WILLIAM TABER, who has contributed a due quota toward the agricultural development of Morrow county, Ohio, and who is now living in retirement at Edison, is one of the old pioneer residents of the county and one honored and esteemed in the community.
     His father, Thomas Taber, was a native of Montpelier, Vermont, and was a farmer by occupation.  He was a son of one whose full patronymic he bore, Thomas Taber, who was born March 26, 1747, was a blacksmith by trade and married Hannah Davis.  The family had been one of prominence in New England from the time that the original American ancestor, Philip Taber, came here and settled near Boston, Massachusetts, ––this being prior to 1634.  He was one of the first settlers at Yarmouth, Massachusetts, and was a member of the first Legislative Assembly of Plymouth Colony, 1639–’40.  In 1661 he was a member of the Government Council of Providence.  He married Lydia Masters.
     The father of our subject was born October 17, 1796, and August 10, 1818, he married Miriam Worth, who was born February 7, 1799.  They remained in Vermont until the fall of 1836, when they emigrated to Ohio and settled on a tract of land in Gilead township, this county (then Marion county), at a point somewhat northwest of the present city of Mount Gilead, where they remained ever one year.  He then bought a piece of densely wooded land adjoining Canaan township, building there a log cabin, in which the family took up their abode.  He died May 12, 1843, and his widow passed away in 1860.  They were the parents of seven boys and two girls, of whom five are living at the present time, namely: William, Nathan, Freeman, Thomas Elwood, and Lewis.  The parents were members of that noble organization, the Society of Friends.
     William Taber, the subject of this review, was born July 2, 1819, at Cobin Hill, Addison county, Vermont, and the house in which he was born bore an uncanny repute, being said to be haunted.  He was seventeen years of age when the family came to Ohio, his education having been received in the subscription schools of his native State.  His father, whose educational advantages had been very meagre, appreciated their value, and he did not deny his children such opportunities as were in his power to grant.  Our subject went to Mount Gilead after his arrival here and there worked for Dr. Roberts during the summer, attending school during the winter months.  After this he went to the paternal home and lent his aid to clearing and improving the same.  He remained at home until he was twenty years of age, and then began to work out for others by the month, continuing to be thus employed for two years.  He then cleared a piece of land on his father’s farm and sowed the same to wheat.  He had been in the employ of Daniel and David Osborn, and through the advice of those gentleman he returned home and gave his attention to caring for his father until the time of the latter’s death.  He assumed the management of the farm and brought it into effective cultivation, purchasing the interests of the other heirs after the death of his father.  He subsequently added eighty acres to his landed estate.
     Mr. Taber gave his attention to the operation of the farm until 1881, when he was incapacitated for active labor as the result of injuries received in being thrown from a mowing machine, and he thereupon came to Edison and purchased an attractive residence, where he has since continued to abide in the devoted companionship of his wife, who has been his faithful helpmeet during all the long years of their married life.
     June 28, 1845, Mr. Taber joined hand and heart with Miss Sarah Hickok, daughter of Harry and Hannah (Macomber) Hickok, both natives of Saratoga county, New York, where they were married.  In 1825 they settled south of Fitchville, Huron county, Ohio, and there remained until their death.  The father came on foot all the way from Saratoga Springs, New York, to this State, where he located his claim before bringing his family.  The mother died in the spring of 1826 and the father survived many years, and died in Illinois at an advanced age.  They were the parents of three boys and four girls, and five of the number are now living.
     Mrs. Taber was born September 27, 1825, in Huron county, Ohio, and was there reared and educated.  Our subject and wife became the parents of four children, of whom only one survives, William Lloyd Garrison Taber, who was born July 10, 1849, married Olive Silverthorn, has two children, and lives on the paternal homestead.  One daughter of our subject Oria, born February 10, 1853, became the wife of John Ashbaugh, and she died June 28, 1890, leaving three children.
     Mr. and Mrs. Taber are consistent members of the Society of Friends, and politically our subject was originally a radical Abolitionist, but for the past twenty years he has been an ardent Prohibitionist, his being one of the first three ballots cast for that cause in this township.  His first presidential vote was cast for William Henry Harrison.  During the war he was an active worker in the service of the “under-ground railway” and his home was one of the “stations” of that effective system.  He has taken an active interest in educational work and has served as School Director, ––the only office he has consented to accept.  He is a man of unwavering honor and integrity, and in his advanced years retains the respect and veneration of the community.
Memorial Record of the Counties of Delaware, Union & Morrow, Ohio; Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1895, pp. 196-198
Contributed by a Generous Genealogist.

D. S. TALMAGE. ––We now direct attention to one who stands conspicuous as one of the oldest and most honored pioneer residents of Morrow county; one whose identification with the history of the Buckeye State has been one of ancestral as well as individual order, and one who, after days of ceaseless toil and endeavor, is now passing the autumn of his life in retirement and gentle repose as a patriarchal citizen of the flourishing little city of Mount Gilead.  A resumé of such a life can never fail to offer both lesson and incentive.
     D. S. Talmage is a native of Morris county, New Jersey, where he was born on the twenty-third day of April, 1814.  His father, David Talmage, was likewise a native of New Jersey, and was a shoemaker by trade, following this honorable vocation during his entire mature life.  He came to Knox county, Ohio, in 1816, his son, the subject of this review, being but two years old at that time.  In 1836 he located in that portion of Marion county which is now incorporated in the county of Morrow, and here purchased a small piece of land, upon which he made his home, devoting himself to the support of his family by working at his trade.  Here he continued to abide, a simple, noble, honest man, until death came to him at the venerable age of seventy years.  He was of English extraction, having been a descendant of one of three brothers who left the mother country and took up their abode in America at an early day.
     The mother of our subject, née Ruth Whitehead, was a native of New Jersey, where she lived until she had attained mature years.  She entered into eternal rest at the age of fifty-nine years.  David and Ruth Talmage became the parents of three children, of whom we make record as follows: Nelson is deceased; D. S. is the subject of this review, and Maria is the wife of Elias Cooper, of Mount Gilead, this county.
     As has already been stated, our subject was a child of but two years at the time when his parents left their Eastern home and located in the pioneer frontier settlement in Knox county, Ohio.  His scholastic discipline was of necessity very limited in scope, for the pioneer locality had its educational advantages as yet confined to the primitive log school houses, with their meagre accessories.  Such advantages as these little schools afforded, however, our subject was permitted to enjoy.  At the age of sixteen years he apprenticed himself to learn the carpenter’s trade, and served in this way for a period of four years.  Being then twenty years of age, he began operations as a journeyman and was thus employed for one year, after which he determined to put his mechanical acquirements to a practical test by engaging in business upon his own responsibility.
     In 1834, ––two years prior to the removal of his father to this locality, ––he came to Marion (now Morrow) county, and located in Mount Gilead, which has continued to be his home during all the long intervening years from that time to the present end-of-the-century period.  At the time of his arrival here the town’s population was summed up in the aggregate of 150 individuals.  He became a prime factor in the substantial up-building of the village, and in conserving its general advancement to its present position of importance and prosperity.  There are still extant not a few houses of the large number which were erected by him in the village and neighboring townships.
     Two years after his arrival in Mount Gilead, ––that is, in 1836, ––he was united in marriage to Miss Susan Snyder, who was born and reared in Washington county, Indiana.  The union thus cemented continued for more than an half century, fifty-six years, and was one of mutual devotion, unwavering sympathy, and earnest co-operation, ––a union in the higher and truer sense.  In September, 1893, came to our subject the great loss and bereavement of his life, for then it was that she who had been his cherished companion during all the long years, with their varying lights and shadows, who had been a tender mother to his children, and who had stood tenderly by his side while the years left their impress in silvered hair and bowed form, was gathered home to the life eternal.  Hers was a life which left a benediction to those who mourn her loss, and was one which bequeathed its own measure of consolation.
     Our subject and his wife became the parents of three children, namely: John, who was a brave and gallant soldier in the late war of the Rebellion, and who is now deceased; Sarah, who is the wife of James Albaugh, and Nelson, who died at the age of sixteen years.
     Mr. Talmage is one of the oldest settlers now living in the county, and is one to whom is not denied the full measure of respect and veneration due to the man who has lived an honorable and useful life, and whose days have been prolonged to the limit of the unwonted four score years.  For a number of years he was quite extensively engaged in the buying and selling of live stock, and he also owned a farm and operated the same successfully, notwithstanding the old saying that, “He who by the plow would thrive, himself must either hold or drive,” the simple fact being that our subject never gave a day’s time to following the plowshare as it turned the willing soil.  Though he has never sought public preferment, yet Mr. Talmage served his county capably and acceptably for six years as Commissioner.  He is an old-time Mason, having been identified with the various bodies of that noble fraternal order since 18––.
Memorial Record of the Counties of Delaware, Union & Morrow, Ohio; Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1895, pp. 106-108
Contributed by a Generous Genealogist.