ARTHUR LEROY TAYLOR

ARTHUR LEROY TAYLOR, of Iola, whose career of above thirty years in Kansas, has established for himself a reputation for business and a character for integrity, unimpeached, throughout southeast Kansas, is particularly well known to the lumber trade of this section. Long years of connection with these interests have not conspired to bring about this prominence so much as the spirit with which he conducts his business and the enthusiasm which he maintains for the success of the "Hoo Hoo" tribe. His long residence in Kansas almost makes him a pioneer yet he has accomplished more for his locality than many pioneers and his individuality is firmly stamped upon whatever is honored with his serious attention.

Rock Island, Illinois, is the birthplace of Arthur L. Taylor. He was born April 5, 1848, was reared in the country, largely, and is a son of Clinton G. Taylor. The latter went into Rock Island county in 1842 from Jefferson county, New York. He was born in the Empire State in 1809 and of English descent. Our subject's great-grandfather was a soldier of the American Revolution.

Clinton G. Taylor was a self-made man, a teacher in early life and taught one of the first schools to be held in Rock Island county. He was one of the conspicuous men of the early days in western Illinois, was a

Whig and, later, a Republican, and was appointed by the Lincoln administration Revenue Assessor in that State. He died in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1884. He was a strict Presbyterian and his son, Rev. Mark B. Taylor, is a prominent Congregational clergyman, of Brooklyn, New York. He married Eliza M., a daughter of Asa Barnes, of Jefferson county, New York. Mrs. Taylor resides in Ottawa, Kansas. She was born in 1810.

Clinton G. Taylor was the father of Mrs. F. A. Cobb, of Ireton, Iowa; Mrs. A. P. Gibson, of Neosho county, Kansas; Rev. Mark B. Taylor, Past Chaplain of the National Grand Army of the Republic; Arthur L. and Mrs. Ella Tabor, of Ottawa, Kansas.

Arthur L. Taylor spent the first twenty-one years of his life on the farm and was schooled in such institutions as were common to sons of farmers from 1855 to 1865. With the money he made at farming a rented place the year he became of age he attended Bryant and Stratton's College at Davenport, Iowa. He spent the following season at farming and, deciding to come to the western prairies, he drove a mule team through, in 1869, to Neosho county, Kansas. The first three years in Kansas were devoted to farming—at that time his favorite calling. He had the experience of every country youth in Kansas in the early 70's, that of breaking prairie with Texas steers. To this he owes the cultivation of his wonderful stock of patience, and, if he has departed from the training which he received at his mother's knee, it was this that caused it. In 1872 he was appointed Deputy County Clerk of Neosho county and served as such, and as Deputy County Treasurer, four years. In these capacities his natural business ability was given an opportunity to shine. His familiarity with the affairs of the county and his pronounced views with reference to the proper conduct of the public business rendered him a formidable candidate for County Commissioner without his encouragement or consent. In 1876 he was elected to that office and served the county ten years, continuously, with great ability and fidelity. Mr. Taylor was a Republican the first five years of his majority but he fell out with the tariff, believing it to be "legalized robbery" and he became a Democrat. His election as County Commissioner occurred in a Republican district and while serving as such he was in the lumber business at Osage Mission, now St. Paul, Kansas.

In 1888 Mr. Taylor bought the S. A. Brown lumber yard in Iola and that year began a residence there which has been mutually profitable and pleasant to himself and his townsmen. Two years after his advent to the city he was elected to the Council and was chosen Mayor in 1897, He is one of the active members of the Commercial Club, and its President, and is the shaft which drives the machinery of the Allen County Fair Association. This latter not only requires days of unremitting toil but nights of worry and unrest, besides a yearly financial outlay. He has witnessed its periods of temporary adversity and has beheld its era of great success and popularity.

Mr. Taylor was first married January 1, 1874, to Annie, a daughter of Dr. G. W. McMillin, whose former home was in Lexington, Kentucky. Mrs. Taylor was born in Lexington in 1851 and died in Iola January 23,

1893. Her children are: Ella, wife of Adlai Ewing, was born August 1, 1875; Clinton G., married to Pearl M. Harkness, was born September 15, 1877, and is associated with his father in business; Ray, born July 9, 1883; Irene, born November 8, 1886, and Genevieve, born June 18, 1891. Mr. Taylor was married June 24, 1896, to Mrs. Julia Archibald, a daughter of W. B. Alcock, of Marietta, Ohio. Mrs. Taylor was one of the successful and popular teachers in the Iola schools for some years.

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