Bios: John M. Taze, 1832 - 1909: from Westmoreland County, PA

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Henry L. Kiner, History of Henry County Illinois, Volume II, Chicago:
The Pioneer Publishing Company, 1910

John M. Taze 

Many years must needs elapse before Oxford Township will cease to feel
the loss of John M. Taze, one of the most worthy, substantial and
interesting of the men who have dwelt within her borders.  He was born
September 13, 1832, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, his parents
being Isaac and Margaret J. (Irvin) Taze.  The father was born in the
north of Ireland and the mother in New York City, but both the Taze and
the Irvin families are of Scotch descent.  The father died when John M.
Taze was only twelve years of age, but the mother lived out a long life
of usefulness until her eighty-fifth year.  About ten years after the
father'ı demise, the family went to Washington County, Iowa, and lived
there for one year previous to coming to Illinois.  They engaged in
farming near Vermont, in McDonough County, this state.  Mrs. Taze, after
her husbandıs death, had upon her shoulders the sole responsibility of
the raising of eight children.  Jane became Mrs. John Jaynes, of Oxford
Township, Henry County, both she and her husband now being dead.
Margaret married Orson Patterson, of Oxford Township.  William, also
deceased, married before leaving Pennsylvania, but was a resident of
Oxford Township at the time of his death.  Martha, deceased, became Mrs.
Alexander McCurdy, of Oxford Township.  Ann is deceased.  John M., the
subject of the sketch, is next in order of birth.  Elizabeth became Mrs.
Festus Cole, whose husband survives her, and is now a resident of Oxford
Township.  The youngest, Irvin by name, died before the family left
their home in Pennsylvania.  The father had been only a renting farmer,
a man of scant means, and he left the family destitute at his death.  It
was indeed quite frequently a matter of diligence on the part of
everybody to keep the wolf from the door.  Some of the children came
west prospecting before the removal of the main part of the family, and
several of them were married before coming to Illinois.

John M. Taze preceeded his mother to Illinois by a short time, coming in
the Spring of 1854.  He traveled by boat from Pittsburg down the Ohio
River and up the Mississippi River to Cairo, Illinois, and later
overland to Washington, Iowa, where several members of the family were
already located.  There he engaged in farming until 1861, when he went
to the far west, traveling over Idaho, Montana and Utah, prospecting for
gold.  He worked both independently and for a company and had many rare
experiences and suffered many hardships, all of which he accepted
philosophically and thus gave to the making of a fine character.  Among
his adventures was his discovery, while prospecting with two companions,
of a cave evidently never before entered in the memory of man, which
upon exploration showed evidence of occupation by human beings of
strange modes of living.  He was successful in his mining ventures and
remained in the west for five years before rejoining his mother and
several other members of the family in Oxford Township, this county.

Before going away Mr. Taze had acquired a farm of one hundred sixty
acres of land which formed the nucleus of what grew to be a magnificent
estate before he died.  He invested some of his mining money in land and
at once took up agriculture on his return to Illinois.  In addition to
crop raising he engaged in the stock business, his animals being the
finest in Oxford Township.  When he left the farm to reside in Alpha he
owned five hundred and seventy acres of land in Oxford and Clover
Townships, while in Texas he was the proprietor of seven thousand, six
hundred and eighty acres of land.  It is thus evident that he had in his
control vast resources.  In 1901 he built a fine residence in Alpha,
where he established his household, and gave up active farming to devote
his energies to the supervision of his large land interests.  He also
assumed banking interests, becoming the owner of the Alpha Exchange
Bank, Rio in Knox County, in February, 1903; in 1908 he organized the
Peoples Bank of Woodhull; and in March 1909, he organized the Farmers
Bank of Ophiem.  Their management consumed a great part of his time and
attention until July 1, 1909 when they were all of them sold to a
Chicago syndicate.

Mr. Taze was united in marriage September 24, 1874 to Miss Elizabeth S.
Rutledge, a daughter of William and Ann (McCurdy) Rutledge, who came
from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in March 1873, and settled in
Oxford Township.  They had lived in the same neighborhood as the Taze
family and the two young people were well acquainted before they left
the east.  Mr. Rutledge was a farmer by occupation, although as a young
man he had been a boatman on the canal from Pittsburg to Youngstown.  He
is still living at the age of eighty-seven years, but his wife died May
18, 1898.  To Mr. Taze and his wife were born three children, William I., 
Anna Margaret and Jane Ella, the daughters being at home.

Mr. Taze was a loyal adherent of the principles of democracy, but he
could not be called active in politics in the sense that he had any
desire to be an office holder.  He was, nevertheless, a public-spirited
man.  In 1900 he organized the Alpha Electric light Company in
conjunction with his son and Almon H. Linn, of Cambridge, thus giving
Alpha her first lighting plant, and putting another item upon the town's
debt of gratitude to him.  He was a man of few words but had a keenly
analytical mind that grasped the merits of a business proposition
instantly.  He was a kind and devoted husband and father, his home being
his kingdom.  Mr. Taze was by birth and belief a Presbyterian, and
although not a member of the church, he lived and died a Christian.  By
circumstances deprived of anything but the scantiest education, he
acquired vast knowledge by reading, observation and wide range of
travel, of which he was especially fond.  His business life, his home
life, and his daily intercourse with men, all eloquently speak his
praises.  His death, which occurred July 12, 1909, produced universal
sorrow.  He is interred in the Summit Ridge Cemetery, near Alpha, where
other members of the family lie.

William I. Taze, son of the foregoing, passed his early years upon his
fatherıs farm, attended the public school and was graduated from the
Alpha High School with its first class in 1895.  This he supplemented
with a course in Brown's Business College in Galesburg, in 1897.  In the
fall of that year he entered the Alpha Exchange Bank, and in a short
time his efficiency recommended him to the responsible office of Vice
President and Cashier of the chain of banks organized by his father.  He
continued in this capacity until the banks were transferred with the
Chicago syndicate.

Mr. Taze was united in marriage to Miss Mabel Long of Orion, their union
being celebrated January 25, 1899.  Mrs. Taze is the daughter of Dr. H.
H. and Mary (Jordan) Long, of Orion, who are also the parents of two
sons, Donovan L. and Edwin H.

Mr. Taze is a democrat by inheritance and conviction but he is not
active in politics.  He is a prominent member of Oxford Lodge, No. 367,
A. F. & A. M., at New Windsor, and has affiliation with Rio Chapter and
Galesburg Commandery.  He and his wife are members of the Baptist Church
as is also his mother and sisters.  The son possesses many of the
business characteristics of his father and is a young man of much
promise.

In the household of Mrs. John M. Taze are her aged father, William
Rutledge, and her two daughters, Anna Margaret and Jane Ella.  Her home
and that of her son are the most elegant and pretentious in Alpha, large
and modern throughout, and having an atmosphere of refinement, culture
and genuine hospitality.