Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor (April 3, 1744 – January 19, 1829) was an officer who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He was born in Orange County, Virginia, to Zachary Taylor and Elizabeth Lee, who was the daughter of Hancock Lee. Taylor was a graduate of the College of William and Mary.

In 1769, Taylor, along with his older brother Hancock Taylor, explored the Ohio River and Mississippi River, traveling from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. He also had a brother named Giles Taylor, who was the father of Edmund Dick Taylor, known as one of the pioneers of American currency, often referred to as the "father of the 'greenback'".

During the American Revolutionary War, Taylor was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Virginia Continental forces on February 12, 1775. His military service included participation in the battles of White Plains, Trenton, Brandywine, and Monmouth. He was discharged as a lieutenant colonel on September 12, 1781. Taylor was involved in the Valley Forge Campaign. Notably, in the fall of 1777, he helped address instances of foraging and plundering in Gwynedd township, where troops under his command arrested and disciplined those responsible for the removal of livestock, including a milk cow intended for families with small children.

Taylor also served as a volunteer in the Kentucky militia during the Northwest Indian War, under Major John Adair. He sustained injuries in a 1792 battle with Native Americans under Little Turtle near Fort St. Clair, located at present-day Eaton, Ohio. After the war, Taylor became an original member of the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati, an organization founded to preserve the ideals of the Revolutionary War veterans.

In 1779, Taylor married Sarah Dabney Strother. The couple initially resided at his plantation called "Hare Forest". Prior to the end of the Revolutionary War, Taylor acquired 8,000 acres across Kentucky, and in 1783, he began clearing the land with plans to relocate his family there. They moved to Kentucky in 1785.

Starting in June 1792, after Kentucky's constitutional convention and its admission as a state, Taylor constructed his first brick home on land purchased from Isaac Shelby, located east of Louisville. He sold this house on December 1, 1795, to George Rudy. Subsequently, he built a second brick house known today as "Springfield" or the Zachary Taylor House. By 1800, he had expanded this estate to approximately 700 acres.

Taylor remained active in Kentucky politics and contributed land—around 60 acres—for the establishment of Taylorsville, Kentucky, a city named in his honor. He died in 1829 at the age of 84 and was buried in the family cemetery, which is now part of the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery.