Taylor Webster
Taylor Webster was born in Pennsylvania, and when a child immigrated, with his father and mother, to Butler County, Ohio, in 1806. He received a limited education in the schools of that early day, and for a time pursued his studies at the Miami University, when that institution was in its infancy.
Mr. Webster was identified with the press of Butler County for a long time. From about the year 1828 until the year 1836, he edited and published the Western Telegraph, which was the organ of the old Jackson Democracy. Subsequently the Telegraph was carried on by John B. Weller. During the first part of this period the Hamilton Intelligencer, the opposition paper, was edited by John Woods, and subsequently it was edited, printed, and published by Lewis D. Campbell. These four Hamilton editors all represented the district in Congress—Mr. Woods four years, Mr. Webster six years, Mr. Weller six years, and Mr. Campbell, the only survivor, eleven years.
In 1829 Mr. Webster was elected clerk of the House of Representatives of the Ohio Legislature. In 1830 he was the representative of Butler in the Ohio Legislature, and elected speaker. In 1832, 1834, and 1836 he was elected representative to Congress from the district composed of the counties of Butler, Preble and Darke. In 1838 he was succeeded by John B. Weller. Subsequently he was the successor of John Reily, deceased, as clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, and of the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio for Butler County. During the administration of Jackson and Van Buren when he was actively in the field of Ohio politics, he was not such a leader as were William Allen, John Brough, or John B. Weller. He was not an orator, but in a less ostentatious way he performed more telling service than either of them. Their great powers were displayed in haranguing the multitude and exciting their friends to action without, perhaps, making very many converts from the opposition. Mr. Webster's great strength was in what was called the button-hole and fence-corner system of electioneering. He had not superior in the Miami Valley in organizing political forces in detail during a campaign and bringing them into action when a decisive battle was to be fought. He was naturally of a mild and unassuming disposition—calm discreet, and a considerate in action. He was always temperate, industrious, and persevering, and he discharged with honesty and fidelity the functions of the various official positions with which he was intrusted. He died on the 27th of April, 1876, at the residence of his son, in New Orleans.
From A History and Biographical Cyclopædia of Butler County Ohio, With Illustrations and Sketches of its Representative Men and Pioneers, Western Biographical Publishing Company, Cincinnati Ohio, 1882.