Brown County IN Archives Biographies.....Taggart, Frank P. 1839 - 
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Author: B. F. Bowen (1904)

FRANK P. TAGGART.

   The subject of this review is accorded the distinction of being the oldest
business man in Nashville, as well as one of the best known and most popular
citizens of Brown county. A gallant soldier in one of the greatest wars of which
history bears record, he demonstrated his loyalty to his country on a number of
bloody battlefields, and resuming the quiet pursuits of civil life after the din
of conflict had subsided, he has since continued the even tenor of his way, at
peace with the world and his fellow men, exerting a strong and beneficial
influence upon all with whom he comes in contact and, by a life singularly free
from fault, exemplifying one of the best types of genuine, broad-minded American
citizenship.

   Frank P. Taggart is a creditable representative of one of the oldest pioneer
families of Brown county, his father, Captain James, and his grandfather, James
Taggart, both natives of east Tennessee, moving to this part of the state in the
early thirties and settling on public land in Hamlin township, for which in due
time they received patents from the government. James, Sr., died at about
seventy-five years of age. Captain James Taggart married in the state of his
nativity  Miss Jane Weddell and was the father of several children when he
became a resident of Brown county. He was a fine specimen of the hardy
backwoodsman, developed by the times in which he lived, also became a noted
hunter and during the early years in his pioneer home kept the table bountifully
supplied with the choicest of game, thus affording an agreeable variety to the
daily bill of fare. Nursed to hard work from his boyhood and accustomed to the
vicissitudes and hardships incident to life in a new and undeveloped country, he
seemed greatly to have enjoyed the rugged experience of carving a home from the
wilderness, his labors being rewarded in due time with a good farm in Washington
township and a comfortable support for the loved ones dependent upon him. Mr.
Taggart was a man of great energy and determination, though of quiet demeanor,
and he earned the reputation of an enterprising, honorable and in every respect
praiseworthy citizen. A Democrat in all the term then implied, and in a modest
way an untiring party worker, he never aspired to leadership nor sought the
honor or emoluments of office, although well qualified to fill any position
within the gift of the people of his adopted county. He was quite influential in
his community by reason of his excellent judgment in matters of business, while
his general intelligence made him a leader in a number of local enterprises for
the advancement of the people's interests. When the war with Mexico was declared
he helped recruit Company E, of the Third Infantry, later was commissioned
captain of the same and in that capacity joined the army under General Taylor
and participated actively in the hostilities from the beginning of the conflict
at Palo Alto until killed while bravely leading his men in the bloody battle of
Buena Vista. The sword which he carried throughout his thrilling military
experience is now in the possession of his son, the subject of this review, by
whom it is cherished as a sacred relic, being a mute but eloquent witness to the
bravery of the gallant leader by whom it was so ably wielded. Captain James and
Jane Taggart reared a family of eleven children, the subject of this sketch
being ninth in order of birth, six of the number surviving and doing well in
their respective spheres of life. The birth of Frank P. Taggart occurred in the
old family homestead in Washington township, Brown county, Indiana, December 16,
1839. He was reared to habits of industry on the farm, early bore his full share
in its development and cultivation and in his childhood and youth attended
during a few months of each winter season such indifferent schools as the
country at that time afforded. After remaining with his mother until fifteen
years of age, he severed home ties and started out to make his own way, choosing
for his vocation the blacksmith's trade, which he learned at Nashville and
Edinburg and in which he soon acquired proficiency and skill and to which he
devoted his attention until the breaking out of the great Civil war. Shortly
after the beginning of hostilities Mr. Taggart enlisted as a musician in the
Twenty-second Indiana regimental band, in which capacity he served one year,
during that time experiencing a great deal of active duty, principally in the
states of Missouri and Arkansas, Pea Ridge and Corinth being among the
hard-fought battles. At the expiration of the period noted the band was
disorganized, immediately after which Mr. Taggart reentered the service as
lieutenant of Company K, One Hundred and Forty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry,
and as such continued at the front until the end of the war. Lieutenant Taggart
was for some months provost marshal of Early county, Georgia, having been
appointed to the position in August, 1865, and so acted until being mustered out
of the service February 17, 1866. Mr. Taggart thus gave some of the best years
of his life to the service of his country and earned a reward for bravery and
gallantry of which any soldier might well feel proud. He was ever ready to go
where called, regardless of hardships or danger, shirked no responsibility,
however great or onerous, was popular with his men and enjoyed the confidence of
his superior officers; in brief, his military career was replete with duty ably
and faithfully performed and now, after so many years have elapsed, the
consciousness of having served his country long and well is not only a cherished
memory, but the richest reward he could possibly have received for the
sacrifices made in upholding and defending the honor of an insulted flag.

  Mr. Taggart comes of an intensely loyal and patriotic family, his father and
one brother, James W., having borne gallant parts in the war with Mexico, while
four of his brothers served with distinction during the conflict between the
northern states and the southern confederacy. One of these brothers, William by
name, was captain of Company C, Twenty-second Indiana Volunteers, and is
remembered as a brave officer, whose record is without a stain. Wesford Taggart
entered the army in a subordinate capacity, but by reason of brave and
meritorious conduct rose by successive promotions until he became colonel of the
Twenty-fifth Illinois Infantry. He served in that capacity during the latter
years of the war, won the esteem and confidence of his commanding general and at
the head of his men met the enemy in some of the severest fighting for which the
great rebellion is noted. Patterson Taggart enlisted in Company H, Eighty-second
Indiana Volunteers, in 1863, and, like his brother referred to above, was
discharged with an honorable record. Captain T. Taggart went to the front in the
capacity of musician, joining first the Fifty-fifth Battalion, from which he was
subsequently transferred to the One Hundred and Twentieth Indiana Volunteer
Infantry, serving as chief musician with the latter command until honorably
discharged at the expiration of the war. Few families can lay claim to such a
record of military service as that in which a father and five sons bravely and
gallantly upheld their country's honor on the field of battle. Animated by a
spirit of true and lofty patriotism, these brave men fought but with a single
object in view, to preserve the integrity of the national union as the fathers
of the republic formed it, and the memory of their deeds will always be a rich
heritage, not only to a grateful posterity, but also to the country they served
so faithfully and so well.

   After his return from the army Lieutenant Taggart engaged in farming in Brown
county and continued the same with varied success until the year 1870, when he
disposed of his agricultural interests and established himself in the mercantile
business at Nashville. From that time to the present he has devoted his
attention closely to general merchandising, building up a large and lucrative
patronage and, as already indicated, his establishment is now the oldest of the
kind in the city, as well as one of the best conducted and most successful. He
carries a full stock of every line of goods demanded by general trade, and his
long period of service and courteous relations with the public have been the
means of winning him a large, well paying and .thoroughly reliable class of
customers, also of greatly extending the scope and magnitude of his business
until it is now second to that of no other mercantile house in Brown county.
Financially Mr. Taggart has met with success commensurate with the energy,
resourcefulness and tact displayed in his business affairs, being at this time
one of the well-to-do men of his town and county, owning, in addition to his
large store, valuable property, both real estate and personal, among which may
be noted the elegant modern residence he now occupies, one of the finest and
best appointed private dwellings in Nashville. Every dollar of the ample
competence in his possession represents his own endeavor and successful
management, as he is essentially the architect of his own fortune, having
started upon his independent career at the bottom of the ladder with no capital
other than correct habits, well regulated energy and a determination to succeed,
and with no friends to encourage or assist him in making the ascent. Content
with the slow but sure gains which come to him through the channels of
legitimate trade, and avoiding everything in 'the way of hasty and doubtful
speculation, he persevered in his undertakings and by long continued effort and
honorable dealing gradually surmounted the difficulties in his way until in due
time he forged to the front, gained a conspicuous place in the business world
and won the large measure of success which in the end seldom fails to crown the
efforts of those who persevere in well doing.

   On May 13, 1860, Mr. Taggart and Miss Martha E. Sipe, of Ohio, daughter of
Joseph and Maribah C. (Satterthwaite) Sipe, were united in the bonds of holy
wedlock, Mrs. Taggart's mother died when she was a child of nine, and being
given to her grandparents, Thomas and Elizabeth (McMullen) Satterthwaite, she
accompanied them to Bartholomew county, Indiana, where her grandfather died, and
some years later she came with her grandmother to Brown countv and here she
srrew to woman-hood.

   To Mr. and Mrs. Taggart four children have been born, the oldest, a son by
the name of Walter A., being a resident of Decatur county, Indiana, and a
married man with a family consisting of three children; Patterson E., the second
in order of birth, is a successful undertaker of Nashville, and the father of
one son, Ferd E., who since his infancy has been living in the home of his
grandparents; Ira W., the third of the subject's children, is interested with
his father in the store, and has the reputation of being one of the most
enterprising young business men of Nashville; Estella, the youngest of the
family, is the wife of Martin E. Hopper and the mother of five offspring, her
husband also being connected with Mr. Taggart's mercantile establishment.

   Mr. Taggart has a firm, abiding belief in revealed religion, and many years
ago he made a public confession of his faith by uniting with the Methodist
church, of which he has ever been a devoted and consistent member. His wife is
also identified with the same religious body and, like him, she is deeply
interested in good works and active in promoting all kinds of charitable and
benevolent enterprises. Originally Mr. Taggart was a Democrat in politics, but
since the organization of the Prohibition party, in which movement he was an
active and influential factor, he has given it his earnest and uncompromising
support. Since the year 1884, when prohibition first took organized form in
Indiana, he has been one of its most pronounced adherents, and as such his
influence has done much to strengthen the party, not only in Brown county but
throughout the state. A lifelong temperance man and an unyielding enemy of the
liquor traffic, he believes the saloon to be the great moral ulcer on the body
politic—the crying evil of the day—and entertaining such views, he looks for
nothing less than absolutely prohibitory legislation to effect its destruction
or removal.

   Mr. Taggart has always been a friend of education and an advocate of the
public school system, which forms the basis of our state and national
prosperity. The best advantages in this direction obtainable were provided for
his children, all of whom are intelligent, well informed and highly esteemed by
their friends and associates. A decided taste for music appears to be
characteristic of the family, the father and all of the children being much more
than ordinarily proficient in the art, the latter having received instruction
under competent directors during their youthful years.

   In closing this sketch it might be well to state that at this time Mr. and
Mrs. Taggart are the oldest married couple in Nashville, having traveled life's
pathway together for a period of forty-four years, during which time their
experiences have been many and varied, success attending them in the main. On
the whole, their wedded life has been one of sunshine and prosperity, children
have grown up to call them blessed, their friendships have been many, warm and
constant, their belief in themselves has led them to appreciate the influence
that. has gone out from their home to make the world wiser and better, and with
a living faith in a kind heavenly Father who ordereth all things aright, they
are quietly proceeding on the way to the twilight of their declining years,
cheered by a consciousness of having acted well their parts and having been true
to themselves, to their family, kindred and friends and loyal to the God from
whom they have received so many mercies and to whom in the afterwhile they must
appear to receive the reward of their well doing.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY
INDIANA

INCLUDING BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GOVERNORS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS OF INDIANA

ILLUSTRATED

1904

B. F. Bowen PUBLISHER


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