My Genealogy Hound

Philemon J. Taylor, deputy sheriff of Oakland County, and the owner of a fine farm of 160 acres in Novi township, is a prominent resident of Novi village, where he has lived since his first appointment to his present office, in 1900. Mr. Taylor was born in Commerce township, Oakland County, Michigan, in 1851, and is a son of Jacob and Melinda (Austin) Taylor, a grandson of George Taylor and a great-grandson of William Taylor.

William Taylor was born in Ireland and came to America prior to the Revolutionary War. He was a man of distinguished merit, being one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His home for some years was in Pennsylvania, where many of the name may yet be found.

George Taylor, the grandfather of our subject, was born in New Jersey, September 1, 1782. His wife, Sarah Shoemaker, was born December 16, 1787, in Pennsylvania, of Dutch ancestry. In 1823 George Taylor and his wife came to Michigan, walking the distance from Detroit to Piety Hill, which is now known at Birmingham, and spent one year in Troy township and one in Bloomfield, removing to Commerce township in 1831. They settled on the present site of Walled Lake, where Mr. Taylor died June 30, 1841, being survived eight years by his widow. George Taylor was a captain in the War of 1812, was a justice of the peace for many years and was a man of wealth and prominence.

Jacob Taylor, the father of our subject, was born November 16, 1820, in New Jersey, being one of 11 children born to George and Sarah (Shoemaker) Taylor. His education was obtained in what was then known as the rate school, and his occupation in life was farming. On September 11, 1846, he married Melinda Austin, who was born in New York, and who was a daughter of Philemon L. and Matilda (Seeley) Austin, both of whom were natives of Yates County, New York. By trade Mr. Austin was a pump maker; he served his country in the War of 1812. Mrs. Taylor was one of a family of nine children, and was born February 4, 1823, and died July 5, 1855. She was the devoted mother of three children, namely: Matilda, born October 10, 1847, who married Jerome Barrett of Midland County, Michigan; Marinda, born July 30, 1850, who married Maj. Charles R. Miller, of the War Department at Washington, D. C.; and Philemon J., of this sketch. The second marriage of Jacob Taylor occurred July 4, 1858, to his sister-in-law, Marinda Austin, and one child was born to them, Justus, born June 9, 1859. Justus Taylor married Jennie Hill and they have six children and reside on the homestead farm. Our subject’s father died July 20, 1896, at the age of 76 years.

Philemon J. Taylor was given the best educational advantages the time and place afforded and remained on the home farm until the age of 23, when he located on his own farm of 160 acres, in section 11, Novi township. There he engaged in farming and stock raising very successfully until 1889, when he rented the farm and removed to a comfortable home in the village. Mr. Taylor is now serving his second term as deputy sheriff of the county, this fact speaking very plainly of the esteem in which he is held by his fellow citizens. In politics he is a Democrat.

The educated and accomplished lady who became the wife of Mr. Taylor was formerly Sarah C. Tremper, a daughter of the late William and Catherine (Bogert) Tremper, the former of whom was born at Nyack, New York, and the latter in the city of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Tremper came to Michigan in 1846 and settled on a farm in West Bloomfield township, Oakland County, where he died in 1882, aged 72 years, and she died in 1888. They reared seven children, four of whom are still surviving, viz: Peter, a farmer of Midland, Michigan; Albert, a master carpenter, residing at Pontiac; William, who is farming in Ohio; and Mrs. Taylor.

Mrs. Taylor is a graduate of the City Normal School of New York City and her young womanhood was passed as a teacher, first in the New York Industrial School, then in the Pontiac High School after coming to Michigan and still later, for two years, in the village of Commerce. She is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Novi. For nine years she was county president of the W. C. T. U., and at present is secretary of the Farmers’ Club and superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday-school.