Taylor's Chapel

This was the most unique church we ever knew. It was also historic. It had been constructed in the 1830's of hand made slave bricks. It was a one room church with low wide doors, and wide plank floors and hand carved rails around the pulpit area. Apparently the persons building this family church had money because fine materials were used and unusual hanging lamps with china shades were still in good shape. The original Bible, a very large book, at least 12" by 16" was kept on the pulpit and the ministers were expected to read the sermon scripture each service from this traditional Bible. They had a fine pump organ and old hymnals. The pews were hand made and at the time were assigned to certain families. " The church stood with its back to the main road and the church lot was a beautiful level lot completely clear of anything but big, beautiful oak trees, very old and very large. A small cemetery was not far away with an iron fence, suggesting a private family cemetery.

There were 35 members of this church and with the exception of one family all belonged to the family of the Taylors who had originally built the church. The outside family was a Mr. and Mrs. Franks and their two children who lived in a small house at the edge of the church yard and they were the church keepers. They watched the church and kept it clean and had it in order for any special services.

Mrs. Samuel Taylor was the church secretary. She and her husband were very wealthy land owners. They owned hundreds of level, fine farmland with over one hundred farm hands, whom they housed in small houses dotted over the farm. There were no roads to these little houses, just paths. The houses were small frame boxed up houses, some whitewashed, and others painted various colors, even blue, or whatever the tenants wanted. They usually whitewashed the tree trunks, and had tires filled with flowers. They had big black wash pots in their yards, and hung their clothes on fences or bushes to dry. All of the tenants were black. Few could read or write. They worked all day every day for the Taylors, and on Sundays had all day services at their colored church. The Taylors had their own store room where the hands came daily to get their food supplies, and the Taylors kept a huge ledger with each tenant's account, and at the end of the year when the crops were sold, deductions were made for whatever the ledgers showed they owed. Many of the colored women would iron or do housework for people in the community for return of old clothes or food. Most of the black people went barefoot in the summers, and wore loose clothes, often hand-me-downs, and it was not unusual to see the young black children going around naked.

Mr. and Mrs. Taylor lived in a stately, very beautiful old southern mansion. It was at the end of a lane that led off the main road. The drive was through a large woods lot with many tall, old and beautiful trees. The house was surrounded by a wooden fence. A hand laid brick walk went from the front iron gate to the long front steps. Boxwoods were on each side of the wide walk. In the left corner of the yard was a summer house, which was a two room white frame house with front porch, green outside shutters that latched outside, and this was used for extra company. It had once been a doctor's office in their ancestry, and the family kept it preserved. There were rockers on the front porch and antique furnishings inside.

The main residence was a white two story southern style plantation home. The front entrance had a small porch with big columns and double front doors with glass panels on the sides and glass panels over the doors. There was a duplicate porch upstairs with iron rails and double front doors upstairs. There were long windows with outside green shutters. The yard had magnolia trees, boxwoods, oak trees with two seated wooden swings and all kinds of southern plants and flowers. It was a beautiful setting, completely private.

The family had a full time cook whose house was at the edge of the yard. They had a black man who wore a white coat to serve all the meals. They had other servants, and when we visited they would have older children of their black families there to "look after us" while we played, and they acted like our servants, totally subservient to us.

The Taylor house had a big entry hall with beautiful wood, polished floors, ruby hanging lamp and a carpet with ruby flowers. The hand carved staircase had a landing and then another shorter flight of stairs to the upstairs hallway. To the right of the entry was the parlor. All the rooms had beautiful fireplaces with hand carved mantels. The parlor was especially fancy. This room had two long windows on both the front and hack. The cross ventilation made it a choice room in warm weather and extra cold in winter. They had a carpet with big cabbage roses and the emphasis of the rose color in the other furnishings. They had large chairs that you sank into, beautiful walnut tables and lots of marble crystal lamps, gold leaf picture frames and books.

The room to the left of the entry was a huge bedroom furnished with massive walnut heirloom furniture. This was Mr. and Mrs. Taylor's room and so large it was used for the family gathering place usually as Mr. Taylor was already in his seventies and not very mobile. He had his chair and although he didn't leave home anymore he still dominated the family and knew everything that was going on. He was called "Pip" by the Family.

They had a fine dining room. Mrs. Taylor sat at one end with a little silver bell that she rang for the servants. Mr. Taylor always put his coat on and sat at the other end of the table. They required the men to wear coats at all meals. They had imported table linens that they used for themselves, and fine china that the family had handed down. They had a smaller family dining room that they used ordinarily when just the family was there and we sometimes ate breakfast there. This room was less ornate, but was a special room. They had a "pass through" to the room from the kitchen, and the cook would pass the hot breakfast food through the "pass through" to the waiter and he would serve the food. They always had ham, and often bacon and sausage—all produced on the place. The cooks were super cooks. They made home breads at each meal, and had fresh butter, pure cream for the coffee in silver pitchers and lumps of sugar in a sugar bowl with silver sugar "lifters". Eggs were served on hot platters, and grits was standard food. They had varieties of homemade jams and jellies, such as quince, fig and raspberries along with strawberry and peach and blackberry jams and jellies. Sometimes they would have hotcakes, and they were a rare treat, made of pure butter and browned just right and served with melted butter and warm syrup and sausage cooked just right.

The upstairs was all large bedrooms with high ceilings, papered walls, lace curtains, cherry and walnut furniture with mirrors in hand carved or gold leaf frames, handmade elaborate quilts, china wash bowls and pitchers and linen towels. Each night before we "retired" a servant would go up and "light" the fire in the fireplace of our room. Then in the morning we would be awakened by the knock of a servant bringing warm water and fresh towels in china pitchers for us to wash our face and hands before coming down to family breakfast.

Off the wide L-shaped back porch was a bathroom. Of course there was no electricity nor plumbing, but they had a Delco system for lights and had a strange "commode" in the bathroom, which was a rather large tin round "pot" without seat. It had an exhaust pipe to outside, and the can part was filled with water which the servants kept emptied and clean. They had glass "chambers" in all the bedrooms which the servants emptied in the mornings.

Miss Mary Sue and Frances Taylor, two maiden sisters, lived on property joining the church. They had a beautiful antebellum home they had inherited from their father, who was a rich man. Miss Frances was a scholar who graduated from Southwestern and studied in France. She had taught but was usually at home writing or traveling when we knew them. Miss Mary Sue was not a scholar, but was a fun person, who directed and managed the plantation. They had fine, fine furniture, very, very stylish. Their home had a long front porch that was the same upstairs. The upstairs bedrooms opening to the porch were luxurious with the big oak trees over the front yard, and the servants waiting on us. Gamma and Miss Mary Sue had fun together, although there was an age difference.

Another interesting family was that of Miss Sue Alexander, a Taylor cousin, who lived on a plantation inherited from her father. She was unmarried and lived alone. She carried on all the tradition her parents had. Her house was more New England style, with roomy, comfortable front porch with swings, chairs and rockers all with padded seats and covers. She had boxwoods, roses, hollies, magnolia, cedar and variety of shrubs and trees. She had a music room, with a piano that she encouraged us children to enjoy to our hearts' content. Her dining room was her pride and joy. It had a long oval table that seated about 15 people, and pretty cherry and walnut sideboards and several china cabinets. She had beautiful china and silver and handmade linens and always used white linen monogramed napkins. In her kitchen she had a huge wood stove, and she loved to help the cook prepare special dishes. She was a good cook. She had a bedroom upstairs that she always had Gama use, and she would put the two little boys in the adjoining children's bedroom, which had been designed for children in the family to use, but to give their parents privacy. She put my sister and me in a big front bedroom, and she had her own bedroom downstairs. She would invite Gama to come down and bring all five children and spend weeks with her when Daddy would be gone off to revivals in the summer. She would say Gama needed a rest, and while Daddy was away she would take us and take care of us. She would have black girls to come from her place to take care of the children during the day, and she would cook her best for us. It was a lovely old house, with style and tradition and the kind Miss Sue made our lives comfortable and "dreamlike".

She had a store room and we liked to see her weigh out sugar and flour and fatback for her hands who would come in for food for their families. She had a big ledger too and would mark down the supplies the hands got. Once Gama got sick when we were visiting, with an upset stomach. Miss Sue was the "doctor" for all her hands. She had patent medicine in her store and it was her pleasure when any of her "darkeys" got sick to go to their little shacks and take them medicine and good food she had made. So she took Gama right under her arm. She went into her "store" and mixed up her own concoction which she called "Causey" and took it upstairs with a big spoon and some grape juice and coaxed Gama to take it, promising it would soon cure her. It had a terrible smell, and Gama declared she was better and better not take any medicine, but Miss Sue was so insistent that Gama HAD to take a dose. My brother Edmund was highly amused. He had watched Miss Sue mix the medicine and he was amused watching Gama and Miss Sue hassle over Gama taking the medicine. As long as Edmund lived he would tease Gama about "the causey".

Christmas we would hear a car pulling the hill to our house. It would be Miss Sue in her Model T and her chauffeur, who was a black man called "Dood". She would be sitting in the back seat with him up front driving. She would have on a big black winter cloak, and a broad brimmed black hat with a feather, and a shawl around her shoulders and face. Dood would knock on the door, announce her, then return to help her out of the car and my brothers and Daddy would go to help them bring in the many boxes. She would cook at least eight cakes for our Christmas. The parsonage had a built-in china cabinet with glass doors and she would Fill that cabinet with her cakes. She would make every kind, jam, chocolate, caramel, coconut (fresh), white, Lady Baltimore, and they would be decorated. One would have surprises baked in. The one who got the piece of cake with the ring would be the next to get married. The one who got the thimble would have a certain surprise, etc. Daddy always warned us not to bite into the surprise cake when she was around; to wait and take a fork and find the symbol before biting in to prevent choking, hut these cakes were wonderful fun.' She would sometimes bring hams and homemade goodies she had made herself.

She was a tall, extremely ugly woman, with big heart and wonderful attitude and personality and very talented. We loved being around her. She told us great stories about her family and the past, and treated the children so kindly.