Perigan Taylor (1761 -1827) - Sarah Nelson (1764 -1821) buried Wilson Co., Tenn
John Nelson Taylor (1805 - 1862) - Cary Ann Shepherd (1812 - 1865) buried Wilson Co., Tenn
Thomas Leland Taylor (1829 - 1900) - Margret Nelson Hulme ( 1850 - 1911) buried Howe, Texas
Sallie Lucille Taylor ((1881 - 1976) - George Marlow Scoggins (1873 - 1967) buried Tioga, Texas
Kenneth Marlow Scoggins (1920 - 1990) - Bennie Henderson (1923 - 2005) buried Sherman, Texas
Marilyn (Me)
Perigan Taylor was born in 1761 in North Carolina, the son of Ms. Elizabeth and Thomas Taylor. He had three sons and seven daughters with Sarah Nelson. He then married Mary Williams on February 7, 1822, in Wilson, Tennessee. He died on March 23, 1827, in Wilson, Tennessee, at the age of 66, and was buried there.
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| Original house |
Perigan Taylor was a cabinet maker by trade, who was born in North Carolina and through Virginia moved to Tennessee and settled in an adjoining county, not far from “the Hermitage”, General Jackson’s home. Perigan Taylor was a small, active, high strung, excitable man, very dark complexioned. His wife, whose was Sarah Nelson, was said to be a very beautiful woman of the pronounced blonde type, with a sunny disposition. What a fortunate thing this was, otherwise she and Perigan might have had many a “scrap”.
(copied from one of his grandaughters off Ancestry.com)
Perigan Taylor was a fine builder. He built a double log cabin six miles north of Lebanon, Tennessee and is in perfect state of preservation. The cabin is made entirely of cedar logs of good size, the bark all taken off, and look as sound as the day they were put in the cabin.
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| Photo taken by me on February 16, 2017 |
A letter written by Perigan Taylor:
State of Tennessee, Wilson County
July the 9th, 1826.
Dear Children;
I embrace this opportunity of writing to you to inform you that myself and family are well at present, hoping that these few lines will find you all enjoying your healths. I received your letter bearing the date the 11th of June, 1826, and was very much gratified to hear that you were all well. I have been very sick last fall. I was taken sick the 13th of October and was given out by the physician on the 15th, I was sick about ten weeks. I was perfectly reconciled to go. I started to go to Mr. McCorkles and met Matilda (Afflack) and she informed me that her father was killing her mother. I immediately started and in going so fast overheated myself, which I think was the principle cause of my indisposition, and I have not recovered my health perfectly since. I have had several attacks, but they were not so severe. I am at present in a declining state of health and my difficulties that I have to encounter with is more than I ever expected, and death to me would be a welcome messenger. I should be very glad to see you all once more, but unless I recover my health and if I should, I do not expect to stay here. I should be very glad to see James Bowman, Henry B. Maxey, and Elihu Maxey (edit- his sons in law- rmt dec 2009) if it could be convenient and have some conversation with you all, which if I ever recover my health I hope to see you this fall. I wish to inform you that crops are very promising, tobacco from $2.50 to $5.00, cotton from $6.00 to $10.00 per hundred, corn $2.00, pork $2.50, beef $3.50 to $4.00 per cwt. There has been several deaths since I heard from you all, Benjamin Warren has lost his little son. James Thomas departed this life the 4th of July. The neighbors are very sickly. Miss Sallie Davis is very low. I wish to inform you that I still hold my integrity in hopes the last day I will find a better world and hope that you will all prepare to meet me. Through all of my trials and difficulties I have universally kept my religious tenets in view. I once knew what it was to enjoy pleasure but that time is past and I am constantly in torment. Tell my daughters Polly, Peggy, Elizabeth, and Evalina that I think of them often times and their amiable mother that is now no more and I have wept and shed tears at the thought. The spot of ground where your mother lies is sacred to me. I often visit the place with tearful eyes and sad remembrance of past happy days which I enjoyed while she was living. James will give you this letter and I want you to try to please James and get him in the notion to move, and write to John all the encouragement you can and if you can only get them in the notion to move to that country and then every difficulty will be removed. If I conclude in James return to move, I will write you for help. I want you all to write me every chance. I have been sick and not able to work and I have no way to make money and my expenses are (?)considerably(?) more than my income. I want to be with you all and enjoy your company with pleasure for I have no enjoyment here. Remember me to all my children and grandchildren.
Nothing more at present, but remain your loving father until death.
Perigan Taylor
N.B. I want you to show this letter to all and anything that they want to know that I have not written , they can inquire of James and he can give them the necessary information. I want you to remember me to William Maxey and family, Thos. Casey and family, Abram Casey and family. I remain with the highest respect and veneration your loving father until death.
Perigan Taylor
Wilson County, Tennessee
This letter was written to Elihu and Burchett Maxey, who married his daughters Evalina and Peggy(Margaret-rmt). James was his son who brought the letter from Tennessee and John spoken of in the letter was another son (John Nelson Taylor – rmt). Perigan died not long after writing this letter and never even visited his children in Illinois. The latter part of his life was pitiful. His beloved wife gone, his children, most of them, in Illinois and he sorely afflicted. No wonder that he said in his letter “Death would be a welcome messenger”. This original letter, now the property of Horace Maxey of White Water, Kansas is well preserved and very beautiful writing when we consider it was written by an old man severly afflicted.
Perigan’s wife, whose maiden name was Nelson, belonged to an influential well-to-do family in Virginia, an Uncle of hers, Major Nelson, visited them in Tennessee when my grandmother was a little girl. He took a great fancy to her and wanted her parents to let him take her back with him to Virginia. He said he would educate her and make a lady of her. Perigan Taylor and his wife had a big family, seven or eight children, and were poor, living in the wilds of a new country with no opportunities for their children, but they had none to spare.
“***Which shall it be?
I looked at John; John looked at me.”
Did you ever read that poem? If not get it and read it; then you will read it again. Your heart strings will be touched and you will know why my grandmother was not given to the rich Uncle.
In a little grave, on the old Tennessee farm, about a quarter of a mile from their cedar log cabin, lie the remains of Perigan Taylor and his wife, in the peaceful valley of the Cumberland. They died poor, but raised a large and respectable family and kept them together until they were married.
(This also was copied from Ancestry.com)
We tried to locate the grave last month. We did find one possibility, but will definitely check it out again.
