TAYLOR, JOHN D. (?-?). John D. Taylor, member of Stephen F. Austin'sqv Old Three Hundredqv colonists, received title to a league of land now in Harris County on August 10, 1824. He settled at Midway, on the north side of the San Jacinto River across from Lynchburg. By 1824 Taylor had sold the improvements to his land to William Scottqv and moved to Harrisburg. The census of March 1826 listed him as a farmer and stock raiser aged between twenty-five and forty. His household included his wife, Maria, a daughter, and two servants. Taylor died at Harrisburg. In May 1834 William B. Travisqv wrote an execution in favor of W. Moore against the heirs of J. Taylor, but whether the J. Taylor deceased in 1834 was the original colonist is not certain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Eugene C. Barker, ed., The Austin Papers (3 vols., Washington: GPO, 1924-28). Lester G. Bugbee, "The Old Three Hundred: A List of Settlers in Austin's First Colony," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 1 (October 1897). Adele B. Looscan, "Harris County, 1822-1845," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 18-19 (October 1914-July 1915). William Barret Travis, Diary, ed. Robert E. Davis (Waco: Texian, 1966).
Diana J. Kleiner
