Colonel Richard Taylor of Virginia, a veteran of the French and Indian War and the Revolution, built the original part of Springfield about 1790. It was the boyhood home of his son Zachary Taylor, known as Old Rough and Ready, who lived from 1784 to 1850 and was a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War. He became a hero of the Mexican War and the 12th President from 1849 to 1850. Zachary Taylor's daughter Sarah Knox married Jefferson Davis, the future Confederate States of America president, and his son Richard became a Confederate general.