LOUIS D. TAYLOR

LOUIS DEODAT TAYLOR, a pioneer settler of Cook County, was born at Hartford, Connecticut, September 16, 1822. The Taylor family is of Welsh extraction, and some of its members were among the earliest settlers of Connecticut. The grandfather of the subject of this sketch was born in Hartford, and was a builder and contractor by occupation. He was killed by a fall from a scaffold. His wife, Mary Cecelia Hartshorn, was also of Welsh descent. She died at the home of her grandson, L. D. Taylor, at the age of ninety-six years, retaining her faculties to the end of her life. She was the mother of the following children: Augustus Deodat, Horace, Charles, Solomon, Anson H., Henry, Mrs. Roxana Parker and Mrs. Mary Tally. All became residents of Chicago except Mrs. Parker. Anson H. Taylor came to Fort Dearborn in 1832. He participated in the Blackhawk War, carrying dispatches for Gen. Winfield Scott. He afterward became a farmer at Glencoe, where he died. Before coming to Chicago, he and his brother Charles traded with the Indians in the vicinity of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Augustus Deodat Taylor was born April 28, 1796, in Hartford, Connecticut. He was married there, June 5, 1817, to Miss Mary Gillett, a native of Windsor, Connecticut, and a niece of Prof. Sylvester Dana, of Yale College. Having buried a son and two daughters in her native state, she came to Chicago in 1834, with the surviving children, following her husband, who had preceded her in 1833. Anson and James died in Illinois, and Louis D. is the only survivor. A. D. Taylor was a carpenter and contractor, and built the first Episcopal and Catholic Church edifices in Chicago, the latter on the southwest corner of State and Lake Streets. He also built the residence of William H. Brown, one of the pioneers of the city, and a schoolhouse on West Madison Street, opposite Union Street, on the site occupied by the immense store of the John M. Smyth Company. He was also engaged in the lumber and foundry business, and was well known for his honesty and fidelity. He was an Alderman, and was Collector, and took a leading part in all local and National politics. He was a stanch Democrat, and ever ready to lend his voice and influence for the good of the party. He was a man of action and a useful citizen to the growing western town, the denizens of which had no dreams of its future metropolitan greatness. But he always had great faith in its future, and aided it by his earnest efforts. At one time he owned considerable business property, but was unable, in promoting and fulfilling its possibilities, to hold it. He lived to see his prophecies realized to the fullest extent, and passed away in Chicago at the venerable age of ninety-five years. More than fifty years before, death had robbed him of his faithful wife, who died in 1844, aged fifty-three years. He was married a second time, this union being with Miss Mary Grogan, since deceased. Of her children, three are living in Chicago, namely: James A., Harvey E. and Frank Taylor.

Louis Deodat Taylor was also a carpenter in early life. He helped to construct the first swinging bridge in Chicago, and many of the early houses and business structures of the city. Being desirous of leading a rural life, he bought forty-eight acres of land near Glencoe, and became a farmer. His father had pre-empted a quarter-section in section 18, New Trier Township, but had never cultivated it himself.

L. D. Taylor purchased from his uncle, Anson H. Taylor, the homestead which he now occupies. He planted the trees that now adorn the place, which is situated in Taylor's Port, between the famous Sheridan Drive and the old Green Bay Road. He was married, in Chicago, to Margaret Walls, daughter of James and Roxana Walls. The following children blessed their union: Rosannah (deceased), Mary, Ellen, Anson and Olive Taylor.

Mr. Taylor has a smiling face and a cheerful word for everybody. He is one of the old landmarks of the advance guard of pioneers on the North Shore, who are rapidly disappearing beyond the horizon of life.

– Submitted by Sherri Hessick on May 18, 2008.

DISCLAIMER:  The submitter is not related to the subject of this biography nor is she related to anyone mentioned in the biography.