Marshall W. Taylor (minister)

Marshal W. Taylor
Sketch of Taylor from 1887 obituary
Born	(1846-07-01)July 1, 1846 Lexington, Kentucky
Died	September 11, 1887(1887-09-11) (aged 41) Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Alma mater	Central Tennessee College
Occupation	Educator, minister (Christianity), journalist, author
Religion	Methodist Episcopal

Marshall W. Taylor (July 1, 1846 - September 11, 1887) was a Methodist Episcopal minister and journalist in Kentucky. He is noted for his book, Collection of Revival Hymns and Plantation Melodies published in 1882. He was also the first black editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate, a position he held from 1884 until his death in 1887.

Marshall William Taylor was born on July 1, 1846 in Lexington, Kentucky, the youngest of three children. His parents were born slaves but he was born free. His father was Samuel Boyd and his mother was Nancy Ann Boyd and she was of African and Arabian descent. His mother had some education, and was Marshall's first teacher. He also attended school in Lexington, but after his father died, his mother moved Marshall and his brothers to Louisville, Kentucky in 1854. They were not allowed to attend schools in Louisville, and they moved to Ghent, Kentucky where they stayed for two years and were secretly taught by white children in the neighborhood. They then returned to Louisville before 1861 where Marshall took work as a messenger in the law firm of J. B. Kincaid and John W. Bar and taught schools for black children.

In 1861, Taylor, William W. Hazelton, and Charles B. Morgan formed the United Brothers of Friendship in Louisville. The United Brothers was a fraternal organization similar to the Odd Fellows or the Masons. The group initially sought to help provide impoverished blacks with decent burials. During the American Civil War (1861-1865) the group expanded its mission to caring for the sick. In 1868, they received a charter and organized a state grand lodge.

Taylor also became active in education and Freedmen's schools. Taylor In 1866, Taylor moved to Breckinridge County, Kentucky where he taught schools against the opposition by local whites. In 1868, Taylor was elected president of an educational convention in Owensboro, Kentucky.

Taylor was involved in the Methodist Episcopal church, and that year he also was licensed to preach by Rev. Hanson Tolbert. In 1869, he was working as a teacher in Hardinsburg, Kentucky. The church then sent him to Arkansas as a missionary teacher. He preached in Texas, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) and Missouri before returning to Kentucky in 1871. In 1872 he was ordained by Bishop Levi Scott in Maysville, Kentucky and took charge of Coke Chapel in Louisville.