Person:Eli Taylor (3)

Eli Taylor was the first Taylor to appear in what is today Nicholas Co. WV. He was shown on the 1807 tax list. Eli was living at the mouth of the Cranberry on Gauley River in 1816 and kept a canoe or flatboat to cross footmen or swim horses across.

Eli Taylor, son of Daniel, was born in Greenbrier Co., VA, about 1776 where he lived with his mother in the Mill Point-Swago area (then Greenbrier Co. but now Pocahontas Co., WV). He married on September 25, 1800, Margaret Woods in Greenbrier Co., VA. About 1803 he and Margaret moved to present day Nicholas Co. but he is listed on the 1807 Tax List for Greenbrier County (living at the Mouth of the Cranberry in the Gauley River on the border of Nicholas/Greenbrier). He kept a canoe or flat raft on the Gauley River to transport men and horses for the market in Lewisburg. Later Eli sold the business to John McClung. Eli and Margaret had 10 children (according to the 1820 Federal Census of Nicholas Co., VA). He is not listed with his family in the 1850 Census for Nicholas Co., VA, and is thought to have died sometime after 1840. Cherokee Indian bloodline is rumored to be in this family but this has not been proven. He may have received a pension for service during the War of 1812.