The Taylors of...All Over the Place -- Part 2

Pusey P. and Mary Turner Taylor

In the last post, we began a somewhat self-indulgent look at the Taylor family, mostly focusing on the households of William Taylor (1773-1829) and his 7th son (12th child of 14), David Wilson Taylor (1819-1895). I say "somewhat self-indulgent" because this happens to be my wife's lineage -- David W. Taylor is her Great-great-great grandfather. I do believe, though, that their story is interesting in its own right (to people other than us), as it does meander through multiple places in Mill Creek, Christiana, and Brandywine Hundreds; through historic Chadds Ford, PA; and even Virginia and New Jersey.

We'll start here with David W. and Elizabeth Taylor, who had four surviving children -- Newton Pyle (1853-1929), Pusey Phillips (1855-1924), Martha Walters (1860-1946), and Levis Walter (1864-1937). All would have been born on the Centreville farm, Newton and Pusey at the older house and Martha and Levis at the new house. All four kids lived in the general area all their lives, but in this post our concern is Pusey (my wife's Great great grandfather). In 1891, Pusey married Mary A. Turner (1869-1947) of Nether Providence Township, Delaware County. She was the daughter of an English cotton manufacturer, and went by "May" (an name that has been passed all the way down into my children's generation). Pusey and May were married in Philadelphia, but moved around several times in Delaware and Pennsylvania in their first 20 years together. I believe I've pieced most of it together.

One indispensable resource is the Taylor family's entry in the 1914 A History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and Its People, Volume 2. Among other things it, lists the place of birth for each of Pusey and May's seven children. Their first, and my wife's Great grandmother, was Margaret Flaville Taylor, born in November 1892, according to the book, at Mermaid. Although I can find no other record of the Taylors near Mermaid, I think the December 1892 ad below answers the question. It incorrectly lists his middle initial as "A", but it seems Pusey was leasing the the former Lindsay farm, purchased in 1875 by Elizabeth Ocheltree. Although the house is long gone, the barn and one stone outbuilding still stand on Middleton Drive, north of Stoney Batter Road about halfway down.

The Lindsay Barn today, now used for office space

The next two children (William and Bayard) were listed as being born in Hockessin. Documentation is skimpy, but I think Pusey had purchased a ten-acre farm on the east side of Mill Creek, just below Hockessin (probably near the farm his grandfather William had bought in 1814). Either he soon sold this farm or perhaps kept it as a rental, because the next child, Walter Chandler, was listed as being born in Walnut Green in 1898. I didn't know what that was at first, until I learned that the historic Walnut Green School is located at the corner of Rt. 82 and Owl's Nest Road, near the northwest corner of Hoopes Reservoir. This makes sense, as the family is listed in Christiana Hundred in the 1900 Census.

Although Frederick Ervin Taylor was born in February 1900, and the 1900 Census lists his place of birth as Delaware, all later documents place his birth in Pennsylvania. It was, indeed, about this time that the family was in the process of moving to the area where Pusey Taylor would reside the rest of his life (and an area whose history I've learned much of recently) -- Chadds Ford. They would actually, successively, occupy three different locations in the Chadds Ford area, and come into contact with a fair amount of history.

The first home the Taylors made there was at the Strode Farm, located on the west side of Brandywine Creek below Route 1. They leased that farm until about 1905, as the History of Delaware County has next child, Philip Pusey, born at "Chadds Ford Junction" in October 1904. They next moved a short distance east of "downtown" Chadds Ford, to an estate known as Windtryst. They rented the impressive-looking home there for the next four or five years. The Italianate style home (complete with tower) was built of local serpentine stone in 1867 by Joseph C. Turner (I've not been able to find a familial link to Pusey's wife Mary Turner).

Windtryst, c. 1890

Windtryst stood high on a hill on the north side of Route 1, immediately west of Brandywine Battlefield and behind the Benjamin Ring House, better known as Washington's Headquarters. Directly across the road stands the old Turner's Mill, now used as a municipal building. At the time, though, it was home to Wilmington artist Howard Pyle's summer school. One of the more noteworthy of his students was a young artist from Massachusetts named Newell Convers Wyeth. In the summer of 1907, the newly-married N. C. Wyeth returned to Chadds Ford and rented a room in Windtryst's tower from Pusey Taylor. (It's not quite clear to me, but Wyeth may have boarded with the Taylors at the Strode Farm as well, as early as 1903.)

Noting the Wyeths' return home, September 1907

The Taylors developed a close friendship with the burgeoning artist, as show in several forms. For one, Pusey and May's last child was born in October 1908 and given the name Newell Convers Taylor. For another, the Taylor children showed up in several of Wyeth's early works (although to be fair, so did other local residents). In 1911, Wyeth was tasked with creating illustrations for an edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. 13 year old Walter modeled for "Jim Hawkins Leaves Home", and 19 year old Margaret for "The Innkeeper's Daughter". Sadly, Walter Taylor would die in 1916 at the age of 18, leaving this painting as the only image of him.

Walter Taylor as Jim Hawkins, by NC Wyeth

Margaret Taylor as the Innkeeper's Daughter,
by NC Wyeth

By the time Wyeth was creating these works in 1911, however, Pusey Taylor had moved on to his last, and grandest, home. (It's fortunate that he did, as Windtryst was destroyed in a fire in 1914.) In 1910, he purchased from the du Pont family a historic 212 acre farm, nestled in a bend in the Brandywine River, about two miles south of Chadds Ford. The estate that Taylor called Horseshoe Farm dates back to the 18th Century, and frankly an entire book could probably be written about it. Its earliest section may have been built by a retired Scottish officer in the British Army in the 1760's (or even earlier). William Twaddell operated a saw mill, iron forge, grist mill, and powder mill here at various times. There was even a major Lenni Lenape village here before the arrival of Europeans.

The Taylors farmed the property, now known as Big Bend, for 15 years. The house itself is of a stone bank design, standing 2½ stories on the front (north-facing) side and 3½ stories on the south-facing side. Pusey Taylor died at his home in 1924, and was buried at historic Brandywine Baptist Church (on the grounds of Brandywine Battlefield). The family sold the farm in 1925, most likely directly to Harry G. Haskell. Haskell, a Dupont Company executive, spent decades acquiring hundreds of acres in the area. His "home farm" in the area was Hill Girt, on the west side of the Brandywine. The house at Big Bend was left vacant for some 35 years, until purchased by George A. "Frolic" Weymouth in 1961.

The rear, south-facing side of Big Bend today

The front, north-facing side of Big Bend, 1972

Frolic Weymouth was the son of an investment banker and a du Pont heiress, and was an artist and avid conservationist. He fell in love with Big Bend and spent decades passionately restoring it, filling it with as many period-appropriate antiques as he could find. Weymouth's passion for the area didn't end at his doorstep, though. He was instrumental in the creation of the Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art in the late 1960's/early 70's. I find it altogether fitting that the museum celebrating N.C. Wyeth's work should have been founded by a man living in the home of one of Wyeth's past landlords.

All of Pusey and May's surviving children ended up staying in the New Castle County/SE Pennsylvania area. For example, sons William and Frederick purchased a farm in 1929, a couple miles southwest of Stanton. William sold his portion in 1942 and moved to Newport, while Frederick remained on the farm until his death in 1959. The land was sold out of the family a few years later to a private organization, but in 1985 it would become the site of the brand new Christiana Hospital.

Margaret Taylor and Samuel Hanby Brown, 1913

However, our last stop in Taylor history is with Pusey's eldest child, Margaret Flaville Taylor (1892-1939). In the early Teens (when she was about 20), Margaret met a widowed butcher from Concord Township named Samuel Hanby Brown (1873-1930). Samuel's first wife, the former Florence Talley, had died in 1911, leaving Brown with five children (a sixth had died the year before). The two were married in 1913 and moved close to Samuel's father in Talleyville. Samuel ran his butcher shop on what was then the west side of Concord Pike, now the center. It sat next to the Grange Hall, which has since been moved a short distance east. The family resided in a house on the southeast corner of Concord Pike and Silverside Road, and had two more children together -- Dorothy and May. May Taylor Brown would later marry Leonard Starkey of Sudlersville, MD -- the pair are my wife's grandparents.

The Browns' house at Silverside Road and Concord Pike

So as we've seen, like countless other families over the years, the Taylors touched quite a few different localities over the past few centuries. From their original "home" in Delaware County, various Taylors have farmed just about all of the northern New Castle County hundreds, as well as a noteworthy stop in the Chadds Ford vicinity. I know there are those of you whose families have appeared in past posts here (usually more than one), and it's been thrilling to finally cover one that touches me personally. And if you or anyone you know might be connected to these Taylors, let me know -- I've got some (probably distant) cousins for you!