The Taylor Family
Our Taylor family is from the mountains of Swain County, NC. The children above are all Taylor descendants. From left to right is Katie Taylor and Celina Taylor, both granddaughters of Winston and Helen Taylor, and on the right is Kayla Keaton, their great-granddaughter. They are sitting upon the Taylor mountain rock quarry where most of the Taylor family was born and raised.
| I have only recently begun research on our Taylor
line and the oldest relative we know about is William Taylor born about 1806 in North Carolina. William's daughter-in-law, Easter Holden Taylor, told Cleo Mashburn Taylor that William was full-blooded Cherokee. William Taylor is listed in the 1880 Union County, GA census where it states that he was born in NC. He married Mary J. May who was born around 1833 making her significantly younger than William. This makes me wonder if she might have been a second wife and if he might have had other children.
William's son, Mac D. Taylor, was my husband's great-grandfather. He was born in 1873 in Georgia. We believe that Mac might have been married three times as his oldest son was a half-brother to the others. He married Easter Holden, my husband's great-grandmother. Easter's mother was Anna (Shunk or Skunk?). Her photo is to the right and to me she looks Native American, and if she is, she is most likely Cherokee as she lived near the Cherokee reservation. Easter was from Macon County, NC and born around 1873 according to census records. Mac later separated from his wife and married again to Alice Simonds. I am unsure at this time, whether or not, they had any children. Mac and Alice are buried beside each other at Euchella Cemetery in Swain County, NC. | 
Anna Shunk or Skunk? |
Raleigh Taylor, was the son of Mac and Easter Taylor, and he is my husband's grandfather. Raleigh was born September 22, 1911. He married Stella "Cleo" Mashburn on February 22, 1934. Cleo is the daughter of Berry Mashburn born in 1897 and Cordellia Grant who was also born the same year. Cleo was kind enough to share the Taylor family Bible with me, which is where a good portion of this information came from.
In 1945, Raleigh bought the land he now lives on, planning to farm corn and other products. He was in for a surprise when he discovered that the land he had purchased was one huge rock and hardly suitable for farming. He didn't let that deter him. He decided to see what he could do with it and that's when the family rock quarry business was born. The family business grew and when Raleigh became unable to continue on his own, his sons took over, expanding it even more. You can read more about it in a published article.
Raleigh Taylor and Cleo Mashburn |
Raleigh and Cleo had 13 children. My father-in-law, Winston Taylor, is their oldest son. He was born on Halloween day, October 31, 1938. Winston married Helen Woodle on August 3, 1953 and they settled in the Greensboro area of North Carolina. They raised three children, Tina Taylor, Patrick Winston Taylor, and my husband, Dwayne Raleigh Taylor.
Left to Right: Pat, Raleigh, Winston and Dwayne |
This page was last updated November 8, 2006.
