The McLaws Family - Emily Allison Taylor McLaws

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The McLaws Family — Emily Allison Taylor McLaws

Lafayette McLaws met Emily Allison Taylor during his tour at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. Emily was the "pretty, witty, lively, sweet, and sincere" daughter of John Gibson and Elizabeth Lee Taylor. Jefferson Davis married his first wife Sara Knox Taylor at Beechland, Elizabeth Lee Taylor's plantation home.
	Virginia McLaws wrote her grandmother was a sister of Zachary Taylor. "She was the next to the youngest of the seven daughters. When she was very young, her father died leaving Elizabeth Lee Taylor with nine children, a large plantation, and a number of slaves, all of which she managed successfully."
	Virginia described her mother's childhood with, "The children had governesses and then went to private schools -- Emily went to a convent. I recall that she said the nuns who ran the school tried to make her a Catholic, but she clung to the Episcopal church to which all her family belonged."
	Emily tried to delight the younger children as they grew up. Virginia noted, "Mama used to dye Easter eggs for us in printed calico -- [she] sewed pieces around each egg and either baked or boiled them. They usually turned out real well and delighted us."
The final years of Emily's life in Savannah were perhaps the most difficult. Virginia wrote, "After my father's term expired [as the Savannah postmaster], he made their living in several ways. When it was impossible to get along without help so my mother took in boarders, which is never a pleasant job. There was no pension for a Confederate officer. We got along the best we could, each one doing his part."⁽¹⁾
Annie Lee, one of the McLaws's children and a Savannah school teacher, contracted typhoid fever in April 1890. Emily died from typhoid one month later and is buried next to her husband of forty-one years in Savannah's Laurel Grove Cemetery. Virginia concluded her mother's sketch with, "My mother, Emily Taylor McLaws, was one of the finest, sweetest and most capable women I ever knew, perfectly fearless and brave."
(1) GHS-VM ETM, 1-2.