Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/66

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TAYLOR
TAYLOR

raon elder, preached in Toronto, and John Taylor was converted and baptized. The next year he went to reside in Kirtland, Ohio, and in 1838 he was made one of the twelve apostles, and removed to Missouri. For twenty years he did mission- ary work for the Mormons in Great Britain and France, and while there published the " Book of Mormon " in French, and also a German transla- tion in Hamburg. In 1852 he returned to this country, and in April, 1853, assisted in laving tho corner-stone of the Temple in Salt Lake City. In 1854 he went to New York city, where he issued a paper called "The Mormon," and was editor of numerous other church publications. He was by the side of Joseph Smith when the latter was as- sassinated in Carthage jail, and received four shots in his body ; a fifth lodged in his watch, which probably saved his life. He was a delegate to con- gress to ask for the admission of Utah into the Union. On the death of Brigham Young, in 1877, he succeeded to the presidency of the church, and in 1880 was made president and prophet of the portion of the Mormon church that indorsed and practised polygamy He was an early advocate and adherent of polygamy, and in March, 1885, was indicted for that crime. His last appear- ance in public was on 1 Feb., 1885, after which, to avoid arrest, he went into exile and remained hidden until his death.


TAYLOR, John Glanville, author, b. in Eng- land in 1823 ; d. in Batticaloa, Ceylon, about Janu- ary, 1851. He came to the United States in 1841, and after engaging in a mining enterprise, becom- ing a planter in 1843, and afterward serving as an overseer in Cuba, he returned to England in the latter part of 1845. A narrative of his adventures was published under the title of " Eight Years of Change and Travel " (London, 1851).


TAYLOR, John Louis, jurist, b. in London, England, 1 March, 1769 ; d. in Raleigh, N. C, 29 Jan., 1829 He was brought to the United States at the age of twelve by a brother, his father having died. He was for two years at William and Mary college, then removed to North Carolina, studied law. and, after being admitted to the bar, settled in Fayetteville, which he represented in the legis- lature in 1792-'4. He removed to New Berne in 1796, and in 1798 was elected a judge of the supe- rior court. In 1808 he was chosen by his colleagues to preside over the supreme court, which was then composed of judges of the superior court who met at Raleigh to review questions that arose on the circuits. When a new tribunal was instituted in 1818 he was appointed one of the judges, and con- tinued as chief justice till his death. In 1817 he was appointed a commissioner to revise the statute laws of North Carolina. The work was completed and published in 1821, and a continuation by Judge Taylor appeared in 1825. He began to take notes of cases that came before him soon after he was elevated to the bench. His publications include " Cases in the Superior Courts of Law and Equity of the State of North Carolina " (New Berne, 1802) ; " The North Carolina Law Repository " (2 vols., 1814-'16); "Charge to the Grand Jury of Edge- combe, exhibiting a View of the Criminal Law" (1817); "Term Reports" (Raleigh, 1818): and a treatise " On the Duties of Executors and Admin- istrators " (1825).


TAYLOR, John Neilson, lawyer, b. in New Brunswick, N. J., 24 July, 1805 ; d. there, 6 Feb., 1878. He was graduated at Princeton in 1824, studied law, was admitted to the bar in New York city in 1825, and practised there and in Brooklyn, N. Y. He was the author of a " Treatise on the American Law of Landlord and Tenant " (New York, 1844), and " The Law of Executors and Ad- ministrators in New York " (1851).


TAYLOR, John W., speaker of the house of representatives, b. in Charlton, Saratoga co., X. Y., 26 March, 1784; d. in Cleveland, Ohio, 8 Sept., 1854. He was graduated at Union in 1803, or- ganized the Ballston Centre academy in that year. studied law in Albany, was admitted to the" bar in 1807, and practised in Ballston, becoming a justice of the peace in 1808, then state commis- sioner of loans, and in 1811-'12 a member of the legislature. He was elected to congress as a Demo- crat and a supporter of the war with Great Britain, and was re-elected nine times in succession, serving altogether from 24 May, 1813, till 2 March, 1833. On 20 Nov., 1820, owing to the absence of Henry Clay, Taylor was chosen in his place as speaker, and served till the end of the second session, dur- ing which the Missouri compromise was passed. On the question of the admission of Missouri to the Union he delivered the first speech in congress that plainly opposed the extension of slaver)'. He was again elected speaker on the organization of the 19th congress, serving from 5 Dec, 1825, till 3 March, 1827. He was one of the organizers of the National Republican, and afterward of the Whig, {>arty. After retiring from congress he practised aw at Ballston, and was a member of the state senate in 1840-'l, but resigned in consequence of a paralytic stroke, and from 1843 till his death lived with a daughter in Cleveland. He was the orator of the Phi Beta Kappa society at Harvard in 1827. and frequently spoke in public on literary as well as on national topics. — His nephew, John Orville, educator, b. in Charlton, N. Y., 14 May, 1807, was graduated at Union college in 1830, and entered Princeton seminary, but soon left to become a teacher in Philadelphia, where he remained two years. Thenceforth for many years he engaged in the work of educational reform. He published a book pointing out the deficiencies of the common schools, entitled " The District School, or Popular Education " (New York, 1835), which was publicly commended by statesmen and thinkers both in the United States and in Great Britain. In January, 1836, he began the publication at Albany, N. Y., of a monthly educational magazine called the " Com- mon-School Assistant," which was also successful. Public-spirited citizens sent large subscriptions for gratuitous circulation of the periodical, and after four years the New York state legislature established a paper of the same character and intent. Mr. Taylor published, with a long introduction, a translation of Victor Cousin's " Report of the Prussian School System " (New York, 1836). and for the succeeding fifteen years lectured on the improvement of common-school education in the principal cities of the country. In 1837, in connection with James Wadsworth, he induced the New York legislature to pass a law establishing school libraries. In that year he was elected professor of popular education in the University of the city of New York, and lectured during one season to a class of seventy prospective teachers of both sexes. On 13 Dec, 1838, he gave a lecture, at the invitation of congress, in the hall of the house of representatives. After fifteen years of fruitful exertions for educational progress, he engaged in mercantile business in New York city, but, having met with reverses, retired to New Brunswick, N. J., in 1879, and has since then contributed to various journals. — Another nephew, Elisha Ephraim Leech, clergyman, b. in Pompey, N. Y., 25 Sept., 1815 ; d. in Marlborough, N. Y.,"l8 Aug., 1874, was graduated