DUANE
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Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Hephzibeth Looker Taylor, and I'm passing it along just as it stands. Now, that is a name worth saying twice. Hephzibeth Looker Taylor.
Born in South Carolina, and from the very start, it seems like life had some distance in store for her. On October 1, 1807, she married Josiah Taylor. And for a while, that was the shape of things.
A family, a future, a direction. In 1824, the two of them came to Texas, part of the Green De Witt Colony, that wide stretch of empresario country where folks were planting roots in new ground. But then, in 1830, Josiah died.
And here is where Hephzibeth's story stops being about who she married and starts being about who she was. She had children to provide for. Nine of them, by her marriage to Josiah: William, Hardina, Johanna, Creed, Josiah, Pitkin, Rufus, James, and Mary Jane.
That is a full house, and a full responsibility, and she did not flinch from either one. She applied for a one-league land grant in the Green De Witt Colony, grounding her claim in Josiah Taylor's colonization certificate from the Empresario himself. She made her case.
She waited. And on July 26, 1831, the grant was received. Her family grew further still.
By a second marriage, she had another son, Joshua, born of her union with Patrick Dowlearn. Ten children. A land grant secured on her own petition.
A life built across two states and a whole lot of Texas sky. Hephzibeth Looker Taylor didn't just come to Texas. She staked a claim in it, and she made it hold.
What the marker says
Born in South Caroline; married Josiah Taylor, October 1, 1807; came to Texas in 1824. After his death in 1830, she applied for a 1-league land grant in the Green De Witt Colony, based on Josiah Taylor's colonization certificate from the Empresario. On July 26, 1831, she received the grant. Her children were: William, Hardina, Johanna, Creed, Josiah, Pitkin, Rufus, James, Mary Jane; and by her second marriage, Joshua, son of Patrick Dowlearn. Recorded - 1973