The broad ax., 1916-09-09
Mrs. Mary Ann Taylor
Dixon, the Aged Mother
Of Julius F. Taylor,
Celebrated Her 91st
Birthday, Saturday,
August rs, 1916

in the first part of May, 1906, at the
home of our sister, Mrs. Jennie Frazier,
at Harrisburg, Pa, she gave such a
vivid account or description of her
girl or womanhood days which she
spent in the house of bondage, that it
would make an interesting story for
the very best novelist or the most fas-
cinating writer, for in this rapid age it
almost sounds like fairy tale. 1t is,
therefore, beyond our ability to paint
a true pen picture of this product of
slavery days, who is fast approaching
the one hundredth milestone in her jour
ney through life, for on August 26,
1916, she celebrated her 91st birthday
at the home of our sister already men
toned. The story runs something like
the following which is reproduced from
these columns of June 9, 1906, and it is
republished at this time in view of the
fact that she is living in a new age
or world.
Mary Ann Gale was born the 26th
of August, 1924, on the banks of Smith
Creek near New Market, Va. She was
the property of John Riddle, and while
she was yet a small girl she and her
mother were taken by their mistress,
Mrs. Sally Riddle, to live at Brooks
Gap, which was only a short distance
from the place of her birth. She was
then about ten years old. She grew
up to womanhood while residing in the
last mentioned place, and when she was
near twenty years old she was permitted
to become the wife of Gilbert Taylor,
who were the parents of fourteen chill
dren, and it might be stated here that
Samuel Cootes, the owner of our father,
was his father, and John Riddle, the
owner of our mothers mother was her
father.
Six out of the fourteen children she
brought into this world were born at
Brooks Gap, and in time the Riddles
decided to sell their slaves like good
Christians, and remove to the great
or the free State of Ohio, where slavery
did not exist, and mother, father, our
only brother, Milton, and four sisters,
namely: Margaret Elizabeth, Amanda,
Emma s. and Jennie, were sold to a
slave-trader by the name of Showwalter
who hailed from Georgia or Alabama,
for twenty-five hundred dollars spot
cash. It was the intention of the slave
trader to take her, her husband and
five children to Richmond, Va, and keep
them in the slave-pens there with his
three hundred other slaves until he was
able to buy a larger number to journey
South, but in the meantime the cholera
broke out among those already confined
in the slave-pens at Richmond, and
many of them died from its effect,
which was a great financial loss to their
owner, and the slave-trader was kind
enough to inform her that eff he could
find homes for her and her husband
and the children he would not take
them down South, where they would be
forced to work all the rest Of their
days in the cotton or tobacco fields. /"
So he sold her and two of our sisters,
Amanda and Emma, to William Siebert,
who owned two small plantations near
New Market, Va, and he was one of
the most prominent men in Rocking
ham county. Ben Hoover bought our
other two sisters, Jennie and Margaret,
and Louis Circle became the new owner
of our father and brother Milton. For
tunate for them they did not live so
far apart to prevent them from CO.
mingling with each other at least once
or twice a month, and while living in
the beautiful Shenandoah Valley which
is one of the finest valleys in the world
she gave birth to eight more children
to add to the wealth of her master,
but like her first child, which died and
was buried at Brooks Gap, six out of
this number died in infancy, and they
were buried in old Man Keeps grave
yard near New Market, Va. The
names of the seven children she lost in
slavery were as follows: Caroline, Al
journey, Ida, Mile, George, Harriet
L. and William Luther.
On the 18th of October, 1858, and on
January z, 1858, she brought her two
last children into this world Of so
much pain and sorrow, and they were
Hannah Louise Taylor and Julius
Franklin Taylor, and she says "that
this name was given to US in honor Of
Julius Franklin Seibert, her masters
favorite son." 1t might be well to
pause right here for a few moments to
state "that she has in her possession
a text book Of the Methodist Episcopal
Church South which was presented to
Ter by her father" It is more than