Taylor, who came from England in 1682, and settled in southern Virginia. Richard's love of adventui'e carried him to the unexplored coun- try west of the Alleghenies, before he reached liis majority, and he crossed Kentucky to the Mississippi valley, thence to Natchez, a tradin^:
post, and from there northward through the
trackless forest afoot and alone back to his
father's home in Virginia. He commanded a
Virginia regiment in the Revolution, and was a
field officer on Washington's personal force. He
was married Aug. 20, 1779, to Sarah Strother, then
nineteen, and settled on a plantation near Orange
Court House. They had three children, Zachary
being less than one year old when they crossed
the mountains into Kentucky and settled on the
Beargrass Creek at the place known afterward
as Springfield, six miles from the present site of
Louisville, a point selected by the elder brother,
Hancock (a surveyer of wild lands) , who had pre-
ceded the family to the new territory. President
Washington made Colonel Taylor collector of the
port of Louisville, then a port of entry, Louisiana
being foreign territory. He was a delegate to
the state constitutional convention, a presidential
district elector on the Madison ticket in 1813;
elector-at-large on the Monroe ticket in 1817;
district elector on the Monroe ticket in 1821, and
elector-at-large on the Henry Clay ticket in 1825.
Col. Dick Taylor died at " Springfield," Ky., 1826.
TAYLOR, Richard, soldier, was born in Baton
Rouge, La., Jan. 27, 1826; son of Lieut. -Col.
Zacliary and Margaret (Smith) Taylor. He at-
tended school at Fort Snelling, in Jefferson
county, Ky., and in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1839-42,
and in Paris, France,
1842-43. He matric-
ulated at Yale in the
junior class, 1843,
and was graduated
in 1845. He at once
joined his father on
the Rio Grande and
continued with the
army until after the
battle of Resaca de
la Palma, when,
being attacked by
fever, he returned to
his home at Baton
Rouge, and subse-
quently engaged in
cotton planting on a plantation in Jefferson county. Miss. In 1849 he transferred his plant- ing operations to St. Charles parish. La., where he conducted an extensive sugar plantation. He was married in 1851, to Myrthe Bringier de Lacadiere. He represented St. Charles parish as state senator, 1856-60, and was a delegate to the Democratic national conventions at Charleston, S.C. . and Baltimore, Md., in 1860. He was a mem- ber of the state convention of 1861 that declared for secession, and was madeamember of the mili- tary committee. He was commissioned colonel of the 9th Louisiana volunteers, and after serving
