David Preston Taylor

​(printed in THE MILLER COUNTY AUTOGRAM-SENTINEL in the column, 'WINDOW TO THE PAST', January, 2012)
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The MILLER COUNTY AUTOGRAM, dated 25 Jun 1885, printed an interesting article entitled "Almost a Centenarian". This old newspaper, printed over 125 years ago featured a story about one of the oldest citizens in the Eldon area, David Preston Taylor. The following is a short account given about 'Grandpa Taylor'....

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• ​"Perhaps the oldest resident living in Miller County is David Preston Taylor, who resides northwest of here (Eldon). Grandpa Taylor is a native of Virginia; born 15 Dec 1791. He is now approaching his 94th birthday. He served in the War of 1812, being 21 years old when that war began, was a brave soldier, received an honorable discharge and is now a pensioner, one among the few survivors of that long-ago conflict. He married Ms. Anna Moore in his native state on 17 June 1817. Grandpa Taylor moved to this county in 1832 and settled the farm which he yet owns. He was 41 years of age, well along in middle life, when he came here in 1832, 53 years ago! Miller County was not christened at that time but was included in Cole County which extended south to the Osage river. Although he almost 24 years ago passed the three score and ten allotted to man, Grandpa Taylor is remarkably well preserved and vigorous, as much as the ordinary man of 65 or 70 years. He walks about his son's farm daily; visits the neighbors and occasionally takes a ride on horseback. He is a man of remarkable intelligence. He has a good memory, well stored with the experiences and incidents, local, state, and national, reaching back almost ten decades. Washington had served but two years as his first presidential term at Grandpa's birth. At the election of John Adams, 6 years later, he was large enough to swing his cap and shout for his favorite candidate and we presume that was John Adams. He was 16 years of age when Fulton launched his first steamboat on the Hudson in 1807. He was a middle-aged man when railroads came into general use; was 53 when Morris operated his telegraph between Baltimore and Washington, and was a gray-haired man when the Mexican War broke out. When he came to this county and for years afterward, there was no post office nearer than Jefferson City and, at 25 cents for a letter, the price of postage then, it took 2 or 3 bushels of corn, a days wages, or 20 pounds of pork to pay for a single letter! Grandpa Taylor has always been a temperate, moral, Christian man. He never indulged in strong drink and has never used tobacco, and has been a member of the Baptist Church from childhood. He has always been an industrious, frugal man and a quiet, law abiding citizen. He has 7 children now living, most of whom live in this county. What a hallowed joy, what a fullness of honor these words convey to one deserving them; and no one can be more truly said of than Grandpa Taylor."

There were so many wonderful, historical facts printed within the lines of that story so I decided to try to learn more about the old gentleman and his family........

David Preston Taylor was born in Virginia 15 Dec 1792 (the story says 1791 and his tombstone says 1792). In 1817, per the story, he married Anna Moore in Virginia. I believe Anna was a native of New Jersey, born there 12 Jun 1795. It appears the Taylor and Moore families traveled to central Missouri together in the same wagon train. Most families came west in large groups and settled in the same general regions. The early 1830s was the beginning of an influx of pioneers who came over the Allegheny Mountains of Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia, and ventured westward to the new state of Missouri. The Taylors and Moores were among the county's earliest settlers and land buyers. The land they settled in the early 1830s, was Cole County since Miller County was not established until February 1837. Some early neighbors of these familes were Alfred M. Houston, Edmund Wilkes, Richard Wilkes, Flemstead, Adcock, Samuel Dresser, Louisa Nolen, Elijah Spence, James Hix, Robert Shipley, Wyatt Stubblefield, Ebenezer Vernon, Samuel Gilliland, Charles Swanson, Samuel Etter, Josiah Turner, and Esom B. Dooley. All were early settlers of Saline Township, most having patented their lands in the 1830s.

In the 1840 census of Miller County there were four families of the Taylor clan living near each other in Saline Township. Included was David P. Taylor, his wife Anna (Moore); 3 sons: and 2 daughters; Bailey W. Taylor & wife, Delilah, with their 2 sons and 2 daughters; Joseph D. Taylor & his wife, Judith (Adcock), 3 sons and one daughter; Jospeh D. Taylor & wife Lemisy (Seat) with 2 sons and 1 daughter......I believe David, Joseph, and Bailey were brothers, all natives of Virginia. Living in the same general area of Saline Township was Melon/Melton Moore, his wife Nancy, 3 sons and 6 daughters. Melon Moore was a native of New Jersy, born circa 1789. I think he was an older brother to Anna Moore Taylor because she named a son Melon M. Taylor.

The Taylor families were slave owners and brought several Negroes to Miller County from Virginia. In 1840, David Preston Taylor owned 8 slaves; Bailey W. Taylor had 7; and Joseph Taylor was enumerated with 2 slaves. When Bailey died in 1855, he owned 9 slaves and they were divided and sold from his estate. The courts awarded his widow, Delilah, 3 slaves for her dower. She received a 17-year-old girl named Emily with a small child and a 9-year-old boy named James. Their value, before the Civil War, was $1600, but by 1862, when the war was raging across the countryside, the value had dropped to $400. At the end of the Civil War, David Preston Taylor owned 4 slaves. I do not know if they remained in the area near the Taylor family or ventured elsewhere to establish a new life.

David and Anna (Moore) Taylor had at least 7 children and perhaps more. There were seven who survived their father when he died in 1890. The children were:

1. Peter Taylor b. c/1819 m. (1) Martha Shipley (2) Sarah Meador
2. Berry Taylor b. 1830 d. 1892 m. (1) Amanda Taylor (his cousin) (2) Julia ____________
3. Melon M. Taylor b. c/1825 m. Nancy E. Bliss
4. Temperance Taylor 1827-1895 (never married)
5. Nancy Taylor b. c/1829 m. (1) Joseph Allen
(2) Uriah Dooley
6. David P. Taylor Jr. b. c/1832 m. Louisa Dooley
7. Virginia Taylor 1834-1891 (never married)

Anna (Moore) Taylor died 28 July 1858 and was buried on the family's farm in present-day Franklin Township. The cemetery was called the Taylor Family Cemetery and was located in Section 6, Township 41, Range 15 near the Morgan County line. Anna's daughter-in-law, Nancy Elizabeth Bliss-Taylor, wife of Melon M. Taylor, died 3 months before Anna in April 1858 and evidently was the first person buried in the family plot. There are several family membes in this old cemetery including David Preston Taylor and his 2 wives (he married Jane P. Dooley in 1860); a son Berry Taylor; daughters Virginia and Tempeance; daughters-in-law Amanda, Martha, and Nancy Elizabeth and a grandson Thomas Taylor. According to an inventory taken of the old cemetery in the early 1970s, several field stones mark gravesites that, by legend, belong to several Taylor slaves.

On April 19, 1860, David Preston Taylor married a local widow, Jane P. Dooley, age 57. Temperance and Virginia, his two unmarried daughters, continued to live on the family farm. Jane died on 9 July 1880 and for 10 years Grandpa Taylor remained a widower until his death in January 1890. He was buried beside his two wives on the land he had homesteaded 58 years earlier in 1832. According to the newspaper story, he lived with his son, Berry Taylor, for some time before his death. But evidently he lived the majority of his golden years at his pioneer homestead on the rich prairies of northern Miller County.