Taylor

Baking with Grandma.

The day after Thanksgiving, my PMs were jumping with links to this luscious minute of love, starring Alexis Taylor, her beautiful grandmother, a 7-Up cake, and Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints.”

Alexis and her grandmother are from Wilson. I have never met them, but I know them.  and I am deeply grateful to Alexis for allowing me to share her work here. Happy holidays, y’all.

Follow Alexis on IG @cleeothegreat.

The obituary of Herman Taylor of New York City.

Wilson Daily Times, 12 October 1949.

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In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on East Nash Street, widow Lila Spicer, 50; daughter Mamie Taylor, 30, tobacco factory laborer; and grandchildren Ida, 13, Mildred, 11, James H., 9, Lila C., 7, Hermon, 5, and Bruce Taylor, 3; and roomer Henry Bullock, 25.

In the 1940 census of Manhattan borough, New York, New York: hat factory porter Herman Taylor, 24, lodger in the household of William Mitchell at 240 West 134th Street.

Herman Spicer Taylor registered for the World War II draft in 1940. Per his registration card, he was born 16 November 1915 in Wilson; lived in New York City; his contact was mother Mamie Taylor, 809 East Nash Street, Wilson; and he worked for Luther Smith.

The last will and testament of John R. Taylor.

On 2 November 1917, John Richard Taylor scrawled an X on a will he dictated in the presence of F.D. Swindell and David Dupree. Taylor’s bequests included:

  • to his mother, Mary Taylor, all the cash not needed to pay his debts;
  • to his sister, Missouri Moore, a portion of a lot at the corner of East and Atlantic Streets containing his dwelling house;
  • to wife Bettie Taylor, “in lieu of her dower,” all the balance of his real estate;
  • also to wife Bettie, three bed quilts, a dining room table, three stool chairs, one rocking chair, and one small single bedstead, with the remainder of his personal property to sister Missouri Moore;
  • Redmond White was to be executor.

Taylor died days later, and his estate entered probate on 12 November 1917. The following day, Bettie Taylor filed her dissent to the terms of Taylor’s will.

Oddly, nine months later, Camillus L. Darden successfully filed an application for letters of administration for John Richard Taylor, who Darden asserted died without a will. Charles H. Darden posted bond with his son. C.L. Darden estimated the value of Taylor’s estate at $2501 in real estate (“no personalty” worth valuing), and named Taylor’s heirs as Herbert Taylor, Jessie Taylor, Eddie Taylor, Missouri Moore, and “Brantley, a baby.” Neither Taylor’s wife nor mother are listed, but these are clearly his siblings — and a mystery child.

I have found nothing further about John R. Taylor’s estate.

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In the 1900 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer John Taylor, 50; wife Mary, 45; and children Jessie, 19, Hubard, 14, John R., 13, Eddie, 10, and Addie, 6.

In the 1910 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer Mary Taylor, 55, widow; children George, 31, Jesse, 29, John R., 23, Eddie, 20, and Addie, 17; and brother Allison Howard, 34.

John Richard Taylor died 7 November 1917 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 2 March 1884 in Wilson County to John Taylor and Mary Howard; was married; and was buried in Wilson County. Eddie Taylor was informant.

Colored School Committee No. 17 buys a one-acre lot.

I’m reading Grace Elizabeth Hale’s In the Pines: A Lynching, A Lie, A Reckoning (about which, more, later), and this passage stood out: “The categories of public and private did not quite capture how schools operated in the early twentieth century in many areas of the rural South. In one sense, most schools were ‘private,’ meaning they were organized and run by the families that sent students and provided a building and other resources. In another sense, they were almost all public, as most got some funding — for Black schools it could be a pittance — from public revenues ….”

Until just after World War I, Wilson County’s Board of Education comprised dozens of tiny school districts designated white or colored. The schools in these districts dated as far back as the 1880s and, by 1900, one-, two, and three-room schoolhouses, mostly serving white students, dotted the landscape. The Board consolidated its white schools into several modern brick facilities in the early 1920s, and many of the old wooden buildings, already long past their prime, were converted to use for Black students.

However, a few early African-American schools were purpose-built on land donated or sold at low cost by Black farmers to “colored school” commissioners for the benefit of the community. Howard Colored School in western Wilson County was an example.  

In the summer of 1891, A.M. Thompson (a well-to-do white farmer) and Ira Howard, committeemen for colored district number 17, paid John and Mary Howard Taylor a nominal sum for a small plot of land. John Taylor was Ira Howard’s brother-in-law. The Howards, Taylors, and other families, such as Eatmons and Brantleys, descended from free people of color with close kinship ties to white families on both sides of the Nash-Wilson county border. They were generally prosperous farmers, and it is not surprising their members took leading roles in the establishment of a community school.

This deed made this the 6th day of June AD 1891 Between John Taylor and wife Mary of the County of Wilson and State of North Carolina of the first part and A.M. Thompson and Ira Howard School Committee for the Colored Race in district No. 17 and State and County aforesaid of the second part witnesseth that whereas the said John Taylor and wife Mary has for and in consideration of the sum of Ten Dollars to them in hand paid by the said A.M. Thompson Ira Howard as school committee out of Public School funds appropriated to said district, the receipt and payment whereof is hereby acknowledged have bargained and sold and by these presents does hereby bargain sell and convey unto the said A.M. Thompson and Ira Howard and to their successors in office one lot of land lying and being in Taylors township Wilson County and State aforesaid commencing at a red oak on the line between T.R. [Thomas Ruffin] Lamm and John Taylor thence South to a black jack oak thence East to lightwood stake thence North to a lightwood stake thence with west to the beginning containing one acre more or less to have and to hold and to their successors in office bounded by the lands of T.R. Lamm and ….”

Deed book 30, page 82, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

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  • A.M. Thompson
  • John and Mary Taylor

In the 1880 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer John Taylor, 34; wife Mary, 25; and children Mouzouria, 4, and George, 2.

In the 1900 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer John Taylor, 50; wife Mary, 45; and children Jessie, 19, Hubard, 14, John R., 13, Eddie, 10, and Addie, 6.

In the 1910 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer Mary Taylor, 55, widow; children George, 31, Jesse, 29, John R., 23, Eddie, 20, and Addie, 17; and brother Allison Howard, 34.

Addie Brantley died 15 February 1917 in Taylors township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 22 years old; was born in North Carolina to John Taylor and Mary Howard; was married; and worked as a farmhand. Charlie Brantley was informant.

John Richard Taylor died 7 November 1917 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 2 March 1884 in Wilson County to John Taylor and Mary Howard; was married; worked as a carpenter; and was buried in Wilson County. Eddie Taylor was informant.

Jessie Taylor died 23 June 1920 in Taylors township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was 38 years old; was born in Wilson County to John Taylor and Mary Howard; was married to Fannie Taylor; and worked as a farmer. Gilbert Howard was informant.

Missouri Moore died 28 July 1920 in Taylors township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 46 years old; was born in Wilson County to John Taylor and Mary Howard; and was married. Dewitt Moore was informant.

In the 1930 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: widow Mary Howard, 80, and brother Gilbert Howard, 65.

Mary Taylor died 31 May 1930 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 80 years old; was born in Wilson County to Deal Howard and Rhoda Eatman; was a widow; was a farmer; and was buried in Wilson. Gilbert Howard was informant.

Harold H. Taylor, Johnson C. Smith ’51.

The Bull (1951), the yearbook of Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, N.C.

Harold Herbert Taylor was born after his family left Wilson for New Jersey, then Washington, D.C., but I include him on general principle. His father, Rev. Halley B. Taylor, was arguably the most influential early twentieth-century pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church.

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In the 1930 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1715 First Street, minister Halley B. Taylor, 50; wife Marie L., 45; and children Bettie S., 19, M. Louise, 17, Robert E., 14, Halley B., Jr., 12, and Harold H., 1.

The obituary of Marie Ravennah Taylor.

The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 18 June 1942.

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Marie Louise Ravennah was born about 1885 in Hampton County, South Carolina, to Emile J. Ravennah and Georgianna Rivers Ravennah. She married Rev. Halley B. Taylor in 1909; they likely met while students in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Taylors lived in Wilson about a decade, where Rev. Halley led Calvary Presbyterian Church.

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In the 1920 census of Town of Wilson, Wilson County: at 700 Green Street, preacher Henry [sic; Halley] Taylor, 40; wife Louise, 28; and children Bettie, 8, Louise, 6, Robert, 5, and Halley, 4.

In the 1930 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1715 First Street, minister Halley B. Taylor, 50; wife Marie L., 45; and children Bettie S., 19, M. Louise, 17, Robert E., 14, Halley B., Jr., 12, and Harold H., 1.

In the 1940 census of Washington, D.C.: Halley B. Taylor, 60; wife Marie L., 54; and sons Halley Jr., 22, and Holard T., 11.

 

First Lieutenant H.B. Taylor Jr. assigned to Tuskegee Field.

The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 15 November 1943.

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In the 1920 census of Town of Wilson, Wilson County: at 700 Green Street, preacher Henry [sic; Halley] Taylor, 40; wife Louise, 28; and children Bettie, 8, Louise, 6, Robert, 5, and Halley, 4.

In the 1930 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1715 First Street, minister Halley B. Taylor, 50; wife Marie L., 45; and children Bettie S., 19, M. Louise, 17, Robert E., 14, Halley B., Jr., 12, and Harold H., 1.

In the 1940 census of Washington, D.C.: Halley B. Taylor, 60; wife Marie L., 54; and sons Halley Jr., 22, and Holard T., 11.

On 15 June 1944, Halley Blanton Johnson married Doris Eugenia Johnson in Washington, D.C.

In 1946, Halley Blanton Taylor registered for the draft in Washington, D.C. Per his registration card, he was born 18 August 1917 in Wilson, N.C.; lived at 1715 First Street, Washington; his contact was wife Doris E. Taylor; and he was an unemployed veteran.

In the 1950 census of Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey: medical doctor Halley B. Taylor, 32; wife Doris E., 25; and Luanne E., 3.

Halley B. Taylor Jr. died 12 February 2006 and was buried Quantico National Cemetery, Quantico, Virginia.

Marie Louise Taylor, honor graduate.

Washington Tribune, 30 June 1932.

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In the 1920 census of Town of Wilson, Wilson County: at 700 Green Street, preacher Henry [sic; Halley] Taylor, 40; wife Louise, 28; and children Bettie, 8, Louise, 6, Robert, 5, and Halley, 4.

In the 1930 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1715 First Street, minister Halley B. Taylor, 50; wife Marie L., 45; and children Bettie S., 19, M. Louise, 17, Robert E., 14, Halley B., Jr., 12, and Harold H., 1.

The Bison, Howard University yearbook (1932).

On 29 June 1938, Marie Louise Taylor married Walter Harvey Primas in Washington, D.C.

In the 1940 census of Washington, D.C.: Walter H. Primas, 29, Howard University postmaster, and wife Marie T., 27.

In 1940, Walter Harvey Primas registered for the World War II draft in Washington, D.C. Per his registration card, he was born 18 January 1911 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; lived at 815 – 2oth Street, N.E., Washington; his contact was wife Marie T. Primas; and he worked for Howard University.

In the 1950 census of Washington, D.C.: Walter H. Primas, 39, bookstore manager; wife Marie T., 37; and children Marie L., 9, Walter H. Jr., 8, William R., 5, Jewel Y., 4, and Elizabeth V., 1.

The Techite (1966), the yearbook of McKinley Technical High School, Washington, D.C.

Marie Taylor Primas died 5 August 2009 in Washington, D.C.