Perhaps because they had experienced the handicap of illiteracy, Robert and Savannah Taylor were keen on educating their four sons. It is not known what schools they attended in Georgia and Texas, but they must have had excellent teachers who prepared them for professional careers.
Polk K. Taylor (1867- ?), the oldest son, is mentioned in an 1891 Dallas Morning News article as a debater in the Dallas Colored Literary Society. It is not surprising that Polk became a lawyer, practicing law in the Creek Nation of Indian Territory where he married Freddie M. Sims in 1907. Polk moved about restlessly. He was a postal clerk in Muskogee and later a teacher in Oklahoma City. His mother Savannah, in 1909, reported Polk to be divorced and living in Chickasha. In the 1920’s, he was in Tulsa, perhaps witnessing the horror of the white mobs' attack on black businesses and persons in the spring of 1921. The year of Polk K. Taylor’s death and his place of burial are not known.
Second son Robert F. Taylor (1867-1901) finished school, met and married Olivia C. Anderson of Washington County, TX, and became a Baptist minister in Corsicana, TX around 1892. More will follow about Robert F.
An 1896 newspaper item reported: “Augustus Taylor of Dallas has returned from a medical college at Nashville, TN where he has been for 2 years.” A graduate of Meharry College, the only medical school for blacks, Augustus L. “Gustus” Taylor (1869-1941) became a prominent physician/surgeon in Fort Worth, opening his practice in 1907. He married three times - the last and longest marriage was to Allie Bell Cox (1894-1967), a divorcee with a daughter, Catherine M. Moore, who was adopted by Dr. Taylor. They lived in their home at 1132 Humboldt for 40 years. Dr. Taylor died in 1941; both he and his wife are buried in the New Trinity Cemetery in Haltom City, TX.
Walter R. Taylor (1872-1916), the youngest son, became a teacher at Dallas Colored High School on Cochran at Hall Street in Freedman’s Town (now the Uptown area). In 1898, he married Caledonia Dodson who taught at the same school. A Dallas City Directory shows their residence at 469 Juliet St. In 1899, his father sold Walter an acre of the White Rock land for ”$1 and other considerations”, but Walter did not move to the land. In 1909, Walter’s mother reported that Walter lived in El Paso, TX where he was principal of the colored high school. The census of 1910 shows Walter and Caledonia in Washington, D.C. where he was employed as a tabulator for the immigration service. Before Walter moved to California around 1911, he must have gone to law school. He was an attorney in Los Angeles until his death in 1916 (age 43). Walter is buried in the Angelus Rosedale Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA.
None of the boys came back to Dallas until Robert F. was brought home to be buried in the Ferris Cemetery in 1901. His father, Robert T. Taylor, died five years later in 1906. The elder Taylor’s obituary which appeared in the Fort Worth paper says he was buried at “White Rock”. Probably Savannah buried her husband near her son in the Ferris Cemetery.
An interesting affidavit was given in person by Savannah Taylor in 1907 at the time she was selling most of the Taylor farm to the City of Dallas for the building of White Rock Lake. She states that Robert T. Taylor left no will but all of his debts were paid in full. Savannah reports the marital status of each of her three living heirs and where they were living. She had no grandchildren. In 1909, Savannah sold 20+ acres of the White Rock land to the city for $60 dollars an acre. She retained a few acres where her home was located and lived there until her death at age 72 in 1920. Savannah Taylor is buried in McCree Cemetery in Northeast Dallas.
The story of Savannah and Robert T. Taylor is one of amazing success against the backdrop of Reconstruction and Jim Crow. Coming out of slave days in Georgia to own their own farm and home in Dallas, the black couple educated four boys who became professional men - a lawyer, a preacher, a physician, and a teacher.
