Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Taylor, John Clark 1926
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Marilyn Ransom mransom311@gmail.com June 10, 2014, 3:12 pm

The Ionia Sentinel-Standard, Friday, December 24, 1926


Funeral services for Capt. John Clark Taylor will be conducted from St. John’s 
Episcopal church Monday morning at 10:30.  Those wishing to view the body of 
Captain Taylor may do so at any time Sunday at the residence, 257 East 
Washington street.

Captain Taylor was born in Portage county, Ohio, July 1, 1840.  He came to 
Ionia county in 1855 and settled in Easton township, where his parents 
located.  He has lived most of the years since that time in Ionia city moving 
to this city in 1856 and living here since with the exception of short periods 
when he ventured into other cities, always returning to Ionia.  

In August 1862, he enlisted in the Twenty-fifty Michigan infantry with which he 
fought during the Civil war, entering as a sergeant and emerging as a captain, 
having been through the campaigns with the union forces in Kentucky, Tennessee 
and Georgia and having marched with Sherman to the sea.

Following his honorable discharge from the service he returned to Ionia, where 
he married and soon thereafter entered the ranks of newspaper publishers of 
which he was a member for many years.  

Captain Taylor has been considered the dean of newspapermen.  Previous to his 
entrance into the army during the Civil war, he worked on the Ionia Gazette, 
one of the village’s earliest papers.  In 1866 after his return from the 
service he, together with Maj. Thomas G. Stevenson, established the Ionia 
Sentinel as a weekly paper, and their first issue saw the light of day May 1, 
1866.  He was one of the publishers of the Sentinel for 15 years and 
subsequently published newspapers in Pentwater, Mich., Doland, in the Dakotas, 
and Decatur, Ala., in the years in which he was absent from Michigan.

For a period  of about four years he was out of newspaper work while he served 
as clerk at the Michigan reformatory, and also at the State hospital, the 
Michigan asylum for the criminal insane.  He returned to newspaper work, 
however, soon after through the purchase of the Ionia Express, which with Oren 
C. Wright he published for about two years, when the Evening Press, as the 
daily edition was called, was consolidated with the Daily Standard.  Mr. Taylor 
continued in the game with the Standard in partnership with Robert Baerd until 
his retirement.

For the past nine years and over he has been justice of the peace in Ionia.  
During his lifetime here he has also served as a member of the common council, 
supervisor, and has been active as a member of the William H. Borden post, 
G.A.R., as a member of St. John’s Episcopal church, and in various fraternal 
organizations.

Capt. John Clark Taylor, aged 86 years, Civil war veteran, died at his Ionia 
home Thursday evening, at 7 o’clock.  Funeral services will probably be held 
Monday morning.  Surviving him are six children, Miss Alice Taylor, of Ionia; 
Miss Jean Taylor, of Minneapolis; Miss Martha Taylor, of Washington, DC.; Mrs. 
Florence Taylor-Niemoth, of Thedford, Neb.; Richard Taylor, of Chicago, and 
Rev. Reed Taylor, of St. Louis, Mo.

An Appreciation by Robert Baerd:

John Clark Taylor is dead; dead at the ripe age of 87 years.  The sprit of this 
unusual man passed into the great beyond at 7 o’clock Thursday evening and the 
mortal remains now lie as peaceful in sleep as did the spirit in his long and 
eventful life.  This community was better for Captain Taylor having lived in 
it.  As a pioneer worker who did much in the development of the town, as a 
newspaper writer whose sagacity was keen in giving shape to existing conditions 
for further and better growth, as a soldier who rendered brave and 
distinguished service during almost the entire time of the nation’s vital civil 
strife, as a public official with a record untainted by either questionable 
motives of dereliction of duty, the writer does not recall that at the time of 
his death he had a living contemporary in the community.  Mr. Taylor was a rare 
exception to most public men.  He was influential up to the time of his 
demise.  He had those qualities which secured confidence, integrity, fidelity, 
and a premature wisdom.  He had intellect, and all those resources that made 
him useful to his country and his community.  Of his heroic military record 
nothing need here be said; that is a matter of record in the chapters of his 
country.  As a citizen of patriotic influence, and moral worth in the 
community, however it is a deserved tribute to him to say, he was generous, 
frank, dignified, and sincere in his civic life as he was affectionate in his 
domestic relations.

Robert Baerd


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