Taylor
Thomas Taylor was born 25 Jan 1850 the
son of George and Sarah Burke Taylor.
Thomas came to Escambia County about 1861 with his two sisters and
recently widowed mother. When Union
troops burned their Holmes County, Florida home, Sarah and her three children
fled, eventually coming by boat to Pensacola and settling in Warrington. Sarah found work in the hospital at the Navy
Yard and her son, Thomas, worked there as well.
Thomas married (1) Josephine Miller in Escambia County 24 Jan 1871. A daughter, Alice Nelsina Taylor, was born 26 Oct 1871.
Thomas married (2) Rebecca Anna
Richbourg in Escambia County 27 Nov 1877.
Rebecca, born 31 Aug 1847, was the seventh of seventeen children born to
Escambia County pioneers William Middleton Richbourg and his wife, Rebecca
Nettles Richbourg.
Thomas, a farmer, and Rebecca, with
their six children all born in Muscogee lived at Muscogee on the 39 acres
homesteaded by Thomas and granted on 25 May 1885 in Cert. No. 4807. The family attended the Methodist Church.
The oldest daughter, Ave Rilla
“Riller” Taylor, born 11 Nov 1878 died at age 17 on 27 Dec 1895. Per family memories, she died as the result
of a fall. Thomas Taylor age 47 died 30
Dec 1897. Both were buried in the
Muscogee Cemetery. Their gravestones
still remain today.
Following Thomas Taylor’s death,
Rebecca and the children moved to Harrison County (Stone County today)
Mississippi prior to 1908. Rebecca
lived at Wiggins, Mississippi until her death on 1 Jan 1912. She was returned to Muscogee and buried next
to Thomas. The slab that marks her
grave is intact but unmarked.
Submitted by Judith Richbourg Jolly
Pensacola, FL
17 Jul 2003