Updated: Jan. 2024

When John Taylor arrived in Greene County., Pennsylvania, in around 1790, it was still a wild frontier and still inhabited by Indians. Years earlier, massacres had gotten so merciless , that in September, 1766, Governor Penn issued a proclamation that warned the English subjects against making any settlements or taking lands beyond the limits of the last Indian land purchase in 1758. To do so meant death if they got caught and refused to move. A few years later, more land being purchased opened many areas up for a nominal fee of a penny an acre. No man being allowed to purchase more than 300 acres. A relative calm between the Indians and frontiersman existed from 1765-1774.

By 1772, Springhill boasted there were nearly 500 men (not counting the woman), dwelling in that district. By the time American independence was declared in 1776, towns were starting to burst forth, and the people, most of them farmers, started banding together to go to war against the land's early inhabitants, the Indians. Indian massacres spared no one. Each entity rose defend their land. One of the last Indian mêlées occurred around 1791, near the time John Taylor and his family arrived in Whitely, one of many townships developing throughout Greene County.

John was no stranger to fighting. He had been a British soldier as a young man. He was part of the brigade known as the "Bloodsuckers" (the 63rd Light Brigade of Foot Soldiers). John abandoned the English army. Perhaps, not by choice. From what information I have established about Colonel R. Jonathan Meigs, (to be his future commander), it's entirely possible that John Taylor was taken prisoner by the American forces, led by Meigs, at the Battle of Sag Harbor, New York. This battle that took place on May 24, 1777and yielded 90 British. prisoners of war. John weighed being a prisoner or seeing new opportunities that had not been available to the "poor" Englishman. Meigs was a fine commander. John joined the colonial militia; 6th Connecticut Regiment, 1777.

After the Revolution, John arrived in Baltimore, Maryland. Supposedly, that is where he entered the US debarking as a British soldier. Arriving in Maryland, he was back among fellow Englishmen, as well as Germans. New opportunities awaited.

He might have met and married his wife there. Mary Keyser's heritage is unknown. Anxious to see what was beyond the next mountain, he and others, including Virginians made their way to Pennsylvania. It was a good time to go. The Indian wars were over. Civilization had exploded. Greene bloomed with fertile soil that would grow just about anything, being fed by 2 major rivers. Churches, milling, mining, and distilleries, among other industries were had come to the area. By 1837, school boards, were seeing to the education of the youth.

John lived to see it all. Farming, he and his wife, Mary Keyser, a German, raised 8 children there. Too young to join the War of 1812, 2 grandsons, Jesse and Thomas, saw action during the Civil War fighting to preserve the Union. They were members of Company F, 7th Volunteer Infantry Regiment of West Virginia. Jesse was the first county casualty. A memorial celebrating John and Mary's grandson's contribution appears today at the (John) Taylor Cemetery in Hero, Jollytown, Gilmore, Greene, PA. *M.Bell