The Taylor Family Cemetery

Our country home was built in 1859 by M.C. Taylor for his wife Sarah (Sallie) Taylor and their children.  It was the second home built on the Taylor property - the foundation ruins of an earlier home, probably from the early 1830's when Miles and Sallie were starting their family - lies in the woods about a 1/2 mile north of the current house.

The front porch is clearly a later addition and is not original to the house.  I'm not sure what type, if any, of front porch the home may have originally have had.

 The Taylor family property is popularly believed to have been several thousand acres at one time, encompassing land from about a mile or so north of the home, east about a 1/4 mile to the county line, west about 1 1/2 miles and south about 4 miles to the Meherrin River.  Around 5,000 - 6,000 acres.  Early Civil War era maps mark the property.

'Gilmore' map of 1864.  M. Taylor property marked in the bottom right corner just west of the county line.

On the east side of the house is a tranquil oak shaded family cemetery where the Taylor family members are buried as well as the descendents who inherited and lived on the property all the way up to us purchasing the home.  The cemetery is a separate piece of land, officially deeded and registered as a private cemetery.

Posts for gate into the cemetery

I'm installing a fence around the property I own.  The cemetery has frontage on the paved road, so technically there is 'access', but in reality there is no driveway and the graves are 400 plus feet from the road next to the house.  I'm installing a gate in the property fence line so visitors and family can have easy access to the graveyard.

Miles C. Taylor.  Feb 15, 1806 - Nov 28, 1889

Sallie E. Taylor.  Feb 14, 1808 - May 27, 1885

The original owners of the home are buried side by side near where The gate will be installed.

Confederate veterans graves with original bronze medallions from the Confederate Veterans Association c.1890's

Four Taylor sons and a son-in-law, all Confederate veterans, are buried in the family cemetery near their parents whose graves are at the far right in the picture.  In the back row at the far right there is a flag and medallion without a headstone.  This is the grave of Robert Sterling Taylor, Miles & Sallie's youngest son of age to serve in the military during the Civil War and the only one who died as a result of a wound sustained during the war.  Born Jan 31, 1843 he died on Mar 31, 1863 at home.  He was 20 years old.  His headstone is propped up at the base of one of the oak trees and just barely readable if the light is just right.  I am researching ways to restore the headstone properly and will re-install it on his grave when the work is completed.  Three other older sons, Benjamin James Taylor, Richard Henry Taylor, and William Daniel Taylor and son-in-law John William Turner all survived the war.  At least two of them were surrendered by General Lee to Grant at Appomattox.  On-line I have seen copies of their parole slips given to them for safe passage back home as well as some of their muster papers, payroll records and other documentation.  More research will fill in some of the blanks.  Members of the local chapter of the Confederate Veterans Association come once a year in the spring to clean up the cemetery and place new flags on the graves.

descendent owners of the Taylor home are buried in the north end of the graveyard

Interestingly all the sons of Miles and Sallie moved away, had lives and property elsewhere in Virginia, were brought home for burial when they passed, but did not inherit the home place and property.  The home passed to a daughter who married a Turner, whose daughter married a Hardy, whose daughter married a Boettcher.  Turners, Hardys and Boettchers are all buried in the graveyard.  The last and most recent burial was Janet Hardy Boettcher in 2002.  Her grave is just barely visible in the bright sun in the background next to the large shrub in the upper right of the picture.  I think Miles and Sallie would have been her great-great-great grandparents.  I'll figure it all out one day.  By the way - the Confederate Veterans Association is an equal honor group.  They place the Stars-and-Bars flag of the Confederacy on Confederate veterans graves and the Stars-and-Stripes on the graves of Union veterans and veterans of modern US Military units.  Janet Boettcher was a Navy nurse who served in Vietnam so her grave gets a new flag every spring also.