The Taylor family papers consist of correspondence Barton Stout Taylor, Methodist clergyman; diaries of his wife, Elizabeth Gurney Taylor, detailing her everyday activities; papers of Ralph Wendell Taylor, alumnus of University of Michigan and teacher in the Philippine Islands, 1901-1908; and other family materials. The collection is arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Family miscellaneous, Barton S. Taylor; Elizabeth Gurney Taylor; and Other family members.
Barton Stout Taylor, son of Philo Taylor and Theodosia Octavia Stout, was born in Bloomfield, Ontario County, New York, May 19, 1820. In 1827, the family moved to Plymouth Township in Wayne County, Michigan. He graduated from a Medical College in Cleveland in 1845. That same year, he married Marietta Rowland. There were five children born to the couple. One of them was Fred M. Taylor, professor political economy at the University of Michigan. Marietta Taylor died in 1857.
Barton Stout Taylor practiced medicine for a time, but then felt impelled to enter the ministry. As a Methodist clergyman, he would serve in various Michigan communities. In 1866, he married Elizabeth Ann Gurney. Eight children were born of this union, including Ralph W. Taylor and Hartley W. Taylor. Upon retirement in 1883, Taylor settled in Albion, Michigan where he became college librarian. Barton S. Taylor died February 22, 1898.
Ralph Wendell Taylor, one of the sons of Barton and Elizabeth Taylor, was a teacher in the Philippines in the first decade of the Twentieth Century. He was stationed first in La Union Province and then in Tarlac.
Hartley W. Taylor, another son, succeeded his father as Albion College librarian.
