RTaylor551 on Family Tree Circles

John Thomas Taylor
b. July 14, 1842 - Rock Hill (?) South Carolina
d. Feb 1 1897 - Cleveland County, Arkanas. My father in law said he died when a tree fell on him while clearing the family farm. He is buried at Union Cemetery, Rye, Arkansas
Married Julia Nichols after the Civil War in South Carolina. She was the daughter of Thomas Nichols and Martha Ferguson. Both were members of the Harmony Baptist Church in Chester County, South Carolina before coming to Cleveland County, Arkansas via Muscadine, Cleburne County, Alabama.
I have been told that Julia was the sister of a Civil War friend of John Thomas named John Nichols. They came to Arkansas together. This I verified with some older relatives from the Nichols family.
John Thomas also had a sister, Sarah (b approx 1830), who shows as living with John Thomas and Julia in South Carolina and Alabama, but not Arkansas.
Their first child, Martha, was born in South Carolina and while she shows up in the Alabama census, she does not show in Arkansas. Their last child, George, shows up in Alabama but not in Arkansas. Our older family members here were not aware of Mary and George until I started my search.
The children of John Thomas (known as Thomas here in Arkansas) and Julia are:
Martha - b. 1870 SC
Mary J - b. 1873 AL - d. 1/24/1897 AR
William Thomas Alexander (my husband's great grandfather - also known as Ellic or E.T.) b. 1875 AL d. 1965 AR
John N. - b. 1876 - AL d. 8/12/1959 AR
Robert E. - b. 1877 AL d. 1/18/1941 AR
George - b. approx 1880 AL
Vesti Ann - b 1882 - d date unknown in AR
Lona b 1886 AR - d 1/10/1961 AR
Emma - b. 1886 (?) AR d. 10/28/1974 AR
Della - b 1888 AR - d 8/31.1918 AR
Etta - b 1889 AR

When John Thomas died, Julia and the younger children lived with William Thomas Alexander and his new wife, Lucy Curry Taylor. She never remarried, and according to older relatives, wore black from the day her husband died until her death in 1925.