Harry Robert Taylor, M. D.
Harry Robert Taylor, M. D. Every profession has its prominent men, some made such by long membership, others by proficiency and achievement. Dr. Harry Robert Taylor is numbered among the leading medical men of Jackson County, not so much by the length of time he has devoted to the calling–for he entered active practice only in 1910–as by the eminent success he has already made of it, the wealth of learning and experience he has brought to it, and the high ideals which he has maintained in regard to its ethics. At Eldorado, where his entire professional career has been passed, he is accounted not only one of the thoroughly learned members of the medical fraternity, but a man whose entire training has been along lines that makes his usefulness a decided factor in the advancement of the locality.
Doctor Taylor was born December 25, 1878, at New York City, New York, and is a son of Berry and Frances (Taylor) Taylor. His father, a native of Worcestershire, England, was born in 1835, and emigrated to the United States in 1872, settling first in New York City, where he resided until 1888. In that year he moved to a farm in Morgan County, Illinois, seven miles southeast of Jacksonville. There he continued to be engaged in extensive farming operations during the remainder of his life, and also dealt largely in stock, at times having on hand as many as 300 hogs. After a long, useful and industrious career, he passed away at Jacksonville, in 1900, aged sixty-five years. Mr. Taylor was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was one of the highly regarded men of his community, winning and retaining the respect and esteem of all with whom he had transactions. He married Miss Frances Taylor, who, although bearing the same name, was no relation before their marriage, and who was born near Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1845, and died there in 1905, a woman of true Christian character and of many excellencies of mind and heart. There were three children in the family of Berry and Frances Taylor, namely: Ida, who became the wife of R. F. Cool, who is engaged in agricultural pursuits at Graceville, Minnesota; Emma, who is the wife of Charles James, a railway mail clerk, residing at St. Louis, Missouri; and Dr. Harry Robert.
Harry R. Taylor received the foundation for his educational training in the public schools of New York City, and was ten years of age when he accompanied the family to Illinois. There, while growing up on the home farm, he finished his primary education in the graded schools of Jacksonville, and in 1896 was graduated from the Jacksonville High School, in the meantime spending some time in a visit to the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago. The Spanish-American war came on while Doctor Taylor was still on the farm, and with other young men of his community he enlisted in the volunteer service, being attached to the medical corps, with which he served throughout the campaign in Cuba. His term of enlistment expiring, he veteranized in 1899, and was sent to the Philippine Islands, where he was identified with a medical corps until 1900 and was then appointed a recruiting officer and stationed at Louisville, Kentucky, for two years.
His military service completed, Doctor Taylor returned to the home farm for a time, but his Cuban and Philippine experiences had created in him a desire to enter the medical profession, and in 1906 he entered the medical department of the University of Louisville, from which he was graduated in 1910, after a full course of four years. With his newly acquired degree of Doctor of Medicine he came to Eldorado, October 10, 1910, and here commenced practice. As other young physicians have before him, Doctor Taylor was forced to pass through the probationary period, but his skill and learning soon attracted patients to him, and from then to the present his practice has been growing steadily. Doctor Taylor’s practice in medicine and surgery is general in its lines, embracing all departments of the calling, and his well-appointed offices are located in the Corner Drug Store Building, corner of Main and Fourth streets. He has continued to be a close and careful student of the profession, realizing that the modern physician must keep closely in touch with the advancements being constantly made if he desires success, and is a member of the Jackson County Medical Society, the Oklahoma State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His political inclinations make him a republican, but professional duties and responsibilities have been so engrossing as to preclude the idea of active participation in public life. With his family he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Doctor Taylor is a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to Eldorado Lodge No. 181, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons; Eldorado Chapter No. 56, Royal Arch Masons; Eldorado Council No. 19; Eldorado Commandery No. 27, Knights Templar, and Consistory No. 1, Valley of Guthrie; and also holds membership in Eldorado Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Mesquite Camp No. 69, Woodmen of the World, at Eldorado.
At Jeffersonville, Indiana, in 1902, Doctor Taylor was married to Miss Georgia Rogers, daughter of the late H. C. Rogers, a stockman, who died at Litchfield, Kentucky, in 1914. Doctor and Mrs. Taylor have had one child, Clay, who died in infancy.