Henry Taylor

Henry Taylor and his wife Mary Ellen Taylor moved to Denton in 1895 from Decatur, where Taylor worked as a cowboy. They settled in the “city within a city” of Denton, called Quakertown. Where he cleaned houses and gardens for the wealthy white folks on the west side of town. Quakertown was a thriving black community that was established in 1875 that had many successful black-owned businesses and a tight-knit community. After purchasing their property from Mary Ellen’s brother, Henry began planting many of the throwaways from his job as a gardener in his own yard,  including rare white lilacs and a “magnificent” elm tree, and soon his yard looked like a beautiful park.