The two fell in love and lived openly together as husband and wife, although they never officially married because at that time interracial marriage was a violation of Texas law.
Their granddaughter, Mollie Taylor Stevenson Sr. (1911-2003), a graduate of Fisk University, and her daughter, Mollie Taylor Stevenson Jr., (1946), who attended Texas Southern University, were both inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in 2001, the first living African-American women to receive the honor.
[4][5] In 1862, 16-year-old Edward Taylor (1845-1924) joined Waul's Texas Legion, a unit in the Confederate Army that originated in Brenham, TX.
After his release from prison and discharge from further service in the army, he returned home to his parents, Aaroline and Edward Wyllys Taylor.
Edward's parents had moved from Massachusetts to Texas sometime during the 1840s, and settled in Houston on land that became the site of the Wortham Center.
Taylor was a prominent 19th-century merchant who had served many years as president of the Houston Cotton Exchange Board,[1] and also brokered in slave trade.