J. Gordon Taylor
J. Gordon Taylor, one of the enterprising and representative business men of Cincinnati, has been the secretary of the Eagle White Lead Company of this city since its reorganization in 1891 and was also one of the reorganizers of the concern. His birth occurred in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 25th of November, 1838, his parents being Eli and Hannah M. (Marsh) Taylor. The father, a native of Exeter, New Hampshire, came to this city in 1832 and embarked in business as a publisher, for several years publishing the old "Family Magazine." Owing to financial reverses he abandoned the publishing business and took up his abode at Mount Healthy, Ohio, where he was engaged in four different pursuits at the same time, operating a farm, a store, a brickyard and a cooper shop. In 1847 the family home was established at what is now College Hill, and Eli Taylor undertook the task of raising the endowment for the Farmers College. When that had been accomplished he became the southern representative of a shoe manufacturing concern at Lynn, Massachusetts, of which his cousin, David Taylor, was the head. Eli Taylor made his headquarters in New Orleans, leaving his family at College Hill, Ohio. In September 1854, while he was home on a ten days’ visit, the Ohio Female College at College Hill was destroyed by fire. Rev. Dr. Covert, who was the proprietor of that institution and also conducted the Glendale (Ohio) Female Seminary, wished to abandon the College Hill school after the fire and transfer its pupils to the Glendale Female Seminary. The residents of College Hill and vicinity did not relish the idea of losing the college and prevailed upon Eli Taylor and General Samuel F. Carey, the famous temperance lecturer of those days, to buy the property, rebuild it and continue the work of the institution. In 1859 Mr. Taylor disposed of his interest in the Ohio Female College to Rev. F. Y. Vail and in association with an old Quaker, John Wanzer. formed the pork-packing firm of Taylor & Wanzer. Shortly after the outbreak of the Civil war Mr. Taylor, being too old to enlist as a soldier, became connected with Captain S. H Lunt, a quartermaster at Louisville, Kentucky, remaining with him in the field until his death. He died of pneumonia at Washington, D. C., on the 7th of April, 1864. Eli Taylor was married in Cincinnati to Hannah M. Marsh, a native of Newark. New Jersey. and a daughter of Aaron Marsh, who came to this city in 1826. Mrs. Hannah M. Taylor here passed away on the 28th of November, 1908, at the age of ninety-two years, her demise being the occasion of deep and widespread regret.
J. Gordon Taylor, who was but two years of age when the family home was established at Mount Healthy, spent his boyhood days there and at College Hill. In the year 1859 he was graduated from the Partners College at College Hill. In May 1861, he responded to Lincoln’s first call for troops, enlisting for three months service. After spending that period in camp without being assigned to any particular regiment, Mr. Taylor was appointed captain of Company E of the Seventy-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which had been newly organized. He served with credit until August 12, 1864, when, on account of his father’s death, he resigned his commission. At that time he was at Fort Morgan. Mobile Bay, Alabama, and, owing to the length of time it then required to carry mail between Mobile and Washington D. C. it was not until October 1864 that he received official notice that his resignation had been accepted. During his term of service he was connected with the Army of Ohio, the Army of Kentucky, the Army of the Cumberland and the Army of the Gulf. From October 1862, until he left the army Captain Taylor served as an aid on the staff of Major General Gordon Granger. He returned to Cincinnati late in October 1864. and in May of the following year, in company with two other Cincinnati men, went back to Mobile, Alabama, where he conducted a general store until December, 1866. In that month he again returned north and was married at Hamilton Ohio, to Miss Helen Hughes, who accompanied him back to the south. They located in New Orleans Louisiana, and for several years Captain Taylor ran a steamboat on the river between New Orleans and Montgomery, Alabama. This venture was at first a successful one but eventually became unprofitable and, his steamboat being wrecked. Mr. Taylor entered the internal revenue department at New Orleans under James B. Steedman, .an old army friend, who was collector of internal revenue at New Orleans. He remained in the internal revenue service until the latter part of 1869 and on the 1st of January 1870, returned with his wife to Cincinnati. He became bookkeeper for the hardware house of Dicksen, Clark & Company on Pearl Street and subsequently entered the service of Frederick Eckstein, a manufacturer of white lead, in a similar capacity. Later he became a stockbroker in the Eckstein concern and was made its secretary In 1891, in association with John B. Swift, Thomas S. Brown, Jr. and others, he bought out the Eagle White Lead Company and has since served in the capacity of secretary. A man of excellent business ability, sound judgement and keen discrimination, he as contributed in no small degree to the continued growth and success of the enterprise.
Captain Taylor is commander of the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion, is a member of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland and also belonging to Fred C. Jones Post, G. A. R. His business career has been marked by a thorough understanding of each task which he has undertaken and by that continuous progress which logically follows constantly expanding powers and employment of opportunity.
Abram Freeman, the great-grandfather of Mrs. Taylor, was an early settler of Cincinnati and at one time owned almost all of the land now comprising the west end of Cincinnati. Freeman Avenue was named in his honor. He later disposed of the property and invested in a farm near Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, where his demise occurred. He was the father of six sons. One of the sons, a surveyor, was killed by the Indians. Another son disappeared and nothing was heard of him until almost a hundred years had passed, when some men discovered a cave in what is now the state of Washington. In it was found the skeleton of a man and on the walls of the cave, carved with a knife or some sharp instrument, was the name of A. Freeman and the date of his disappearance. Though there is no certainty that this was the same Freeman who disappeared from Cincinnati so many years before, it is generally believed by those most interested that he was captured by Indians who took him to the northwest, that he escaped or was abandoned and crawled into the cave to die, having just enough strength left to carve his name and the date of his disappearance in hope that his fate might be known.
From Cincinnati, The Queen City, Vol. 3; by Rev. Charles Frederic Goss, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912