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Below is a family biography from the book, History of Kentucky, Edition 7 by J. H. Battle, W. H. Perrin and G. C. Kniffin and published by F. A. Battey Publishing Company in 1887.  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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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 years; 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, had 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 house 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.]

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This family biography is one of 41 biographies included in the Campbell County, Kentucky section of the book, The History of Kentucky, Edition 7 published in 1887 by F. A. Battey Publishing Company.  For the complete description, click here: History of Kentucky, Edition 7

View additional Campbell County, Kentucky family biographies here: Campbell County, Kentucky Biographies

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