Just a little history: Who did build the Taylor-Purefoy-Swett House?

By Carol W. Pelosi

Jennifer Smart, the assistant director at the Wake Forest Historical Museum, and Michelle Michael, a senior planner with the Town of Wake Forest, have been asking that question and pulled me into the discussion because I have a special feeling for James S. Purefoy, the Wake Forest College trustee, Baptist minister and businessman, who built our house – well, his father-in-law’s six carpenter slaves probably did the work – in 1838.

The description of the house, which is now the offices for Wake Forest Baptist Church, in the current Wake Forest Historic District Walking Tour brochure is inaccurate and misleading. It is probable that Dr. Alexander Hamilton Taylor – that was an age when parents often honored historic figures when they named their children – bought the three acres around 1840 and highly likely he built a house there. The Rev. John Purefoy did not buy the property, and Dr. W.L. Poteat, president of the college from 1905 to 1927, never owned the house or land. He lived there with his wife, Emma, their three children and her parents until their deaths. It was owned by Addison Purefoy, James Purefoy’s oldest son, and Emma inherited it from her father.

Some of the misconceptions and errors can be blamed on me because I had assumed John Purefoy returned to Wake Forest from Johnston County after his second wife died, and further assumed that when James Purefoy sold our house in 1853 that he moved into the house in question which his father owned. All wrong.

I am not sure where John Purefoy was in 1853; if he returned to Wake Forest it is likely he moved in with James Purefoy and his family who were living in the Wake Forest Hotel James had built at the request of the college trustees. James apparently operated the hotel which was next door to his general store, both across the street from the south side of the college campus.

The Purefoy family had enough pride and money to erect the obelisk that stands below the hill where college presidents and professors are sleeping away eternity but it is still the most prominent monument, visible from the entrance. It was erected in 1855, the year of John’s death, and is unique in its fan-shaped burials reflected in the names on its four sides.

But back to the question, what do we really know about the house? Jennifer combed through Ancestry.com, printing out everything she could find about A.H. Taylor, his children and James Purefoy, 300-plus pages. I spent hours deciphering (sometimes) deeds, sale records, and court documents. This is what I found.

A.H. Taylor wrote a will on March 11, 1858 but never had it witnessed before he died in April. He left all his estate to his four children – Samuel Taylor, Nathaniel Taylor, Georgianna Spivey and Rosa Faribault – but there was a caveat. He left Georgianna’s share in trust to his sons and his son-in-law, George Faribault, “for the benefit of her and her children free and exclusive of any control of her present or any other husband she may have.” He asked that the three trustees treat the guardianship with “kindly and brotherly feeling.” Also, he wrote: “If Georgianna wishes to remain with her mother provided it be possible this house ought to be enlarged for her comfort which I recommend so as to make room for (indecipherable) also.”

Note that no mention was made of Taylor’s wife, Sallie Taylor, though she might be, maybe was, Georgianna’s mother. His wife noted that too and dissented from the will soon after and was added to the heirs.

If “this house” is a small version of the present house on South Avenue, then it is clear it might not be large enough to add a woman with two children.

A.H. Taylor had been wealthy man with a plantation somewhere in Franklin County, probably the southern portion. His personal property when he died included $154 cash on hand, six horses, 24 hogs, 11 cattle, 50 bushels of wheat and seven bales of cotton for a total of $323.83.

Next listed were 42 slaves, counted out by family or living arrangement: Shadrack and Patsy, Virgil, Dallas, Albert and Thomas, Mary and three children, Patsy’s three children, etc.

There were pages of “good accounts,” which I understand to mean money Taylor owed to Oscar Alston $10.50, Hon. Willie P. Mangum $10.00, Priestly Mangum $47.75, Rev. Jas. S.  Purify $31.50, Capt. Berry $6.00, Rev. W.L. Brooks $5.00, for 55 names. Another list was of “good notes,” money owed to Taylor where the amounts were sometimes larger — G.H. Faribault owed his father-in-law $255 – but the list was shorter. Finally there were the “bad notes” and “bad accounts. Apparently everyone borrowed from and lent to everyone else in town. Faribault spent years paying and collecting the debts.

In December 1859 37 slaves were divided among family members based on their value, with each family member receiving slaves worth $4,550. It was not clear what happened to the five slaves owned in 1858 but not listed as going to a family member. While Taylor’s estate was being settled, family members supported themselves by hiring out the slaves they owned or would own.

The paper trail we have is blank for the years 1860 through 1872. Hopefully as the slaves were freed after the Civil War families were reunited.

In an 1873 deed we learn that a Wake County Superior Court had ordered a sale of three acres and a house formerly owned by A.H. Taylor, land abutting the Gaston & Raleigh Railroad. On January 15, 1872, Annie E. Taylor, Samuel Taylor’s wife, was the high bidder.

Subsequently, in March 1873 Samuel and Annie sold the property – “it being the house and lot formerly owned by A.H. Taylor” – to James S. Purefoy for $1,700. The court required that a commissioner be appointed to examine Annie Taylor “privily” to make sure she was acting of her own free will without compulsion by her husband.

Having a court-ordered sale of the property was an indication that all was not serene in the Taylor family, and the troubles were in court again in October 1876 when Purefoy, along with Nathaniel Taylor, were defending themselves in a case brought by E.R. Stamps, trustee for Georgianna Spivey and her two daughters. What happened to George Faribault and Samuel Taylor? What happened to “kindly and brotherly feeling?”

Faribault had apparently neglected to provide information to Georgianna and her trustees that the Wake Forest land and house were being sold and she wanted her fair share of the proceeds of that sale.

James Purefoy said in a deposition he purchased the land believing he was getting a title free of any claims. He noted that while the Taylors had improved the property when they owned it by $400, he had added $2,000 in improvements. Those were unspecified but very well could have been the additions to change the house into a Greek Revival style with a wide porch across the front.

Wake County Superior Court, seeing that Purefoy owned only four-fifths of the property, sent it all back to the courthouse steps. Nathaniel Taylor, who was in Texas, executed a deed saying he had no interest in the property. On April 2, 1877 Purefoy bought the property for $1,200.

On April 23, Purefoy signed a note saying he had received $960, his four-fifths share of the sale, from R.J. Gray and Saul Z. Mordecai, the commissioners appointed by the court. Georgianna Spivey received $240.

Further investigations, including the Wake County property tax records for 1860 through 1880 might further clarify the date of construction. It was Merle Swett who tore off the porch and added the pillars because “Gone With the Wind” incited a Tara craze. The Powell house south of town was similarly defaced.

For me, my current judgment is that James Purefoy built the house we see today. But I could be wrong.

I need to add another note, something I try to remember when reading any histories of the 1700s, 1800s and early 1900s. Everyone smelled. Deodorants were unheard of, most people used homemade soap – if and when they washed – though there were better soaps for richer people. Clothes went largely unwashed because they were made of wool, linen or linsey-woolsey. People wore layers of clothing to be fashionable and stoically perspired; no wonder women swooned.