Susan Lucy Barry
 

Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 7th ed.,
1887

Susan Lucy Barry was born in Fayette County, near Lexington, Ky., on the 27th of September, 1807.  Her father was the Hon. William T. Barry, then a rising young lawyer, who afterward became one of the distinguished Democratic statesmen of Kentucky.  Her mother was Lucy Overton, a daughter of Waller Overton, who was a daughter of Mr. Waller Overton, who was one of the earliest pioneers of Fayette County. 

Her mother dying when Susan was but two years of age, her father married Miss Catherine Mason, of Virginia, who reared the child with the tenderness of an own mother.  Miss Barry was endowed with fine talents, and graduated with distinction at the Lafayette Female Academy of Lexington, under the instruction of the eminent teacher Col. Josiah Dunham.

 In 1824, at the age of sixteen, she was married to Mr. James Taylor, who was a young man of twenty-two years, and who had just graduated at the Transylvania Law School.  They settled in Newport. 

Mrs. Taylor was noted for her simplicity in dress, for gentle and unassuming manners, and for her industry and domestic tastes; she was a lady who looked well to the ways of her household.  She reared six children, who were Mrs. Thomas L. Jones, Mrs. Col. James W. Albert, James Taylor, Col. John B. Taylor, Barry Taylor and Mrs. Dr. R. W. Saunders.

In her infancy Mrs. Taylor had been baptized in the Protestant Episcopal Church, but after her marriage she embraced the Baptist religion, and was immersed in the Ohio River at Cincinnati by the Rev. Mr. Vardeman.  In later years she was confirmed in the Protestant Episcopal Church, to which she adhered with a zealous faith.  She was a useful member of society, participating in all enterprises for the benefit of the churches, and for general charities.  At the age of seventy-four years she died, on the 8th of December, 1881, beloved and lamented by all who knew her.

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Kentucky Pioneer Women, by Mary Florence Taney, Cincinnati Press, 1893, pages 85-89

Of the same generation, a friend and classmate of Mrs. Morgan, was Susan Lucy Barry Taylor, daughter of the eloquent William T Barry and Lucy Overton. She was born in 1807 at Lexington Ky. and was educated at the La Fayette Academy at that place. It was prophetic of her life work that in 1822, when but fifteen years old, she delivered at the annual examination of her school, a fervid plea for the higher education of woman.

Modestly claiming only "that she is capable of receiving instruction, of comprehending the sciences of numbers, of learning languages, of following the explorations of science and of mental discipline through logic and philosophy, the young girl pleads that "proud man" will permit women to spend some of their hours in improving their minds. It is greatly to be regretted that the following thought expressed by the enthusiastic girl had not a more ample fulfillment in the pioneer history of our own state. She says in her essay:

"History is no longer confined to the exploits and achievements of men, but is proud to have its brightest pages adorned with the names of women distinguished for learning, for patriotism, for high and heroic virtue. "No better field was ever offered than the pioneer women of Kentucky for the historic muse to celebrate "the patriotism and the high and heroic virtues" of women.

Susan Lucy Barry was married to Colonel James Taylor, at Frankfort Ky. in 1824 and afterward made her home in Newport. Her whole subsequent life was a daily practice of social and domestic virtues. With dignity and firmness to enforce respect: with culture and grace to win and hold admiration; with a sense of duty that ennobled even ordinary household work, she was unconsciously a model and an instructor. Her religious convictions were deep and abiding. Her dislike of affectation and pretense was open and undisguised. This feeling applied especially to "fashionable education." to artificial manners, to pretended friendships and to the whole round of things hollow and insincere. With ample wealth to gratify every desire, she found satisfaction only in an unostentatious and useful life. She kept up her knowledge of the classics, was a reader of history and had Milton and Shakespeare for her favorite poets.

She died at the old family mansion, Newport Ky. December 8, 1881. Her children living are Mrs. Colonel Thomas L Jones, and Mrs. Colonel James W Abert, and Colonel John B Taylor. Her children deceased were James Taylor, Barry Taylor and Mrs. Dr. R W Saunders.


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