Isaac Taylor (1802-1874)

This is part 4 of the paper Betty Hamby West presented to the North Alabama Conference Historical Society.

It was no surprise to me to discover that the middle Taylor brother, the one from whom I am descended, Isaac, was the colorful and controversial character among the three preacher brothers. He was my great- great grandfather. The second child of Isaac Taylor and Hannah Hopper, Louisa, married William Clark. Their daughter, Laura Frances Clark, married George W. Hamby. Their son, Charles P. Hamby, was my father. Louisa Taylor Clark was my great grandmother. She is buried in the Cottondale Nature Gardens Cemetery near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Isaac Taylor was licensed to preach by the quarterly conference of the Jones Valley Circuit upon a recommendation from the society at Cedar Mountain in 1824. The watershed event of his life occurred about 1832. He then had a wife, Hannah, and six children aged 11 down to a nursing infant. They lived only a couple of miles from the Shiloh church. One night, between bedtime and dawn, his wife disappeared. The mystery caused a sensation in the community, especially among the enemies of Methodism. It was soon whispered about that the Rev. Isaac Taylor had killed his wife. The main evidence against him was the presumption that it was unnatural for a woman to leave her own children. The climax came when some bones that were found in the forest near the Taylor farm were exhibited as bones of the missing woman. Isaac was arrested. However, after all the sensation and excitement, the grand jury never indicted him. He was eventually exonerated, but not before his life and ministry had been damaged (West 289). The theory which solved the mystery was elopement: a man who moved from the Cedar Mountain region to Texas, and who knew Isaac Taylor and his wife intimately, was one day in a Texas store when a man and woman walked in. He immediately recognized the woman as the missing wife of Rev. Taylor and he saw that she recognized him. Without speaking a word, she and the man with her left the store. The story that evolved was that she had left home disguised as a boy with a man who lived near her; that they had gone through obscure regions, using deserted Indian trails, and continued on to the Republic of Texas. This theory was corroborated by the memory of her oldest child of the day of her disappearance. On that day, he and his mother had been dropping com in the field, and they went together to the house for her to nurse the baby. He recalled that as she nursed the infant he saw a sad expression cover his mother's face (290). A final support for this theory was made by Rev. Taylor himself on his death bed. In conversation with one of his friends, in alluding to his credentials, he said: "These papers I have never dishonored. In the pulpit I have never uttered a word which I would rescind" (289).

I have read this account in Anson West several times and tried to imagine the circumstances of Isaac and Hannah's life. Today, with our knowledge of post-partum depression and emotional stress, it is not difficult to believe that a woman with the responsibilities of six small children, all the domestic work, and most of the farm work; a woman with a husband who was off riding the circuit, and rarely there to support her, might choose to escape from it all. This is more easily imagined than that a man would murder a wife and become himself solely responsible for all these duties.

The dark shadow over Isaac's life did not stop his preaching nor totally mar his influence. The epitaph on his headstone, in the Taylor's Chapel cemetery, reads "He was a minister of the gospel 50 years and died in the hope and consolation of the same." In 1990 I interviewed an older first cousin, Rev. Mack Hamby, who has since deceased, and questioned him about the Taylors. Please listen to part of the interview. (See Attachment).

Isaac Taylor married Elizabeth King in 1836, which was four years after the disappearance of his first wife.

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Harris Taylor (1807-1852)

This is part 3 of the paper Betty Hamby West presented to the North Alabama Conference Historical Society.

Harris Taylor, the youngest of the three brothers, was the first class leader at Shiloh when he was only twenty years old. He was licensed to preach by the quarterly conference of the Jones Valley Circuit upon recommendation of the society at Shiloh in 1829. Sometime in the interval between 1829 and 1833 Harris changed his residence from Clay, Alabama, to either Talladega or Benton (now Calhoun) county. He was listed as present at the first quarterly conference of the Talladega Mission, later to be known as the Talladega Circuit, in 1833. This was the first quarterly conference ever held on the eastern side of the Coosa River. He is named as one of the leading and active men in the Talladega Circuit between 1833-1845. Described as among its most efficient men, he was associated with this circuit until his death in 1852 (West 463-476). I was puzzled as to why Harris Taylor left the Clay area until research revealed that Francis Self, whose daughter, Nancy, was married to Harris, had purchased land in Benton County (Calhoun) in 1834 and was taxed there in 1844 for 300 acres of land and four slaves. This eastern portion of Creek territory was not ceded to the United States government until 1832. Evidently both Harris Taylor and his father in law both moved into the territory to acquire large tracts of land.

Harris was embroiled in the raging debate over separation that created a crisis in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844. The General Conference held in New York City that year debated this issue for six weeks, finally asking Bishop Andrew, who owned slaves, to resign his office. This drew much protest from the southern portion of the church. Resolutions were made at quarterly conferences all over Alabama. The quarterly conference for the Jacksonville Circuit, in session at Alexandria Campground, appointed a committee chaired by Harris Taylor to draft a resolution expressing the sense of that conference on the subject of the division of the church north and south. On July 15, 1844, the report of this committee was received and adopted (West 647). The general content of these Alabama resolutions is summarized by W. W. Sweet as follows: "The resolutions ... denounced abolitionism as a 'foul spirit of the pit whose mildew breath' would blast the church of God. Most were violent in their denunciation of the foes and fulsome in their praise of friends. All this found remorse and resentment in the north and the gulf of misunderstanding was thereby made wider" (251).

The final result was that in a called convention of southerners in Louisville, Kentucky, on June 17, 1845, the Methodist Episcopal Church South was created (Sweet 251). The Taylors were probably all involved in this controversy, although Harris is the only one whose involvement is recorded.

Anson West describes Harris Taylor as being "exceedingly popular through Benton and Talladega Counties" (291). The following inscription is found on a large marble slab placed by his friends on his grave:

Rev. Harris Taylor died August 22, 1852, in his 46th year. As a

minister of the gospel he was one of the most faithful and talented

members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Bold in preaching

Bible truths, able in its defense, yet humble in mind, meek and quiet in

spirit; a worthy citizen, a good neighbor, an affectionate husband, a

kind father, a humane master, and a faithful friend; one who practiced

religion in life, and enjoyed its happy effects in death. All that knew

him reverenced and loved him.

The epitaph on this marble slab, surviving 150 years of weathering, may be read today in the old Methodist cemetery in Alexandria, Alabama. Locating this grave of my great great uncle and reading his epitaph was an exciting and inspirational moment for me personally.

The most impressive incident from the biography of Harris Taylor concerns his funeral. This story has been repeated through the generations in my family. Rev. Walter Houston McDaniel preached the funeral at a campground near Alexandria. In eulogizing Taylor, he said:

As far as the eagle, which sits on the summit of the mountain and soars

above the clouds excels the wren which sits on the housetop, so far did

Taylor excel in greatness, wisdom, and oratory Webster, Clay, and

Calhoun. Taylor lived on earth and communed with men and

communed with God, he lived on earth and had a house in heaven.

At that point in the eulogy, according to Anson West, "The audience broke out in a wild burst of shouting, and a singular light broke forth above the altar (p 291). Intrigued by the use of the word "singular" to describe the light, I referred to the New Century Dictionary. Singular is defined there as "being the only one of the kind, unparalleled, or unique, extraordinary, or remarkable." In the oral tradition of my family, this light on the altar at Harris Taylor's funeral has always been understood to be a miraculous manifestation.

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William Taylor (1799-1867)

This is part 2 of the paper Betty Hamby West presented at the North Alabama Conference Historical Society.

William, the oldest of the three brothers, was licensed to preach by the quarterly conference of the Tuscaloosa Circuit on recommendation from the society at Cedar Mountain around 1820 (West 288). Sometime after 1832, "Parson Billy" took up the charge of the Jones Valley Circuit, which was a smaller one created from the Tuscaloosa Circuit in 1823. He preached, held Sunday School, and even taught elementary school classes for the scattered children in the area when they could make it through the woods to attend (Bryant 2). He had a long and fruitful ministry in this area.

He was active in the building of the new church in Sweeney Hollow. Begun just before the War Between the States broke out, it was not completed until the end of the war. This new church, now known as Taylor Memorial, was named Taylor's Chapel in honor of William Taylor (Bryant 4). He is buried in the cemetery there. His gravestone reads "Rev. William Taylor, born Aug. 3, 1799, embraced religion at twenty-one years of age, soon thereafter commenced to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, and continued to do so until his decease which took place December 14, 1867."

Anson West described him as "an able preacher, a man of more than ordinary powers of intellect and through all the country round about the section in which he lived, he preached much and well. He maintained a good name and was loved by the people among whom he exercised his ministry" (288).

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Taylors Settle in Cedar Mountain, Alabama in 1817

Here is part 1 of the paper Betty Hamby West presented to the North Alabama Conference Historical Society.

I grew up with the knowledge that I was somehow related to an early Alabama Methodist circuit rider named "Taylor" who was buried in the cemetery at Taylor Memorial Methodist Church in Chalkville. There were family legends surrounding several Taylor brothers, but I had no knowledge of specific details of their lives and ministries. I was reminded of the pride my family had in their Taylor ancestry when I recently read the obituary of my father, Rev. Charles P. Hamby, written by Dr. G. M. Davenport and printed in the North Alabama Conference Advocate in February of 1952. The obituary reads "He was of godly parentage, being the son of George W. and Laura Clark Hamby. His mother was of pioneer Methodist stock; her grandfather was the Rev. Isaac Taylor, the fragrance of whose life abides still over the bounds of the North Alabama Conference." Gathering information for this paper has been more than enjoyable. I have pored over records, visited cemeteries, acquired photographs, studied old Conference Journals, and interviewed people. In the process, I have developed a sense of sacred trust to pass on to my descendants, and to the conference, knowledge of this inspiring pioneer Methodist family.

George Taylor, his wife Nancy, and their seven children came to Alabama from Tennessee in 1817, the year Alabama was made a territory. George and Nancy were my great-great-great grandparents. They were a part of the flood of settlers who came into the state after the defeat of the Creek nation at Horseshoe Bend and the Treaty of Fort Jackson in 1814. By this treaty, the Creeks surrendered much of their land to the white settlers. Not long afterwards other Indian confederations made land cessions to the United States government. By,the Land Act of 1800, land acquired from the Indians was sold for $2.00 an acre with four years to pay (Joiner 29).

These hardy settlers came into an area with no roads, only Indian trails, and rivers for highways. They made their trip by flat boat and covered wagon, and settled on land that had to be cleared for cultivation. It was a daunting task to provide shelter and food in a wilderness. In spite of the hardships, these people had time and energy to pursue religion.

George Taylor and his family settled at Cedar Mountain, which is in the Clay community, along with Rev. Perry Tunnel and wife, Rev. James Johnson and wife, and Francis Self and wife. These people, who came to Alabama through Ware Valley and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, were already Methodists (Self). In April, 1818, the Presiding Elder of the Nashville District of the Tennessee Conference sent Rev. Ebeneezer Hearn to organize Methodist Societies in this region of Alabama. The society at Cedar Mountain was organized in 1819. It is not known whether the society had a church or met in a home. This society gave place to Shiloh, located only three miles away, in 1826. Shiloh was part of the Jones Valley Circuit which had been formed in 1823. It would later become Clay Methodist Church (Goodwin). The Taylors were charter members of both Cedar Mountain and Shiloh societies (Lazenby 139-141 ).

George Taylor had four sons: Casper, William, Isaac, and Harris. According to Anson West, the Rev. James Axley baptized all four sons on one occasion and "in eloquence, earnestness, and faith, he prayed that the four sons might be called to preach." Three of the four, William, Isaac, and Harris, answered the call. The oldest son, Casper, became an active Methodist layman. West notes that in that county and among Methodists the Taylors were already distinguished (287-288).

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Welcome to The Taylor Legacy!

Before my mother Betty Jean Hamby West (1933-2003) died, she got interested in genealogy. She uncovered inspiring stories about our heritage, much of it around the Taylors. My great, great, great grandfather Isaac Taylor and his two brothers, William and Harris, were a trio of Methodist circuit riders in early Mississippi and Alabama history.

I recently began picking up where Mom left off, now that the benefits of the internet have made it faster and easier. I've learned that there is a family legacy in ministry that goes much farther back. My Taylor ancestors were descendants of other Taylors that made their mark on Christian history. Most notable were Dr. Rowland Taylor, one of the great martyrs of the English Reformation who burned at the stake by Queen Mary. Related to him was William Tyndale, also burned at the stake because of he famously translated the Bible into English.

I have started this blog to share stories as I continue to discover them. Each week or so I will post part of this incredible legacy. I hope it brings you courage and inspiration for your Christian faith.