WILLIAM WASHINGTON TAYLOR, JR.
W.W. Taylor, Jr. (1884-1953) was the son of W.W. Taylor, Sr. (1845-1915), who, like George R. Congdon, was among the “new men” who had risen to prominence in Georgetown in the 1880s. W.W. Taylor, Sr. had been affiliated with Heiman Kaminski (the father of Harold Kaminski), when he opened a hardware business on Front Street in 1867. When Kaminski later expanded into dry goods, he partnered with Sol Emanuel and W.W. Taylor, Sr., both of whom had been previously in his employ. When Taylor and Sol Emanuel later left the Kaminski firm, Taylor, Sr. founded W. W. Taylor & Son, dealers in builders' supplies, which operated in Georgetown for many years.
W.W. Taylor, Jr’s mother was Sarah Catherine Davis from Charleston. His parents had 12 children, but only five survived their mother, among them W.W. Taylor, Jr.
W.W., Jr. attended Carlisle Military School at Bamberg, South Carolina, and the Carlisle Fitting School of Wofford College. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in business administration and was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He afterward returned to Georgetown and entered his father’s building supply business. He was manager of W.W. Taylor & Son, when in Georgetown in 1908, he married Lucy Freeman Boone (1889-1982), a 1906 graduate of Chowan Baptist Female Institute (afterward Chowan College) in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. Her father, Charles Boone, had moved the family from North Carolina to Georgetown around 1900, when he came to work for Atlantic Coast Lumber. [“Charles Boone Dies Suddenly,” Georgetown Times (Oct. 30, 1930.)] The Taylors had a son, William W. (Billy) Taylor, and daughters, Mary Taylor Tanner (1909–1987) and Lucy Inez Taylor (1912–1916). Lucy Inez, like the aunt she was named for, did not survive childhood.
In 1915, W.W. Taylor, Sr. died, and Taylor, Jr. took over W.W. Taylor & Son. He also owned Black River Farm, where he raised chickens and sold eggs. [Georgetown Times (May 7, 1913.)] His brother, Harry Calhoun Taylor, may have been associated with W.W. Taylor & Son, and with the house. Harry never married and died in 1941. W.W., Jr.’s Taylor sisters married into the local Fraser, Porter and Haselden families. Another sister, Ida, married Alfred Legare from Charleston, who for a period of thirty years served as one of the superintendents of Bernard Baruch’s Hobcaw Barony.
However, by 1928, the Taylor’s house on the Bluff was in foreclosure, as was W. W. Taylor & Son, which soon closed. That same year the house and property were transferred to the next owners, Harold A. Sands and Paulding Fosdick.
After W.W. Taylor & Son closed, W.W. Taylor, Jr. did account work for several local firms. In the 1940 Georgetown census, he, his wife, Lucy, and two Taylor children are listed as living at 233 Broad Street.
The Taylors are buried in Elmwood Cemetery. W.W., Jr. is buried with his two daughters, while Lucy Boone Taylor is buried in the Boone family plot.
by Jennie Holton Fant