TAYLOR, James C., b 1862; 1905 Bio, Montrose County, Colorado http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/montrose/bios/taylorjc.txt --------------------------------------- Donated September 6, 2001 Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill. --------------------------------------- James C. Taylor It is the trial through arduous experience, facing danger and difficulty, where life is the stake and manhood must be the reliance, or where strong influences are confronted and overborne by force of character and unflinching fidelity to duty, that often secures men the enthusiastic approval of their fellows by demonstrating that they possess the qualities which all men admire and long for and which only a few have. Something like this has been the fate of James C. Taylor, now serving his second term as sheriff of Montrose county. He was elected the first time by a majority of twenty-four votes after an exciting contest wherein every nerve was strained by all parties, and scarcely an acre of ground escaped the searchlight of political activity. At the end of his term, so satisfactory had been his services in the first, and so properly had he borne himself in his important position, he was re-elected by the largest majority ever given a candidate in the county. Mr. Taylor is a native of Graves county, Kentucky, born in 1862, and the son of Joseph and Eliza (Wade) Taylor, and there also his parents were born and reared, both belonging to distinguished ancestry which had met the call to duty in every field of American life in its day and locality. The father, at the beginning of the Civil war, enlisted in the Thirteenth Kentucky Infantry and must have been killed in one of the early engagements in which his command took part, as he soon disappeared from knowledge and was never heard of again. He was about twenty-three years of age when he went into the war, and with manly character and martial spirit of his forefathers well developed in him, he appeared to have a bright future before him. So do the hazards of war mock human hopes full often and lay men of promise in the dust. He was a son of James Taylor, a native of Alabama, and Polly Dawson, a Kentuckian, whose lives from maturity were passed on a fine Kentucky farm. This James was a son of John Taylor, a veteran of the Revolutionary struggle and the war of 1812, and one of the early settlers of Kentucky, following fast in the footsteps of Daniel Boone, and ending his days in that state. The mother of the Sheriff, some years after the death of his father, married a second husband and thereby became the mother of eight additional children, the Sheriff being the only child of the first marriage. Her parents were James and Dolly (Brown) Wade, the father being the son of John Wade, a native of Ireland, who emigrated to the United States as a young man and settled in Virginia, from whence he moved a few years later to Kentucky, and was there engaged in farming until his death. The Sheriff's mother died in 1894, aged fifty-four years, and was buried just over the state line in Tennessee. James C. Taylor's childhood and youth to the age of thirteen years were passed in his native state. At that age he began life for himself, going to Texas and locating near Meridian, the county seat of Bosque county, where he herded cattle from 1875 to 1881. Then after a visit of a few months to his old Kentucky home, he came to Colorado in the spring of 1882, and until 1885 was employed in the cattle industry in and around Pueblo. From Pueblo he removed to Montrose county, and here he was engaged in raising cattle on his own account until 1892. He then took up a ranch of one hundred and twenty acres near Fort Crawford, which he farmed until 1900, when he was elected sheriff of the county and moved to Montrose. He has ever since been busily occupied in the discharge of his official duties and, while finding them pleasant in the main, has had many difficulties and dangers to encounter and many long and trying trips in all sorts of weather. He has gone through all, however, with a serene and lofty spirit, meeting every responsibility with fortitude and intelligence, and seeking in every way he could to fill his important position to the best advantage of the whole people. In his second candidacy he was on the Populist, Democratic and Fusion tickets, and secured, as has been stated, the largest majority ever given to a candidate in the county. Soon after this election he started a livery business at Montrose, and also helped to form the Kyle & Taylor Grocery Company, which is one of the leading mercantile institutions of the place. He belongs to the Odd fellows, the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America, with membership in the lodges of these orders at Montrose, and also in the Elks lodge at Ouray. He is also an active member of the County Fair Association. In 1886 he was married to Miss Florence Duckett, a native of this state and daughter of James and Martha (Taylor) Duckett. In his family are five children, Minnie E., Iva E., Arthur M., Charles J. and James C., Jr. =================================================== Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive Project USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. 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