Daniel Randolph Taylor

As printed in 1908

DANIEL RANDOLPH TAYLOR, postmaster and ticket agent for the electric railroad and express agent for the Pacific Express Company, at North Hampton, is probably one of the best known men in Pike Township. He was born December 31, 1835, in Virginia, and is a son of Daniel and Mary (Crowisen) Taylor.

The parents of Mr. Taylor were born in Virginia. His father was a millwright by trade and in search of work he came on horseback to Zanesville, Ohio, in 1834. His young wife followed shortly afterward, with her infant son, Daniel Randolph, in her arms, also making the journey on horseback. She was left a widow soon after reaching Zanesville, her husband meeting death by accident in that city. She remained at Zanesville for several years, when she moved to Newark and then to Granville, Licking County, where she married David Southwiek. To this marriage four children were born, two sons and two daughters. Mrs. Southwick died at the age of sixty-five years.

She was related to the Virginia Randolphs and gave her first son that name.

Daniel Randolph Taylor is a self-made man. His mother had been married but a few months to her second husband when the lad left home, determined to take care of himself and he never returned except to visit. He was about ten years old when he started to work in a rope factory. The power was supplied by hand and it was his duty to turn,the power wheel, receiving twenty-five cents a day for his labor, boarding himself in the meantime. Later he learned the cooper trade and after serving an apprenticeship of two years, went to Urbana and became an employe in the cooper shop of the Haggenbaugh mills.

It was during his residence at this place and while he was working in these mills that he was, married, January 4, 1854, to Harriet A. Merser, who was a daughter of one of the leading citizens of Alexandria, Ohio, Dr. N. Z. Merser. This marriage was an elopement and had many romantic features. In the course of a few years the parents of Mrs. Taylor became so reconciled that they came to reside in the home of their son-in-law, where Dr. Merser died and where Mrs. Merser resided for many years afterward. In following his trade, Mr. Taylor soon moved to St. Paris, Ohio, where he was working as a cooper when the Civil War was declared. He enlisted in the regimental band in the Forty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he remained for sixteen months, when a general order was given that all organizations of this kind should be mustered out. Mr. Taylor returned home, Tiut three months later, at Columbus, he reenlisted in Company E, One Hundred and Thirteenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was assigned to baud duty in the Third Brigade, Fourteenth Army Corps, in which he remained until the close of the war.

Mr. Taylor participated in many battles and endured the, privation and hardships which came to the gallant men of General Sherman's army. On the memorable march to Atlanta, which consumed ninety days from Rossville to the objective point, from the third day the soldiers engaged in fighting or skirmishing continuously. They remained at Atlanta for three weeks and then, started by rail to Chattanooga. After a most trying series of raids in Alabama, the regiment was again returned to Chattanooga and by that time, Mr. Taylor was so worn out that he was obliged to rest for several weeks in a hospital and was then given a furlough of thirty days, which he spent with his family in Ohio. On his way back to his regiment, he was stopped at Louisville by orders to take a large squad of furloughed soldiers to Bedloe Island, where he remained for three weeks. Then, with a force of 1,000 men he went aboard an ocean steamer bound for a North Carolina port, and from there they were distributed to their various commands, Mr. Taylor reaching his regiment at Goldsboro, on the day before the fight at Black Swamp. The regiment was then sent after the Confederate General Johnston and when within ten miles of Ealeigh, they paused for dinner. At three o'clock that afternoon rumors were heard of the surrender of General Lee and before they could reach General Johnston, he had also surrendered to the Union forces. The regiments then had rations for fifteen days issued and orders given them to report at Richmond, Virginia. In the rapid march to the Southern capital, the army corps to which Mr. Taylor belonged, was the first to reach Eichmond, making the trip in seven days. They remained there three days and then received orders to march to Washington, where several weeks were passed and then the brigade was started to Louisville, Kentucky. They made the trip to Parkersburg, West Virginia, in box cars, where they took boats on the Ohio Eiver and thus reached Louisville. The brigade camped for five weeks in the environs of this city, when, as peace seemed to be firmly established, they were sent to Columbus, Ohio, where Mr. Taylor and his comrades were muster-ed out in August,

The many events, which Mr. Taylor had been called on to participate in and the trying scenes in which he so often was forced to take part, exerted a very sobering, effect on his mind and resulted in his serious contemplation of becoming a minister. He still resides at St. Paris, where, in 1872, he entered the ministry of the Eeformed Church, and served the congregation at Bradford, Ohio, for three years. From there he went to the Union charge in Clark County, where, for seventeen years he labored with great success, meeting the encouragement which causes true ministers to feel that their endeavors are blessed. During this period of seventeen years he received between 900 and 1,000 additions.to the church, officiated at 500 weddings and preached 600 funeral sermons. During his last pastorate he resided at North Hampton, where he subsequently engaged in a shoe business. He gradually added other activities and became the agent of the local electric railroad which opened for business July 4, 1903. Although he is a stanch Democrat he is an admirer of President Roosevelt imd was appointed postmaster by him at North Hampton. Mr. Taylor has served as a justice of the peace and now holds the office of notary public.

Mr. Taylor has had four children, all born of his first marriage, namely: Harry, deceased; Leno; Albert; and Ella, who married James Rector. Some years after the death of his first wife, Mr. Taylor married Anna M. Minnick, who still survives.

On June 4, 1857, Mr. Taylor was made a Mason and a Master Mason in July of the same year. He belongs also to the Chapter. He has led a most interesting life, into which almost every element of happiness and pain has entered, and his reminiscences of its various phases are deeply interesting.

As printed in 20th century history of Springfield, and Clark County, Ohio, and representative citizens (1908). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.