Bucks County PA Archives Biographies.....Taylor, David H.
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson, Patricia Bastik & Susan Walters Dec 2009

Source: History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; edited by 
J.H. Battle; A. Warner & Co.; 1887
Falls Township


DAVID H. TAYLOR lumber dealer, P.O. Morrisville, Pa., was 
born in Dolington, in this county, on February 17, 1809, and 
is a son of Joseph and Mary Taylor, who were natives of 
Bucks county, of English and Scotch lineage, and members of 
the Society of Friends. Joseph Taylor had two sons and one 
daughter, and possessed of limited means, was only able to 
give his children such educational advantages as could be 
had at the district schools, until they were of age to learn 
trades.  David was the youngest son, and chose to be a 
shoemaker, and when 15 years old was apprenticed to Benjamin 
Moore, serving faithfully his apprenticeship of five years.  
After that he followed his trade for two years and a half, 
but his sedentary occupation not satisfying one of his 
active temperament, and desiring out-door employment, he 
began working at the trade of carpenter with his father, for 
the modest remuneration of sixty-two and a half cents per 
day.  This trade he followed for about eight years, visiting 
the west in that time by private conveyance, there being no 
railroads west of the mountains at that day - which was in 
the fall of 1837.  Finding the new country almost a 
wilderness he returned, and for a time contented himself 
with earning his living by working hard for a dollar per 
day.  Some time after this he accepted inducements held out 
to him to go to White Haven, Luzerne county, where he 
superintended the building of a saw-mill, and conducted the 
lumber business for David B. Taylor, Levi Buckman and Joseph 
Yardley.  White Haven at that time consisted of about a 
dozen log houses, three saw-mills, and a tavern.  After a 
few years spent in this way Mr. Taylor began manufacturing 
timber for other parties on his own account, by the 
thousand, removing three miles into the woods, where he 
lived in a log-house, so far removed from any neighbor that 
his wife sometimes for six months at a time saw no other 
woman except the one who worked for her.  The memorable 
flood of January, 1841, completely destroyed navigation 
between Mauch Chunk and the place where he lived, carrying 
off almost all the bridges and dams on the river.  During 
the two years that elapsed before they were rebuilt, and 
navigation resumed, the settlers endured great hardships, 
many of them leaving the settlement utterly discouraged.  
Mr. Taylor and his wife were among those who remained and 
endured the privations of frontier life.  The necessaries of 
life were sometimes difficult to get; fresh meat was 
supplied by the rifle, and other articles were obtained with 
great difficulty.  There were no means of raising ready 
money, and it was often the case that letters were left a 
long time in the post-office, because of the inability of 
the settlers to get the five cents which at that time was 
the rate of postage.  In 1843 navigation was resumed, and 
again Mr. Taylor, aided by his estimable wife, started in 
the struggle for a competence.  By unceasing diligence, 
thrift and upright dealing he commanded success, and became 
the owner of mills and lands.  During this period of hard 
labor and varied experience, but general success, of unusual 
energy as well as large benevolence, his house was always 
the home of the itinerant in church and moral reform, as 
well as the sick and unfortunate of all those in his employ, 
whose wants were supplied without charge, irrespective of 
condition or nationality.  Remaining there until 1858, he 
then removed to Bethlehem, where he did a thriving business 
as a coal and lumber dealer until after the outbreak of the 
civil war.  The disastrous freshet in the Lehigh, in June, 
1862, caught him with a large lot of logs in the river, 
almost all of which were lost, as well as a large stock of 
lumber and coal in his yard, which likewise became an almost 
total loss, sweeping away at one stroke the greater part of 
the results of twenty years of an industrious life.  Feeling 
it unsafe to resume business on the river, the banks of 
which had been his home for so many years, he saved what he 
could from the wreck, and a few years later, in 1871, 
returned to his native county.  He settled in Morrisville, 
buying the lumber yard and mill property of Messrs. Taylor & 
Parsons, who though of the same name were no relatives of 
his.  Here Mr. Taylor again established himself in his old 
business of lumber and coal, under the name of David H. 
Taylor & Sons, which is yet the style of the firm, and which 
is composed of the father and his three sons, Joseph S., B. 
Frank and Charles S.  Undismayed by a disaster which would 
have overwhelmed a weaker man, Mr. Taylor has, with the 
energy which has always characterized him, to a great extent 
repaired the breach in his fortunes, and is today in 
comfortable circumstance.  In addition to his interests in 
Morrisville, he yet owns considerable property on the 
Lehigh, and in the evening of his days is enjoying the 
fruits of a long life well spent, and is deservedly held in 
high esteem by all who know him, for his integrity and his 
blameless life.  He is a regular attendant of the 
Presbyterian church, and is an earnest advocate in the cause 
of temperance.  Seeing the many advantages which would 
accrue to this section by the damming of the Delaware 
(permission for which was given ten years ago by New 
Jersey), he has by his voice and pen urged it upon the 
attention of the people and the legislature, and has 
awakened an interest in the project.  If carried out it 
would furnish an immense power for manufacturing purposes, 
and would be of incalculable benefit to Bucks county.  Mr. 
Taylor's domestic life has been a happy one.  While working 
at carpentering with his father, he was married to Hannah 
K., daughter of John and Hannah Shafer, they being natives 
of Bucks county, of German and English extraction.  Mr. and 
Mrs. Taylor had four sons and two daughters, all now living 
save one daughter, and a son named Jonathan, who laid his 
life upon the altar of his country.  He was captain of 
company C, 129th Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was wounded in 
the first general engagement in which he participated.  He 
was removed by his father and mother to a private house at 
Georgetown, where for four months the parents tenderly 
nursed him, sparing nothing that money or parental love 
could procure, but without avail; after four months' 
suffering he joined that band of heroes whose lives were 
given that their country might live.