Taylor Cemetery
Jefferson, Marion County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Ward Taylor, Sr. (1791-1871), and Nancy (Mathews) Taylor (1796-1879) came to Texas from Alabama in 1845. Several Taylor and Mathews relatives and children joined them in Marion County in that year and the years following, building homes and helping to settle the area. In May 1860, four-month-old Emmett, son of E. W. and S. E Taylor, was buried on this site on land belonging to Marion De Kalb (M.D.K.) Taylor. Emmett's grave remains the earliest marked burial in the cemetery, though family history indicates that the graveyard was in use before the Civil War. According to legend, the family buried several slaves outside the original fence to the north of the main cemetery. When M.D.K. deeded the land to his father, Ward Taylor, Sr., in 1868, the family cemetery was mentioned in the deed. Ward's wife Nancy inherited the property upon his death. She left the property, according to Ward's instructions, to their son J.M. Taylor, who willed it to his wife Amanda Maleson (Craven) Taylor. In 1961, a cemetery association was formed to care for the graveyard. Association members identified sixteen of those who are believed to have been buried in 32 unmarked graves. In 1998, there were 32 marked burials in Taylor Cemetery. The graveyard continues to serve Taylor descendants and all others who wish to be buried here. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Ward Taylor Sr. and Nancy Mathews Taylor came from Alabama to Marion County in 1845, joined by relatives who helped settle the area. The first burial, in May 1860, was four-month-old Emmett Taylor, though family history says the ground was already in use, and legend holds that several enslaved people were buried just outside the fence to the north. The land passed down through the Taylor family, and a cemetery association formed in 1961 to care for its marked and unmarked graves.
Why it matters
With its family plots and the enslaved buried just beyond the fence line, the cemetery quietly records both the settlement of antebellum Texas and the divisions of the society that built it.
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Related people
- · Ward Taylor Sr.
- · Nancy Mathews Taylor
- · Marion De Kalb Taylor
Themes & tags
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