Oscar married Malvina Snow in 1842 after arriving in the Freeport area in 1841. Oscar’s father, John Taylor, represented New York in the U.S. Congress from 1813 to 1834. He served as Speaker of the House from 1820 to 1825. He was one of the first to publicly oppose slavery. Oscar, like his father, opposed slavery and was a supporter of Abraham Lincoln. He attended the second Lincoln-Douglas Debate in Freeport in 1858.

Malvina Snow Taylor came to Freeport in 1839 to join her father, Loring Snow, and family in Silver Creek Township. Mrs. Taylor was also a flower lover. This love was expressed in the china painting she began at the age of 60. At age 76, she exhibited her wildflower plates at the 1893 Columbian Exposition and won some awards. She was very active in the community with the Freeport Woman’s Club and the Episcopal Church. She organized help for families during the Civil War and during periods of cholera and other epidemics. She was always concerned with the welfare of those less fortunate. Oscar and Malvina had six children, five daughters and a son.

Elizabeth Taylor was their eldest daughter. She was a twin but her sister Mary died at the age of two. Elizabeth had many suitors, one of whom may have been George W. Bradley, a Union officer killed at Vicksburg. His name is written on the house’s cupola wall. Elizabeth eventually married Jerome Maynard, a local merchant. She had four children, but only one, Elsie, survived. Elizabeth died in 1878 shortly after giving birth to her fourth child who was stillborn. She was only 35.

Elizabeth's daughter Elsie was only three at the time of her mother's death.  Elsie, and her father Jerome Maynard, moved to the Taylor Home where Elsie was raised by her grandmother and aunts.  Elsie never married and was the last to live in the Taylor Home.  She died in 1944.  

This photograph of some members of the Taylor family was taken in 1906 on the grounds of their home, now the Historical Society museum.
From left to right: Oscar Taylor, Sr., Frank Bass, Malvina Taylor, Charissa Taylor Bass and Winnifred Taylor

Winnifred was Oscar and Malvina’s second daughter. She was a dedicated activist interested in prison reform that led to her 1888 novel His Broken Sword and 1914 non-fiction account of prison life, The Man Behind the Bars. She was also concerned with the working and living conditions of the young women working in mills. She, with the help of her Sunday school class, founded the Freeport Public Library. She was a collector of camels and a cat lover. She had a ramp built to enable her cats to come and go to her second story bedroom.

Charissa Taylor (pronounced Carissa, with a silent "H") was the youngest daughter. She was well known for her genealogy work and her artistic talents. She married Frank Bass in a ceremony held on the grounds of the Taylor home on Oscar and Malvina’s Golden Anniversary, in 1892. She came down the front stairs with a kitten riding on the train of her dress. After living a short time in Chicago, she and Frank moved back to Freeport and lived in the Taylor Home. After her parents died she continued the family interest in music, painting and gardening. She was a member of the Shakespeare Society, the D.A.R. and the Woman’s Club. Charissa published two genealogy books, Bass-Jones Genealogy and Taylor-Snow Genealogy in the 1930’s.

Oscar Taylor, Jr. attended Cornell University in New York and upon graduation moved to the St. Paul, Minnesota area. He was a civic leader there like his father in Freeport. His sons Donald West Taylor and Gilbert Morris Taylor donated the family home to the Historical Society in 1944.