Daniel Taylor
Descended from honored ancestry and himself numbered among the leading citizens of Fayette county, Ohio, the subject of this sketch is entitled to specific mention in a work of this character. A residence in this county of many years has but strengthened his hold on the hearts of the people with whom he has been associated and today no one here enjoys a larger circle of warm friends and acquaintances, who esteem him because of his sterling qualities of heart and mind. The history of the loyal sons and representative citizens of Fayette county would be incomplete were there failure to make mention of the man whose name heads this paragraph. When the fierce fire of rebellion was raging throughout the Southland, threatening to destroy the Union, he responded with patriotic fervor to the call for volunteers and throughout the time of his service he proved his loyalty to the government he loved so well. Wherever his lot has been cast, Mr. Taylor has been devoted to the public welfare and in all of his relations his highest ambitions have been to benefit the community and advance his standard of citizenship. The latter years of his busy life he is spending in quiet retirement at his home in Bloomingburg, honored and revered by all.
Daniel Taylor was born on October 14, 1833, in Coshocton county, this state, being a son of Richard and Mary ( Scott) Taylor, the former of whom was a native of England. Richard Taylor left England when a young man of eighteen years and finally settled in this state in the then little town of Mingo, near Steubenville. He was a farmer and met and married his wife after coming to that locality, she being at that time a resident of Steubenville. Mary Scott, whom he chose for his bride, was a native of Maryland, born in that state of Scotch parentage. Mr. Taylor can readily trace his ancestral line to royal halls across the seas and he has so ordered his own life that no blot nor blemish has been placed by him on the family escutcheon. Richard Taylor and Mary Scott, his wife, were the parents of a family of eleven children, all of whom, with the exception of the subject and his sister Hannah, have passed into the great beyond. Catherine, the oldest of the family, lies buried in Coshocton county; John is buried near Fort Des Moines, Iowa ; Emma passed away at her home in Watseka, Illinois; Mary A. is buried in Coshocton; Edith at Cambridge, Illinois; Caleb was living in Iowa at the time of his death, and Henrietta died in St. Louis, Missouri. David was a soldier in the Thirty-first Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was killed at the battle of Antietam ; Hannah lives at Bellingham, Washington, and the youngest of the family was a child which died in earliest infancy.
The subject received his earliest schooling in Adams township, Coshocton county, where the family at that time resided, later attending the schools of Guernsey county, where the family lived in later years. He had early received training in the work of the farm home, which was of great value to him in that his fatlier died when he was quite a young man and he assumed the position as head of the family, which he retained for thirty-three years. He was nineteen years old when he began farming on his own account and he was able to add to his possesisons from time to time until he had a farm in Coshocton county containing one hundred and sixty- four acres. In later years he disposed of his holdings and came to Bloomingburg, where he has lived a retired life for a number of years. Early in life he mastered the carpenter trade and for a number of years did a considerable contracting business in this section.
During the struggle between the two factions of our nation in the dark days of the sixties, Mr. Taylor became a member of the Ohio National Guards and was stationed at Cambridge, Guernsey county. On April 27, 1864, he enlisted as a private in Company A. One Hundred and Seventy-second Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, re-enlisting on September 20, 1864. in Troop B. First Ohio Cavalry, remaining in this connection until the close of the war. The last engagement of any sort in which Mr. Taylor took part was at midnight on Easter Sunday. April 16, 1865, when the two factions engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle at Columbus, Georgia. General Lee had already surrendered, but neither side was in possession of that information. Among the more important battles in which Mr. Taylor was engaged was the encounter at Ebenezer church, Selma and Montgomery, all in the state of Alabama, and those at Columbus and at the surrender of Macon. Georgia, as well as many minor skirmishes. When a member of the infantry Mr. Taylor served under Col. John Ferguson and while in the cavalry was under Robert Egleson. After the close of the war he returned to Guernsey county, later going to Coshocton and in 1893 came to Fayette countv, locating in Bloomingburg, where he has since resided.
On Noveniber 10, 1854, Mr. Taylor was united in marriage with Mary Hogle, daughter of Lansing and Adeline (Stilwell) Hogle. Mrs. Taylor's death occurred in March, 1913. She was a most excellent woman, possessed of many admirable traits of heart and mind. She was an earnest and consistent member of the Baptist church and is buried at Bloomingburg. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were the parents of five children, namely: Samuel J., who married Mary Babcock, and is the father of six children, Belle, Frank D., Cardell, Edith, Mary and Warren. Hattie remains at home with the subject. She received her education in the schools of Coshocton county and is an earnest member of the Baptist church, through which she has taken the international Bible students course of training. John H. married Wilhelmina Sibley, who has borne him two children, Neely and Verner. Edward L. married Lizzie Saulders and Bert chose Retta Allen as his wife. He has one child, a little daughter, Helen.
Mr. Taylor's fraternal affiliation is with Myron Judy Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Bloomingburg. Mr. Taylor passed by far the most of his life on the farm and is of the opinion that no life is so independent or conducive to proper living. During his more active years he devoted considerable attention to the raising of sheep, in which he was highly successful. He is now eighty-one years old and is justly proud of the fact that he has never used tobacco in any form and has never had a quarrel with anyone. In all the essential elements of good citizenship, Mr. Taylor has always been a man among men and by his steady life, strict integrity and high regard for the better things of life he has won and retained the warm regard of a large circle of friends and acquaintances.
From History of Fayette County Ohio - Her People, Industries and Institutions by Frank M. Allen (1914, R. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.)