Charles H. Taylor, a well-known and substantial
farmer and landowner of Jay county and the proprietor of a well improved
farm of 190 acres in Penn township, situated on rural mail route No. 1 out
of Pennville, has been a resident of this county for something more than
twenty years. Mr. Taylor was born on a farm in Licking township, in the
neighboring county of Blackford, on June 5, 1871, and is a son of William C.
and Mary E. (Canter) Taylor, the latter of whom was born in Clinton county,
Ohio. William C. Taylor also was born in Ohio, where he remained until about
seventeen years of age, when he came to Indiana with his foster parents, the
family locating in Blackford county. He was reared as a farmer and after his
marriage in Blackford county began farming as a renter. In 1875 he bought a
farm of eighty acres, paying $10 an acre for the same, and on that place
spent the remainder of his life, increasing his holding-s to 184 acres. He
was a substantial farmer and helped to put through the big Lick Creek
drainage ditch. He and his wife had seven children who grew to maturity,
Robert E., Mary E., Joseph W., David W., Charles H., George C. and Eli L.
Of these the subject of this sketch is the only one residing in Jay
county. Reared on the home farm in Blackford county, Charles H. Taylor
received his schooling in the schools of that neighborhood and from boyhood
has been engaged in farming, and was thus engaged in his home county at the
time of his marriage, he then being twenty-seven years of age. After his
marriage he rented a farm in Harrison township (Blackford county) and
continued living there for about three years, at the end of which time he
came over into Jay county and bought forty acres of his present farm in Penn
township, taking possession of the same on October 22, 1901. Since taking
possession of this place Mr. Taylor has made extensive and modern
improvements and has enlarged his holdings lo 190 acres. In addition to his
general farming he has given considerable attention to the raising of
livestock and has done well. He is a Democrat and is a member of the local
lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Knights of
Pythias.
It was in 1898 that Charles H. Taylor was united in marriage to
Ocie Ethel Havens, daughter of Benjamin F. and Susanna (Bergdoll) Havens. To
this union have been born five children, William Franklin, John Jacob, Mary
Myrtle, Harley Henry and Ruth Rozelle. William Franklin Taylor married
Florence Emshwiller.
SOURCE: Milton T. Jay, M.D.,
History of Jay County Indiana, Historical Publishing Co., Indpls. 1922, Vol.
II, pp.309-310. Transcribed by Eloine Chesnut