Brooklyn Daily Eagle
19 June 1904

William H. TAYLOR, Now 87, Settled in the District Over Fifty-two Years Ago.
Built the First Church There.
Used to Walk Daily To and From Fulton Ferry ­ Worked to Develop the Suburb.

If negotiations which are now pending looking to the sale of the oldest
private dwelling in Parkville are brought to a successful consummation, the
popular settlement just beyond Flatbush will lose its oldest resident in the
person of William H. TAYLOR, the first man to journey into what half a
century ago was little more than a wilderness and found a home.  For more
than fifty-two years Mr. TAYLOR has lived in Parkville, has seen that
section grow from nothing to a suburban district of several thousand
residents and now at the age of 87 years is preparing to dispose of his real
estate holdings and with his wife, who looks much younger than the 74 years
which she smilingly acknowledges, see something of life in other parts of
the great city.

Mr. TAYLOR lives in Foster avenue, near the Ocean Parkway, and since 1852,
when he left the bustling little town of old Williamsburg to become a
Parkville pioneer, his great aim has been to further the development of that
section.  In the middle of last century the district into which he went was
hardly an alluring spot in spite of the fact that it then bore the
euphonious name of Greenfield, an appellation which has survived in the
suburbs and now marks a booming settlement a little below the present
Parkville boundary.  Mr. TAYLOR decided to make old Greenfield his home, and
has he was a carpenter by trade he lost no time in erecting a dwelling in
the wild country, which at that time and for many years after held the magic
hand of the land boomer.  Foster avenue was selected as the site for the
first house in the section that subsequently became Parkville and the
unpretentious dwelling which is soon to figure in the real estate market is
eloquent testimony of Mr. TAYLOR's building ability, for it now appears to
be one of the most substantial houses in the neighborhood.

Having established his home far from the old city of Brooklyn, Mr. TAYLOR
went back to Williamsburg and there married Miss Margaret SEABURY, the great
granddaughter of the famous Bishop SEABURY and a member of the well known
Eastern District family.  During the early years of his pioneer life in
Parkville he was employed in New York, and his daily trips to and from his
place of business were such as to test the mettle of the hardiest settler.
Transit facilities were unknown in those days, and to reach New York it
meant a walk all the way from Parkville to the Fulton street Ferry, a
pedestrian's feat that necessitated a start from home each morning at 5
o'clock.  Horse cars finally came to his relief and managed to eliminate a
portion of the long daily jaunt, but it was not until a few years ago that a
transportation service was installed that linked Parkville with the heart of
Brooklyn and brought it within a reasonable distance of the old City of New York.

In late years Mr. TAYLOR devoted much time and energy in the development of
Parkville, and in conjunction with Edward RILEY, Sr., for many years a well
known New York dry goods merchant, he built the first church in Parkville.
It stood for a number of years at the corner of Foster avenue and Ocean
Parkway, as the worshipping place of Methodists of the vicinity and was
finally removed to Lawrence avenue, where it now stands.
In spite of his advanced age, Mr. TAYLOR takes a lively interest in current
events and is well known and liked throughout Parkville.  He has three
children and a number of grand children, but all have established homes
nearer the center of the borough, while the elderly couple have remained
alone to enjoy life in the home they have maintained for more than half a century.

Transcribed by Mimi Stevens
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