Taylor - George Washington
Source:
Weik's History Of Putnam County, Indiana Illustrated 1910: B. F. Bowen &
Company, Publishers Indianapolis, Indiana Author: Jesse W. Weik p. 421
Dr.
George Washington TAYLOR, a homeopathic physician, his wife Mary Jane Lynn
Taylor, and their daughter, Minnetta Theodora Taylor came to Greencastle from
Crawfordsville, Indiana Sept 5, 1879. They had been only a short time in
Crawfordsville, having removed there from their home in Rosetta, Illinois where
they had resided since the close of the Civil War. The parents joined their
sons, who were physicians at Crawfordsville; but they found that Greencastle
would be more satisfactory for the education of their daughter and they removed
thither, intending to remain only a few years. They grew so much attached to
the place that they made it a permanent residence and built their home on West
Walnut Street in 1884. The family were all born in Virginia except the
daughter, who was born in Illinois. They were residents of Lexington in the
valley of Virginia, noted for Washington and Lee University, which now contains
the tomb of Robert E. Lee and for the Virginia Military Institute. At one time
during their residence in Lexington, "Stonewall" Jackson was
professor of military science in the institute and taught in the Presbyterian
Sunday School, White Sulphur Springs, the famous watering place was not far
away and attracted most of the eminent people of that and the preceding
generation, among them Jerome Bonaparte, afterward King of Westphalia, who left
many interesting souvenirs of Napoleon. Dr. George W. Taylor was born in
Lewisburg, Greenbrier Co VA May 5, 1821. His family was English on both sides
and had been since 1635. The head of the English family was the Norman Baron
Taillefer (meaning sharp sword) who came over with William the Conqueror and
was one of the commanders at the battle of Hastings. The Saxons spelled the
name Taelesfer and some of the English relatives are now named Telfair instead
of Taylor, following the spelling of the name rather than the sound. The family
coat of arms is conspicuous for its stars; the motto is "Consequitor quo
petit, he achieves because he strives." The crest was a mailed arm
brandishing a sword.
The founder of the Virginia family, James Taylor, left
Kent in 1635 at the age of 20 on account of the religious persecutions
beginning under Charles I. He opposed his family, including the Earl of Pennington
in criticizing the king; and he sought a freer country, retaining, however, the
low church form of the Episcopalian creed. He settled in Caroline County,
Virginia married Frances Washington of an English family of similar standing
and religious belief to his own, ancestors of George Washington. Among the
prominent descendants of the Taylors were: on the distaff side, President James
Madison; George Taylor, who had ten sons in the Revolutionary War, including
the famous Col. Richard Taylor, who conquered and dispersed the Cherokees, who
were hired by the British to kill and scalp the families along the Virignia
highland frontier; Zachary Taylor, who married Elizabeth Lee of Ditchley,
daughter of Col. Richard Henry Lee of Revolutionary fame, ancestor of most of
the Virginia Lees including Light Horse Harry, the father of Robert E. Lee;
Elizabeth Taylor who married the uncle of the Duke of Argyll and was a noted
philanthropist both in this country and Scotland, achieving many reforms in the
housing and general condition of the Scotch crofters; Rear Admiral Samuel
Taylor of the War of 1812; Zachary Taylor, famous Indian fighter, commander in
chief in our war against Mexico and President of the US; General Richard
Taylor, commanding the army of the Department of Alabama during the Civil War;
many other Confederate officers; Father Taylor, as he was called, the noted
preacher in the Seamen's Church in Boston. Dr. George Washington Taylor's
parents were James Taylor and Susannah Burwell. His paternal grandparents were
Austine Taylor and Mary Martha Washington, another Washington intermarriage. As
a boy, Dr. Taylor was very fond of hearing of Indian fights particularly of the
exploits of a relative, Louis Wetzel. At the age of 9 he resolved to fight
Indians too and set out along the road west of his father's house. When two or
three miles away, he met with unexpected success in discovering his
antagonists. A party of Indians going to interview the Great Father at
Washington were riding along under the command of a most terrible looking
chief. They stopped the child, the chief remarking, "Boy make good
Indian." The chief asked his name and where he lived. On hearing the name,
he scowled and said, "Louis Wetzel?" The boy nodded and the chief made
a motion as he would scalp him but finally had him put on a pony which was led
until they came in sight of his father's house. Here after considerable
argument among themselves they put him down in the road and left him. George
resolving to consult his father before he went out to fight Indians again.
After attending the common schools of the time and studying with a tutor, Mr.
Taylor studied medicine in the University of Virginia and put in his spare time
reading the works of Thomas Jefferson. Debating clubs were popular, but it was
very hard to get anyone to take the side of the English party on any political
question, the French party commanding the gratitude of the American patriots
and the exercises generally began with the Marseillaise. Many of the students
were descendants of the French Hugenots and these too added to the enthusiasm
for France. The science of medicine, though very imperfect at that time,
interested the student deeply and he made many experiments in chemistry. He
left the university just before obtaining his degree in order to be married. On
a visit to Staunton some 3 months before he heard a particularly sweet voice
singing from the back of a long pink silk poke bonnet. This made him curious to
see the face; and he presently decided to settle in Lexington without waiting
to complete the university course, a thing which a physician could do under the
medical laws of the time. He married Mary Jane Lynn, April 7, 1842, and their
married life lasted 64 years. At Lexington, his 3 sons, Henry William Taylor,
Howard Singleton Taylor and John Newton Taylor were born. The approach of the
Civil War began greatly to disturb the South and after awhile the tempest
broke. Dr. Taylor was for a time surgeon with the army of Northern Virginia but
following an attack of gastritis from bad food, he was completely invalided and
unable to return to the field. When able to sit up, he followed his profession
as best he could; but much of the time he was an entirely helpless sick man.
Sheridan's troops burned the valley and completely devastated it, and after the
surrender of the Southern army hope was gone and there remained only the
sadness of homes destroyed and relatives killed on the battle fields or dying
of broken hearts. Dr. and Mrs. Taylor decided to go West. Traveling was difficult.
They were in two steamer accidents during their journey on the Mississippi
River. One steamer struck a snag at night and went down, leaving them barely
time to save themselves. Another was in a race and piling on great quantities
of resinous pines in order to beat the other boat, when the boilers exploded,
killing and maiming many persons. Finally the family reached Rosetta, Illinois
and in a year or so Dr. Taylor recovered his health and resumed the practice of
medicine in which he was very successful. He built a house in Rosetta, and his
daughter, Minetta was born there. Two sons settled as physicians in
Crawfordsville, Indiana and a third became a lawyer in Chicago.
Dr. Taylor came
to Indiana to be nearer them and chose Greencastle for a home. His practice
grew and extended over Putnam and neighboring counties. He had preferred the
homeopathic practice for some time and was an ardent reader of its books and
follower of its practice. He proved rumex crispus and added it to the list of
remedies. He never lost a case of typhoid fever though it has always been a
prevalent disease in this state. He had a large charity list of patients and a
still larger list of honest poor who paid such fees as they could easily spare.
He never refused to go see the sick because they were poor. He was much
interested in temperance work and was for 5 years president of the blue ribbon
movement in Greencastle, securing several hundred members. He did not become a
church member in Greencastle, partly because the Episcopal church had no
regular services and party because Sunday was generally as busy a day with him
as any other. In Lexington he was a member of the Episcopal Church though he
frequently attended Presbyterian with his wife. His principal characteristics
were kindness, dignity, absolute truthfulness and honesty. He was greatly
beloved by his family and friends. He was a tall, large man, built much like
George Washington. Dr. George Washington Taylor died at his home in
Greencastle, June 29, 1906 of old age, he was 86. Mary Jane Lynn was born in
Staunton, Augusta Co., Va. June 25, 1828. Her family was English on her
father's side and Scotch and French on the mother's, her paternal grandparents
came from Yorkshire in 1740, her grandfather being a Lynn of Lynncourt and her
grandmother a Leigh. Her maternal ancestors had been in Va since 1637, the
McCunes coming direct from Edinburgh to Augusta County during the persecution
of the Covenanters and the Decourcys and D'Aubignes coming after the revocation
of the Edict of Nantes tolerating the Hugenots in France. Many Scotch were
still coming to America in Mary Lynn's childhood and her first remembrances
were of clan tartans, the pipes, the harper in his plaid and cairnogorm brooch
the arms of the Marquis of Montrose and the Presbyterian church and Sunday.
Seven McCunes were in the Lee Legion in the Revolutionary War and their
uniforms and equipment were also a source of interest. She was educated in the
same ladies' school afterward conducted by Mrs. J.E.B. Stuart, widow of the
Confederate cavalry general and on completing the course there, had a tutor in
Latin & French on the home plantation. She married Dr. George W. Taylor, a
physician and they resided in Lexington, VA where their sons were born. Mrs.
Taylor's powerful mind was always full of keen interest in all sorts of
knowledge and readily took hold of medicine. She studied it with her husband
and reached out beyond the medical books of the day into foreign essays and
theories of her own. Most of the last were afterwards confirmed for her
judgment was as sound as her perception was keen. At this time she was chiefly
known for her lovely lyric soprano voice, full, clear and ringing of high range
and natural as well as cultivated phrasing. She was 1st soprano in the Presbyterian
churches of several Southern towns and sang solos on great occasions in
Richmond. She retained much of the splendor of her voice up to old age and her
patients would beg her to sing, saying that soothed the pain as well as
medicine. She was a fine converser always interesting her audience and using
almost perfect English. After the Civil War, the family removed from the
desolate South to Rosetta, Illinois. Mrs. Taylor had written poems of
acknowledged merit, became a successful author and wrote in quick succession 9
of the most popular novels of the time besides stories and poems. The novels
were Casey Drane; Divided Life; Looking Out into the Night; The Vital
Principle; Niverett; Ochus and Idumaean; Hole in the Day; The Master of the
River and The Answer. The first appeared as serials in the New York Herald and
the New York Ledger; Leslie's Chimney Corner and Philadelphia Day book what is
now the Chicago Inter-Ocean and the St. Louis Republic. One of the novels was
reprinted in London in 1882. Some of the stories were of the war, not a popular
subject at the time but the dramatic strength power of depicting character,
originality and poetic quality of the books carried them over all obstacles.
The Western magazine offered two prizes, one for the best story and the other
for the best poem. Mrs. Taylor won both prizes. She had letters of praise from
Edgar Allan Poe, JG Holland the elder James Gordon Bennett, Robert Bonner,
Frank Leslie, Dr. Van Evrie and Horace Greeley, Mr. Greeley's letters in his
famous nearly undecipherable handwriting. Mr. Bonner was her most generous
patron, always paying more than she asked for her stories, in one instance,
twice as much. The sons settled in Indiana and Dr. and Mrs. Taylor and their
little daughter followed. From Crawfordsville, Dr. and Mrs. Taylor went to
Greencastle to educate their daughter. Mrs. Taylor who had practiced medicine
with her husband many years was graduated from Pulte Homeopathic College at
Cincinnati and entered actively into the life of a physician. She had a very
large practice, extending from Putnam into Parke, Hendricks, Vigo, Morgan and
Owen Counties, besides calls to Indianapolis, Cincinnati and St. Louis. She
kept up all her work actively and with great success for 25 years riding at any
time of the day or night alone any distance. Much of the country was
comparatively wild at first. Sometimes a fox pattered across her road or a wolf
slunk off in the brush. More often the thick woods reeled around her from a
storm and wind and lightning piled the road with giants of the forest; or she
had a farmer ride horseback to find the ford for her in a swollen stream filled
with floating drift and running over with quicksand; or she went up and down
the corduroy steps of the highest hills of Owen; or she laid down fences and
drove through fields to avoid being mired in wholly impassable roads. She never
turned back and never had a serious accident though once she was obliged to
fish for an hour in a spring flood for her medicine case before she could go to
the rescue of a patient. Her sympathy with the sick, her cheerful disposition
and love of nature helped her to endure the monotony of life among the ailing
of town and the hardships of country practice. She remembered faces and names
wonderfully and knew the county genealogies through and through, including the
family characteristics. For this reason she had much influence in choosing
persons for public service. Her information about them was known to be full and
accurate, her judgment good and her public spirit without alloy; so her
candidates were often indorsed by parties and people. Her courage was absolute
and rather scornful. Sometimes her friends would beg her to carry a weapon on
her long night trips. "For an ordinary criminal?" she would answer,
"I should be ashamed of myself if I could not outwit 3 or 4 of them."
In personal appearance the Dr. was a little woman, with fine, white skin,
little hands, clean-cut features and eyes of a most unsual clear light green,
brilliant with decision. She was an earnest Christian, rather in deeds than in
words, though seldom an hour alone without praying. Her people had always been
Scottich Covenanters and she had held her first membership in the Tinkling
Spring Presbyterian Church in the Shenandoah Valley. In Greencastle she was a
member of the Presbyterian Church till the exactions of her profession made it
impossible for her to attend. Some years ago Dr. George W. Taylor and she
attended a number of patients through an epidemic of Typhoid fever which
attacked a country neighborhood. Both physicians had the distinction of having
never lost a Typhoid fever case; and though analyses of water, milk and food
failed to show the cause of the fever, which was uncommonly virulent, they
labored faithfully with it and cured all the patients. Then both took the fever
at the same time and on account of their age it was thought they could not
recover. After some weeks both were up again, but they were never strong
afterward. They kept up their office practice, however, and were busy sending
away medicine until shortly before their death. Dr. Mary Taylor died Dec 18,
1909. She is survived by two sons and a daughter; Hon. Howard S. Taylor of
Chicago; Dr. John N. Taylor Crawfordsville; Miss Menetta T. Taylor Greencastle.
Dr. George W. Taylor, her husband died June 29, 1906. Dr. H W Taylor died Jan
7, 1902. Miss Minetta Taylor is the joint author of six Spanish-English text
books, her assosicate being Senor Viragua, of NY. She is also a regular
contributor to the McClure syndicate. She spent 7 years on the lecture
platform, on literary and sociological subjects. She speaks 45 languages and is
either an active or honorary member of 30 clubs, several of these being foreign
clubs, she has been President of the State Federation of Clubs and member of
the literary committee of the General Federation of Clubs.
Source: 1878 Montgomery County, Indiana Atlas (Chicago:
Beers) p 54 TAYLOR, G. W., PO Crawfordsville; Physician; native of Augusta Co,
Va; settled in this co 1874.