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.