THE TAYLOR BROTHERS MEMORIAL

THE MEMORIAL

Installed April 9, 1956

The Taylor brothers’ monument is located on the west side of the Historic 1915 Taylor County Courthouse facing Oak Street. A sculpture was commissioned by the U.S. Daughters of 1812 in 1955 to be unveiled at the 75th Anniversary of the founding of Abilene the following year. They selected sculptor Lincoln Borglum of Beeville, Texas, the son of Gutzon Borglum who designed and constructed Mount Rushmore National Memorial. On Monday April 9, 1956, the monument was unveiled in a ceremony on the court house grounds, bearing the famous words of William Travis, “I Shall Never Surrender or Retreat.” 

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The county is named for three brothers, Edward, George and James Taylor who all died at the Alamo. The brothers were privates in the army of Alamo defenders. Their parents were Anson and Elizabeth Taylor. Several accounts state that immediately before they joined the Army, they were employed picking cotton on the farm of Captain Dorsett in Liberty, Texas when news arrived about the revolution. As soon as they had finished the cotton job, they joined the Army of the Texas Revolution.

Edward was the oldest of the trio and was 24 years old when the siege of the Alamo began. They (likely) died on March 6, 1836 at the Alamo and their remains, like the other defenders, are interred in the nearby San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio.

They were all posthumously awarded Land Bounties and Donations as Alamo casualties but it is not known who might have claimed or benefited from the grants awarded to the Taylor brothers as they have no known heirs.