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Below is a family biography included in The History of Madison County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Robert J. Taylor is a son Tarpley and Lydia (Secrest) Taylor, and was born in Warren County, Ind., June 26, 1835. His parents were both reared in Fleming County, Ky., and when young immigrated to Indiana. In 1845 they moved to Iowa, where the father died in 1855 and the mother in 1872. Their family consisted of seven sons and three daughters, one of each now deceased. Our subject passed his life from the age of ten until maturity in Iowa upon the farm, remaining with his mother two years after the death of his father. After 1857 he farmed ten years in Franklin County, Kas., and then located upon his present farm nine miles east of Huntsville, where he has a farm of 135 acres, forty-two being in orchard. He is an extensive fruit grower, and possesses over 4,100 fruit trees, raising some of the finest fruit in this region. In 1858 he married Isabella Kay, a native of Preston, Lancashire, England, who was born in 1839, and was brought to America at the age of five years by her parents. Her youth was principally spent in Providence, R. I. and Wisconsin. Mrs. Taylor is the mother of the following children: Eliza J. (deceased), Tarpley (now in Mexico), Lydia E. (deceased), John, Charles H., Joseph W. and Amanda (twins), Dick, Francis and an infant deceased. Mrs. Taylor is a member of the Baptist Church. Mr. Taylor is a member of the Masonic fraternity and a highly respected citizen, in politics working with the Democrats. Besides his other property he owns twenty acres on Crystal Mountain near the crystal upheaval.

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This family biography is one of 99 biographies included in The History of Madison County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Madison County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Madison County, Arkansas family biographies here: Madison County, Arkansas

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