
George Taylor, son of Charles and Mary Taylor and grandson of William and Elizabeth Taylor, moved his family to Woodbury County, Iowa from Madison County, Iowa in 1881. This family consisted of George and Elizabeth (Thompson) Taylor, Elizabeth's mother Mary (Birks) Thompson (originally of Yorkshire, England), and George and Elizabeth's children. Their children were: Ella (who soon married Melvin Bricker and returned to Madison County); Annie (who married Seth Brown and lived in Woodbury County and in South Dakota); William (who was found dead from a hanging - suicide or murder - no one knows for sure); Clarence (who married Elizabeth Lancaster and stayed in Woodbury County); and Jesse (who married George Woods and lived in Plymouth County, Iowa). George and Elizabeth's son Charles must have died in infancy as there are no records of him except a birth date. Mary Birks Thompson died shortly after arriving in Woodbury County (in 1883) and is buried in Good Hope Cemetery, in northeast Woodbury County, which was to become the Taylor Family burial site.
George and Elizabeth first moved their family to a small settlement called Lozier (about a mile west of the future and present town of Pierson, Iowa) in Rutland Township, Woodbury County. To get there, they traveled from Earlham, Iowa on train through Sioux City, Iowa up to LeMars, Iowa and then by horse and wagon back down from LeMars to Lozier. Here they operated a stage coach stop on the road from Correctionville to LeMars. In 1891 they bought a farm between the towns of Pierson and Kingsley, Iowa. This farm is referred to now as the Taylor Family Farm.
George brought his family to Woodbury County because a friend told him of the good farm land in northwest Iowa which did not have to be cleared of trees before breaking the sod and planting crops. The Taylor Family Farm was 120 acres of gently sloping land with a creek. After the family settled on the farm George planted crops as well as shade trees, a vineyard, and a fruit orchard. There was a small, two-room house and perhaps a barn and a buggy shed on the farm when they arrived. Over the years the house was added onto, the barn was replaced, a corn crib was built and other farm buildings were added to the Taylor Family Farm.
Elizabeth died in 1901 and George in 1909. They are buried next to Elizabeth's mother, Mary, in the Good Hope Cemetery, four miles east of Pierson. Their son Clarence Grant Taylor married Elizabeth Annie Lancaster* in 1901 and they lived on the Taylor Family Farm the rest of their lives. All twelve of their children were born in the farm home. They were: Clifford, Orren, Maud Pierce, Nellie Campbell, Elizabeth Alice Taylor, George, Edward, Harold, Clarence Victor, Pearl Linden (Grace E. Linden's mother), Charles and Lloyd Taylor. Elizabeth Lancaster Taylor died at age 79 in 1956 at the family home and Clarence Grant Taylor died in 1960 at the age of 87 years in a Sioux City, Iowa hospital. They are also buried in Good Hope Cemetery. Currently, the Taylor Family Farm is owned by Lloyd Taylor, their youngest child.
*Elizabeth Lancaster's parents were John Lancaster and Sarah Ellen Allwood Lancaster. Their oldest child was William and their youngest child was Walter. They were divorced in the 1880's. John eventually moved to Chicago with William. Sarah Ellen moved to Woodbury County with Elizabeth and Walter. More will be written about the Lancasters in the Taylor family history book.