Obion-Perry County TN Archives Biographies.....Taylor, G. Tom 1862 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com October 30, 2005, 3:52 am

Author: Will T. Hale

   G. TOM TAYLOR. As the first national committeeman for Tennessee of the new

National Progressive party, Mr. G. Tom Taylor has a unique distinction and his

name is destined to be recorded among the prominent founders of the new party,

just as more than half a century ago the founders of the original Republican

organization gained a fame that endured through all subsequent political history.



   Mr. Taylor has been one of the prominent Republicans of Tennessee for many

years. At the recent national convention in Chicago, he was a Roosevelt

delegate, but his seat was contested, and before the credentials committee

shared the same fate as those of the majority of Roosevelt men. In the events

which followed, and which are still current history, he was one of the leaders

in the formation of the Progressive party of Tennessee. He was a delegate to the

national convention in August which nominated Colonel Roosevelt and Governor

Johnson, and in that convention was made national committeeman for Tennessee.

Mr. Taylor, who is a resident of Union City, where he has been an active

business man for many years, was born at Linden, Perry county, this state, on

March 11, 1862, a son of Alfred Meredith and Sarah F. (Dodson) Taylor. The

father, also a native of Perry county, was a son of Jesse Taylor, who was born

in Dickson county, Tennessee. The family of Taylors came to Tennessee from

Virginia, while the Dodsons came from North Carolina. The mother of Mr. Taylor

was born in Hickman county, this state, and was a daughter of Marshall Dodson.

Alfred M. Taylor, the father, who was a farmer and trader by occupation, spent

his life in Tennessee and died at Union City.



   Mr. G. Tom Taylor was feared on the farm at Linden, and was educated in the

local schools. When he was twenty years old a Nashville firm sent him on the

road as its traveling representative, and he was a commercial salesman ten

years, five years with the Nashville house and a like period with a firm in

Louisville. Leaving the road, he established his home at Union City, where he

has since been in the grain and mercantile business.



   During the war the Taylor family were Unionists, and eight of Mr. Taylor's

uncles were Federal soldiers. Thus from the casting of his first vote Mr. Taylor

has been a Republican, and voted for all the presidential candidates from Elaine

to Taft. In 1896 he became a member of the state Republican committee from his

congressional district, and resigned after he had served for ten years. In 1896

he was one of the managers of the McKinley campaign in his district, and in 1900

was a delegate to the national convention at Philadelphia and supported

McKinley. For the past sixteen years he has been active in both state and

national politics. He was an ardent supporter of Hon. Walter P. Brownlow for

congress, and the opposition which he thus incurred from Hon. Newell Sanders and

friends resulted in his removal, in December, 1910, from the office of

postmaster at Union City, to which he had been appointed in October, 1897. In

January, 1911, Mr. Taylor was elected treasurer and insurance commissioner of

Tennessee by the legislature. For this office he received the combined support

of all the Republicans who were not dominated by machine instructions and of the

so-called regular Democrats. He was appointed provisional state chairman of the

Progressive party and called to preside at the first state Progressive

convention in Tennessee (which was held at Nashville, August 2, 1912), said

convention elected delegates to represent Tennessee in the first national

Progressive convention, which met at Chicago, August 5, 1912. Mr. Taylor was

elected first chairman of the Progressive state committee, organized the party

in the state and managed Roosevelt and Johnson's campaign in 1912.



   Mr. Taylor is a member of the fraternal orders of Elks and Knights of

Pythias. He was married in 1890 to Miss Mattie Lee Irvine, of Dresden,

Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have three sons, Wood, Hal and Bob Irvine.



Additional Comments:
From:



A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in

commerce, industry and modern activities

by Will T. Hale

Chicago:  Lewis Pub. Co.,  1913



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