Mary (Taylor) Ward (1851 - 1917)

Date: July 26, 2014 Place: At the my home - Clyde Allison

Clyde: You once told me about George and somebody else that went across the mountain to Sevier County to see his Grandpa (Mary Taylor’s Dad) and his people. You know that story about the rooster that George brought back. Can you tell me that again? Who went? I believe that you said that there was somebody else with George. John: Yeah. That was George, Mary Taylor (his mother) and Aunt Sarah (George’s sister).

Aunt Sarah told me the story when I was pretty young. You see I used to stay with Aunt Sarah or she kept me a lot when I was young.

Clyde: Oh. So your were over at Sarah’s a lot when you were growing up?

John: Yeah, a lot.

Clyde: Well. I know that you told me that they walked back across the mountain, but did they walk both ways, over and back or did they get there some other way? John: No, they walked both ways. They went down here to Bryson City then walked across the mountain.

Clyde: To Sevierville?

John: No. To Maryville or close to Maryville. It is the Collier Community near Maryville. John: Aunt Sarah said that they got there sometime in the late afternoon. Mary’s Taylor’s Dad owned a bank. She remembered that he went ahead and closed the bank and they went from there to his home. She said that it was pretty late down in the evening and was even beginning to get dark when they got to his home. John: That seems to indicate that it was later in the Fall when the days are shorter. He closed the bank a little early but it was getting somewhat dark by the time they arrived.

John: Aunt Sarah remembered a brick lain driveway leading a pretty long way up to the house. She remembered a big white house with huge white columns in front. She said that she and others went inside and were made quite welcome by family and by Mr. Taylor’s servants.

Aunt Sarah said that she remember distinctly when they sat down to eat supper that they sat around a big table. She said that each place was already set with the usual plates and dishes and glasses but she distinctly remembers 6 pieces of silverware at each place. She said that when everyone began to eat that she (Sarah) picked up the wrong fork at which time one of the colored servants smacked her (Sarah) on the hand and told her that she had picked up the wrong fork.

Aunt Sarah said when they started to leave. That George asked his Grandpa for one of his big roosters and George carried that rooster back across the mountain (Smokey Mountain) under his arms.

John: When they got back to Jericho (then called Shoal Creek), they came up the old road which went by a big rock that leaned out over the road. They were always afraid that the rock would fall so they always ran past the rock. Sarah specifically remembers running past that rock with the rooster under George’s arm. The old Jericho Road didn’t not go up the middle of the valley close to the creek as it does now but crossed the creek then ran along the side of the steep hill to the right and close to a rather big out-cropping of rock.

Clyde: That out-cropping of rock was probably that old rock quarry directly across from the present day Frank Allison place. You know that old quarry was not quarried until the late 1930s. The State got rock out of there when they were building the road up through the Soco Valley and across the mountain into Haywood. I would imagine that that is where George, Sarah and Mary encountered the leaning rock. John: Yeah it probably was. I know that several times Sarah mentioned that leaning rock that they were afraid of.

Clyde: Who was Mary Taylor’s dad?

John: You know I can’t remember right now. I’m sure I’ve heard it but I can’t remember it.

John: That house and plantation where Mary’s dad lived is now called the McCullough House and it is in the Collier Community. John: A few years back I went to an old school house near Maryville. I started down the road from Sugarlands toward Townsend but turned right. I think it was the first road to the right. Anyway I crossed over a small mountain into a valley where there was an old schoolhouse. A lady there at the schoolhouse and was telling the history of the area to anyone who was interested. When I began telling her the bits and pieces that I knew about the Taylors; she immediately picked up on that and confirmed what I knew. She is the one that told me that that house is currently called the McCullough House. We talked for about an hour.

John: You know Mary Taylor was sort of a referred to as a land baron in her time. She bought a little land from the Galloways and even some from the Allison\s and maybe others. I think all that could be traced.