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.
Henry dug saplings from the creek bank that lined his new property and nurtured his beloved lilacs as he planted vines and flowers around his home’s new location.
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