BIOGRAPHIES

† Source:
A. History of Northwestern Ohio
A Narrative of Its Historical Progress and Development
from the First European Exploration of the Maumee and
Sandusky Valleys and the Adjacent Shores of
Lake Erie, down to the Present Time
by Nevin O. Winter, Litt. D.
Assisted by a Board of Advisory and Contributing Editors
Illustrated
Vol. II
Published by
The Lewis Publishing Company
Chicago and New York
1917

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John Taylor Family 4 generations

JOHN G. TAYLOR.  One of the business corporations that lend distinction to this county, particularly in the districts outside Toledo is the Lucas County Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company.  The treasurer of this organization for the past seven years has been John G. Taylor, who is a prominent farmer of Richfield Township and is now living retired on his farm in that locality.  Mr. Taylor was one of those especially active in the organization of the Fire Insurance Company, and served as one of its directors for eight years prior to taking his present office as treasurer.  The company was organized in 1892 and now has more than six million dollars insurance in force.      The old Taylor homestead in Richfield Township is a place that has been continuously under the management and ownership of one family for more than sixty-four years.  It was there that John G. Taylor was born Dec. 2, 1852.  His parents were James and Ann (Northcott) Taylor who were born reared and married at Holsworth, Devonshire, England.  They left England in 1852, arriving in Toledo May 19 of that year, and soon established their home in the eastern part of Richfield Township, where they developed a farm and found a sphere of usefulness as workers and congenial society as neighbors.  James Taylor died on the old farm in 1899, but his widow lived until Aug. 30, 1916, dying at the age of eighty-seven.  When the Taylor family came to that locality in 1852 their farm was completely in the woods, and in clearing it up and putting it under cultivation they contributed their share to the general progress and improvement of Lucas County.  James and Ann Taylor had the following children:  John G., Prudence Ann, who was born July 18, 1856, and is now Mrs. W. A. Pardee, living in Toledo and the mother of one son; William James who was born Dec. 16, 1860, and occupies the old Taylor homestead and by his marriage to Nellie Smith has three daughters and one son; Fannie Catherine, who died in Toledo in 1915, married M. D. Hubbell and was survived by one daughter.      John G. Taylor grew up in the spring of 1876 moved to Wood County, where for three years he farmed in partnership with S. S. Smith, also a well known resident of Lucas County.  Both he and Mr. Smith had been recently married, and the two young couples occupied parts of the same house, which was nothing more than a board shack with board roof.  In 1879 Mr. Taylor moved to his present farm, close to the place where he was born, and was active in its management until his son took active charge.   Mr. Taylor then moved to Toledo for a time, but was dissatisfied, and then built a new home across the road from the old place which is now occupied by his son and has since lived retired.      Besides the business which he handles as treasurer of the insurance company he has been quite active in local affairs, has served as supervisor, justice of the peace and township trustee, and for twenty-three years has been treasurer of Sylvania Lodge, Free & Accepted Masons.  Politically he is a republican.      On July 4, 1875, Mr. Taylor married Georgianna Ironsides, a daughter of John and Emily (Watson) Ironsides.  Both their parents were born and reared in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and after coming to America were married at Painesville, Ohio.  They then settled in Springfield Township of Lucas County, renting a farm near Holland.  Both are deceased.  Mr. and Mrs. Taylor had two children, Clarence J. and Claude.  Claude died at the age of five months.  Clarence J. received his early education in the common schools, passed the examination and secured a teacher's certificate, but never carried out his purpose to teach.  He had a special fondness for farming life, and his father made him a proposition to remain and run the home place, and in that work he has found congenial and profitable employment.  He married Lina Hendrickson, and is the father of two children:  Hazel, born in 1902, and Jean, born in 1910. † Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1256

WILLIAM THOMAS.  One of the fine old pioneer citizens of Lucas County is William Thomas, now living on the old Thomas farm in Sylvania Township with his daughter Mrs. Thomas E. Bell.  Mr. Thomas is in his eighty-eighth year, but still hale and hearty and it has been his privilege to witness practically every important transformation made by civilized men in this section of Northwest Ohio.      His home is one that was developed completely out of the heavy woods.  Sixty-three years ago when he located in Sylvania Township the progress of improvement had not been marked.  The land that he now occupies was slowly and laboriously put under cultivation after clearing away the heavy woods and undergrowth and the fact that it is now one of the best farms in the township stands to the credit of his venerable resident.  Among the improvements he introduced from time to time is a fine home which he built in 1863 and which still stands, with some slight alterations.      William Thomas should be reckoned among those who introduced fruit culture into Lucas County.  During his early years he lived largely on the frontier where fruit was not obtainable except such as grew wild in the woods or on the prairies.  He frequently said that when he secured a place of his own he would take special pains to plant fruit trees, and thus when he settled on his present farm he set out some fine orchards, and the Thomas homestead has four years been celebrated for its fruit and cider.      William Thomas was born August 29, 1929, near the village of New Hope in Salisbury Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  He is of Quaker stock, and his father Moses Thomas, in 1835 emigrated to Crawford County, Ohio, and in 1840 to Williams County, where he spent the rest of his days as honored and useful citizen.      Eleven years of age when his parents moved to the wooded country of Williams County, William Thomas grew up there and helped to make a tract of wild land a home and scene of cultivation.  He lived there until his marriage in 1853, when he moved to Sylvania Township of Lucas county.  He then settled on the place where he has since hade his home and which is now farmed by his son-in-law Thomas E. Bell.  The father of Mrs. William Thomas, Philo Holt, took up his land from the Government as early ad 1833, but after making some improvements died there within a year or so.      Cornelia Holt, who married William Thomas in 1853, was born in Sylvania Township at what is now the Thomas farm, when that was completely surrounded by the wilderness.  When she was about a year old, and after the death of Philo Holt, her mother's people took her back to Connecticut, where she was reared.  A number of years later she came to Ohio and met and married William Thomas.  William Thomas by his first wife had three children:  Sarah Emmaline, wife of Henry Bell, who is now farming part of the old Thomas homestead; Mary Ellen, wife of Thomas E. Bell, a brother of Henry Bell and farming the home place; and Flora Jane, who died at the age of twenty years.  The mother of these children died in 1864.  William Thomas then married Mrs. Olive (Benton) Mallett, who died leaving one son Moses.  Mr. William Thomas afterwards  married Mrs. Mary G. (Townsend) Hoadley, who passed away September 16, 1900.  Mr. William Thomas is a republican, and has been affiliated with that party since hits birth sixty years ago.  He has filled the office of justice of the peace but has always tried to avoid official honors and responsibilities.  His church is the Methodist. † Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 702

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