BIO: TAYLOR, Mrs. Gen. James [nee MOSS, Keturah], Campbell Co., KY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contributed for use in US GenWeb Archives by the Kentucky Biography Project Date: Wednesday, July 10, 2002 Subject: BIO: TAYLOR, Mrs. Gen. James [nee MOSS, Keturah], Campbell Co., KY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ******************************************************************************* USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the file submitter, or his legal representative and then contact the listed USGENWEB archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net. ******************************************************************************* Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 7th ed., 1887, Campbell Co. MRS. GEN. JAMES TAYLOR. Among the pioneer children of the district of Kentucky, one who deserves historical notice, and who became first the wife of Maj. David Leitch, and then of Gen. James Taylor, was Keturah Moss. Her father was Maj. Hugh Moss, an officer of the Revolution, and her mother was Miss Jane Ford. Both were from Goochland County, Va., where, about sixteen miles above Richmond, on September 11, 1773, their daughter, Keturah, was born. Her father dying when she was very young, her mother married Capt. Joseph Farrar, and in the spring of 1784 she suffered her three little girls--Sally, aged fourteen; Keturah, eleven, and Ann, ten--to come out to Kentucky under the charge of their uncle and aunt, Rev. Augustus Eastin and his wife, with a large emigrant train through the Wilderness. These young pioneers passed through many perils during the journey. One evening at night-fall a party of about forty persons passed Mr. Eastin's camp. He advised them to stop and encamp with him, as the Indians were very warlike, and were on the alert to find them off their guard; but they went on further, and neglected the warning; in the night the savages rushed on them while they were asleep, and tomahawked and scalped about half the party. About day-break, a woman, with her infant in her arms, reached Mr. Eastin's camp, and gave notice of the fate of her party; her husband escaped in a different direction; their other child was slain. As Mr. Eastin's party came up, they beheld the mangled bodies of the slain, and gave them the best burial they could. The little Moss girls never forgot the spectacle, especially that of seeing a scalp with beautiful golden ringlets hanging on the bushes, which told of some maiden murdered. In 1785 Capt. and Mrs. Farrar came out to Kentucky, and joined the children at Bryan's Station, and there Keturah Moss grew up to womanhood. At the age of seventeen, in 1790, she was married to Maj. David Leitch, an accomplished Scotchman, who had served as an officer in the Revolution, then a merchant in Lexington. In 1791 they visited Cincinnati, coming on horse-back as far as Limestone (afterward Maysville), and thence by flat boat to the mouth of the Licking. They returned by the mouth of the Kentucky River, where there was a stockade fort, and they proceeded to Frankfort via the Brashear's Creek settlement, along a small horse trace. Capt. Williamson had given them a guard from the stockade for fifteen or twenty miles. Mr. Thomas Lindsay, who was of the party, and lagged behind about a hundred yards, when an Indian was discovered lurking in the bushes. The guards at once encircled Mrs. Leitch and urged her on with all speed, but she would not desert Mr. Lindsay, and turning her horse in his direction, she waved to him to hasten on, which he did in a gallop, and they all escaped. The next year, 1792, Maj. and Mrs. Leitch returned and established Leitch's Station about six miles above the mouth of the Licking. They remained nearly six months at Fort Washington with Gen. and Mrs. James Wilkinson, while Maj. Leitch was having their home built. In 1794 Maj. Leitch died, and the next year the widow was married to Mr. James Taylor, then a young man, who had two years before settled at Newport, on his father's estate. The hardships and dangers of pioneer life developed in Mrs. Taylor a strength of character which rendered her life one of great usefulness. She was noted for a fearless adherence to whatever she believed to be right. The cause of injured innocence found in her a firm defender, and, possessing ample means, she dispensed charity with a liberal hand. Mrs. Taylor was a Baptist in religion, and a follower of the Rev. Alexander Campbell. She had no offspring by her first marriage. Her children raised to man's estate were Col. James Taylor and his twin sister, Keturah (Mrs. Horatio T. Harris), Ann (wife of Hon. John W. Tibbatts, of Newport) and Jane (who married Mr. George T. Williamson, of Cincinnati). In January, 1866, having out-lived all the early associates of her eventful life, Mrs. Taylor died, in Newport, at the great age of ninety-three years. [See sketch of Hon. Thomas Laurens Jones.] *******************************************************************************