SOME DESCENDANTS OF PARMENAS TAYLOR

 
Col. Parmenas and Betty (White) Taylor had eleven children, all of whom appear to have lived to adulthood. The oldest was William, born 12 March 1780, and named for both grandfathers. Alfred, Leanna, Leroy, Polly, Matilda, Mahala, Argyle, Willis, Elizabeth and Albert were their other children. Willis, our great-grandfather was born 12 March 1798 - that is not a misprint, he was exactly eighteen years younger than William. It is not exactly true that all lived to adulthood as we do not know what happened to Argyle - there is no record of his marriage or death. It is interesting to note that the first name "Argyle" is found in almost all of the Taylor generations clear back to Lazarus in the 1600's. The story is that there was a relationship established to the Duke of Argyle before any Taylors came to the New World. An "Elizabeth" supposedly married the Duke, and it may have been a mark of royalty to name the children "Argyle". Anyway, there were numerous Argyles.

William married Mary Lingenfelter (which is spelled many ways). They had eleven children also, one of whom was Mary Ann. She married her first cousin, Argyle Taylor, son of Willis. More about them later. Alfred was the second child, born in 1782.....Leroy B. (probably Bradford) and Leanna were next. Leanna married Alexander McC1annahan on 17 November 1815, and Leroy married Mary McSpadden 25 October 1809.

Not much is known of Polly - she may have married a Butler, and she may have been a twin to Matilda, who was born, 17 June 1789 and married Ezekiel Inman, a brother to Jean (or Jane) Inman wife of Alfred, her brother. The Inmans were a well-known family who lived on "Inman's Bend" of the French Broad just below the Taylor family. Accounts of Shadrach Inman's activities in government and military affairs are frequently encountered in early Tennessee history, as well as those of Abednego Inman. I believe the brother and sister who married into the Taylor family were of Shadrach's family.

Mahala Taylor was born 2 August 1792 and married John Cunningham Turnley. The Turnleys lived on the south side of the French Broad and had a large land holding there. A picture or sketch of the grandfather Turnley's plantation hangs on the wall of the Dandridge Courthouse. Mahala and John Turnley had one son, Parmenas Taylor Turnley, and several daughters. The son achieved some fame in the 1800's and wrote many books from which we get quite a lot of information about both families.

Argyle was the next child, but we know nothing about him - he probably died quite young. Willis, great grandfather of most of us, was the eighth or ninth child, born as stated previously in 1798, and was married about 1820 to Ann T. Harrison, daughter of John and Sallie (Knight?) Harrison. The families were friends.

The Harrison's owned a ferry across the River, and the road to the ferry ran past the Taylor farm. It still does, but there is no ferry since the back-up of the river and formation of Douglas Lake. We still take the Harrison Ferry Road out of White Pine south to Taylor's Bend to reach the old farm. John Harrison's will leaves a sum of money to his daughter Anny Taylor and her Husband, Willis.



 

Taken from TENNESSEE ANCESTORS

Volume 1 (3) December l985 148