Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-10-21

~ =, W lhe Town OF hazel Green, Grant |
Co., IN this state about the year 1910. |
de owned very beautiful farm adj
joining the town of jamestown and
was identified largely with the lead
mining interest which in the early his
tory of the state, and for a number of
succeeding years, was verv popular
resource in Grant County. At the
time of the California gold excitement,
IN lo49, he chose the longer but
safer journey to the Eldorado by the
voyage around Cape Horn, and re-
manned two years in this land of
gold. Returning. perhaps somewhat
more robust in health, he attended to
his farm and timber lands in Southern
Wisconsin. He was chosen by the
Republican party to represent his dis
trict in our state legislature, where
even men of principle may sometimes
be ruined by their scruples; but polite
al corruption, if it existed there, could
never swerye him from his unfiinching
principles of honesty and love of JUS
tice. His indignant refusal to cast his
vote in favor of an unjust scheme in
face OF heavy bride proved to his
fellow legislators that "all men have
their price is not true. Justice to the
interest of his constituency and his
ability at the capital warranted MANY
reflections and he represented his
district during the years of 80, SO, 81,
90, "a. IS, also refusing several renomi-
nations as candidate. Mr.. Taylors vir-
tues were many. In his dealings, in
every respect, scrupulously honest to
a cent, and his bond was consid-
cred by HIMSELF as no better than his
word. Strictly temperate in all things,
it could never be said that his example
was productive of bad influence.
Toward humanity in distress he was
over-generous to a fault, and in the
| dark days of our country's need when
many families were left without ample
supply, cords of wood without thought
of number, flour, meat, clothing and
money, prompted by a benevolent spirit,
contributed to make many of those
homes more comfortable and happier.
True, these were prominent instances,
but the disposition was the same under
any circumstance where suffering might
be relieved. We recognize, as being
aptly given, these beautiful lines of
Wordsworth:
That best portion of good man 5 life,
HIS little. nameless, unremembered acts
Of Kindness and Of love-"
During the latter years of his life,
| through unfortunate financial invest
ments, his once comfortable fortune
became sadly reduced. His health
began to fail and for the last two years
he had been much of the time a great
| sufferer. A severe bronchitis and
asthmatic trouble developed into con-
sumption. He bore his suffering with
opt complaint. with the patient hero
ism of the true philosopher. From
the first of this decline, he knew that
the end was not far off and was re-
signed. When asked If the thought of
dying caused him any trouble, he re-
piled, with Impressive energy: mo; l
am not afraid to die. | am glad to die;
my only regret is leaving my family. "
His last few hours were quiet and free
from pain and his mind apparently
clear and rational.
The deceased was born December 6,
1910, in Swanton, Franklin County,
| Vermont. -, His parents, James and
Penuel Taylor, were of pure New Eng
land stock, the father having been a
Revolutionary soldier, entering the Con-
tinental army at the age of seventeen
years and continuing in the service un-
til the close of the struggle for liberty,
about seven years. Mr.. Taylor himself
enlisted as soldier in the ranks as a
patriotic duty during the late Rebellion.
The subject of this notice received
his education in Williams College in his
native state. After this he went to
Ogdensburg, N. T., and read law for
three years. His health failing, he
came west, and took his California trip
as above stated. Mr.. Taylor possessed
some eccentricities, which were only
eccentricities, not defects in character,
only as regarding himself. they may
have served to prevent more extended
popularity and general recognition of
the elements of a truly substantial char
acter. The most prominent of these,
perhaps, was a notable disregard of
dress and personal appearance; the die
tates of fashion or society's conven-
tionalisms being viewed with perfect in
difference. He was always found upon
the side of justice in relation to human
rights. Inequality of remuneration for
the same kind of labor, as performed
by men and women, was to him always
an injustice, and he has been an ardent
advocate of equal suffrage for 40 years.
| He never intruded his views about re-
ligion upon the attention of anyone.
By member of his family, the follow
ing paragraph is subjoined in relation
to this matter: HE was lifelong
adherent to that peculiar school of phil
osophy, known as Agnostic, whose
tenets have been set forth by one of its
popular expounders in the following
brief words: AN Agnostic does not
deny the existence of a God; he neither
denies nor affirms; he simply says: Il
know not There may be God, there
may not be; have no faculty by which
can know He believed in deeds,
not .creedsi' His religion was to do
good and he was loyal to the theory
and practice of these convictions unto
the end
In 1871 Mr. Taylor was married to
Miss Emily Gilman, whose family was
one of the pioneers of jamestown, Wis
They at once removed from the COM
munity where both were so well known
to Wichita, Kansas, and five years
afterward to Luverne, MINI. After a