Grover Taylor

GROVER TAYLOR is proprietor of the largest department store at Alton, a business which was founded and built up by his father and which under the son's energetic management has increased and controlled trade drawn from a radius of many miles around Alton.

Mr. Taylor was born at Alton October 24, 1884. He is of Scotch-Irish ancestry and his father is John B. Taylor, who was born in New York State in 1853, grew up there, and as a young man went west to Exeter, Nebraska. He learned the merchandise business there as clerk, married while in Nebraska, and on June 6, 1878, came to Bull City, now Alton. He used his modest capital to buy an interest in one of the first stores established in the town, and from that date to this, a period of forty years, the business has had a sure footing in that section of Osborne County. John B. Taylor continued the business until he handed it over to his son. He retired in 1908, and for several years lived in Kansas City, Missouri, but since 1916 his home has been in Whittier, California. He is a republican, was mayor of Alton, and for six years—1901 to 1907—represented the county in the State Legislature. He still owns three farms, aggregating 480 acres, in Osborne and Rooks counties. He is a prominent Mason, member of Occidental Lodge at Alton, Osborne Chapter and Council, Beloit Commandery of the Knights Templar, and the Scottish Rite Consistory and Ararat Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Kansas City. For twenty-five years he has been a member in good standing of Alton Lodge of Odd Fellows. John B. Taylor married Jennie L. Graves, who was born in New York State in 1860. Satie, the oldest of their children, is the wife of Dr. H. H. St. John, a surgeon at Concordia, Kansas; Grover is the second in age; Lora and Mildred are both living with their parents.

Grover Taylor graduated from the Alton High School in 1903, spent three years in Washburn College at Topeka, and since finishing this liberal education has been the active manager of the store and business built up by his father. He is also a stockholder in the First State Bank of Alton. He is a republican, and, like his father, is active in Masonry, being a member of Occidental Lodge, Osborne Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Beloit Commandery, Knights Templars, and Isis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Salina. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Modern Woodmen of America at Alton.

In 1908, at Kansas City, Missouri, he married Miss Elizabeth St. John, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. P. St. John, the latter now deceased. Her father is a painter and decorator and is now living at Reedley, California. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have three children: John A., born March 31, 1909; Hugh R., born March 3, 1911; and Grover Mack, born November 27, 1914.

Pages 2439-2440.