Thomas Jefferson Taylor1
M, #31196, (1874 - 1960)
- Reference: [31196:0]
Vitals
- Birth*: 29 Aug 1874, Autauga Co, AL.2
- Marriage*: 1937, Ruth Scroggins, Marshall, Harrison Co, TX, 3rd wife.2
- Death*: 22 Oct 1960, TX.2
Family: Thomas Jefferson Taylor & Ruth Scroggins
- Last Edited: 12 Dec 2004
Citations
- 31196.
- [S50] http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/TT/…
TAYLOR, THOMAS JEFFERSON II (1874-1960). Thomas Jefferson Taylor II,
merchant, philanthropist, and father of Lady Bird Johnson, was born on August 29,
1874, in Autauga County, Alabama, the son of Thomas Jefferson and Emma Louisa
(Bates) Taylor. He moved to Texas in the mid-1890s and opened a store in Karnack,
Harrison County. In 1900 he married Minnie Lee Patillo of Alabama; they had two sons
and a daughter, Claudia Alta, who married Lyndon Baines Johnson.qv Sometime before
1912 Taylor purchased the Andrews Plantation house, an imposing two-story brick
residence now known as the Lady Bird Johnson Home. Taylor amassed considerable
wealth by using the profits from his store and other business ventures to advance money
to needy farmers at ten percent and by investing heavily in real estate. Very much a
typical successful rural entrepreneur of his times, he was called "Cap'n Taylor" by his
business associates and "Mister Boss" by black sharecroppers; he was probably the
largest landowner in Harrison County by the 1930s. In 1934 Taylor donated to the state
about two-thirds of the land (some 385 acres) composing Caddo Lake State Park.qv He
was one of his son-in-law's principal financial backers in his first race for Congress in
1937. At one time Taylor owned the land on which the Longhorn Ordnance Works (later
the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plantqv) was constructed during World War II.qv
Minnie died in 1918, and Taylor's second marriage ended in divorce. He married his third
wife, Ruth Scroggins, in Marshall in 1937. Taylor was a member of the Karnack
Methodist Church for some sixty years. He died on October 22, 1960, after a long illness
and was buried at Algoma Cemetery, Marshall.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Austin American, October 23, 1960. Robert A. Caro, The Years of
Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power (New York: Knopf, 1982). Alfred Steinberg, Sam
Johnson's Boy (New York: Macmillan, 1968). Antonio J. Taylor, Oral History Interview,
Transcript, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin. Vertical File, Lyndon Baines
Johnson Library, Austin.
Mark Odintz
Recommended citation:
"TAYLOR, THOMAS JEFFERSON II." The Handbook of Texas Online.
<http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/TT/…> [Accessed Thu Mar 14 16:49:53 US/Central 2002 ].