JOHN MAY TAYLOR,HENDERSON COUNTY'S DELEGATE TO THE 1870 CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith

Mr. Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith of Jackson has published seven genealogical miscellanies for Henderson County. He wishes to share this information as widely as possible and has granted permission for these web pages to be created. We thank Mr. Smith for his generosity. Copyright, Jonathan K. T. Smith, 2001

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The elected delegates to revise the Constitution of Tennessee finished their labors and signed their document February 23, 1870; the state electorate voted for its adoption in March, thereafter and Governor D. W. C. Senter proclaimed it ratified May 5, 1870. The delegate from Henderson County was the Hon. John May Taylor, whose photographic likeness was taken at this time, along with those of the other delegates.

The Honorable JOHN MAY TAYLOR, a son of Jesse Taylor, clerk of the Henderson County Court (1835-1859) and Mary (May) Taylor, was born in Lexington, Tennessee, May 18, 1838. Graduate, Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, 1860 with law degree; served as first lieutenant, Company K, 77th Infantry Regiment, 1861; among the battles in which he fought were Shiloh and Franklin; at Perryville, in October 1862, he was wounded severely in his thighs; while in Danville, Ky. hospital he was captured in May 1863, sent as POW to Camp Chase, Ohio but was soon exchanged; elected captain of his company; after a period of detached duty he reentered his regiment as a major and fought at Franklin and Nashville late in 1864paroled in May 1865.Captain Taylor,as he was respectfully called,resumed the practice of law, served briefly as mayor of Lexington; elected as the county's delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1870; served eight years as attorney-general of the Eleventh Judicial District; served in the Tennessee House of Representatives, 1881-1882;served in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1883-1887; served on the Court of Civil Appeals, a state position, for many years. A Democrat and Freemason. He married Amanda McHaney, October 10, 1864, with whom he had eight children. He died in Lexington, February 17, 1911.

Sources: BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF TENNESSEE, volume 2, edited Robert M. McBride, Nashville, 1979, pages 887-889; Weston A. Goodspeed, HISTORY OF TENNESSEE, Henderson County, Nashville, 1887, page 858; THE LEXINGTON PROGRESS, February 24, 1911; BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONGRESS, 1774-1971, Washington, D.C., 1971, page 1795.

WEST TENNESSEE WHIG, Jackson, Tennessee November 21,1885:

Col. John M. Taylor, our much esteemed member of Congress, arrived Thursday evening and spent yesterday in the City. The Colonel is in fine health and spirits. He is pre-eminently a man of the people and, we dare say, no District in the Union has a Representative who endeavors with more earnestness, zeal and fairness to correctly and honestly represent the will of his constituents upon all important public questions.

U.S.Census, 1900, Henderson Co., Tenn., Enumeration District 51, Sheet 3 (Lexington):

Other works by Jonathan K. T. Smith can be found at the Madison County Records Repository at TNGenWeb.

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