Taylor, Charles A.
Charles A. Taylor Soundex Code T460
Charles A. Taylor ( - Friday, September 27, 1867), was the brother of Anson H. Taylor and Augustin D. Taylor.
Following his brother Anson, he arrived from Detroit in June 1832 by wagon with his wife Mary Taylor, nee: Mary Wilcox, daughter of Almira Wilcox, nee Almira Rood, wife of Charles Wilcox and Mary`s half sister Julia Ann Trumbull Wilcox, then a little girl.
James Kinzie's Wolf Point Tavern was available at that time, and they leased or ran the business for about one year, "neat and orderly."
By Wednesday, June 18, 1832 Chicago area citizens gathered at "Taylor`s tavern" to adopt formal resolutions of thanks to the Michigan Territory militia troops who first provided protection for the village during the Black Hawk War;
Together with Anson, Charles built a floating log bridge across the south branch of the Chicago River at Randolph Street later that summer, 1833;
In April 1833 his name was on the petition by Catholic citizens to Bishop Joseph Rosati of St. Louis asking that a priest be assigned to them;
Charles and Mary were listed among "500 Chicagoans" on the census which Commissioner Thomas J.V. Owen took prior to the incorporation of Chicago as a town in early August;
Received $187 for a claim at the Chicago Treaty of September 1833;
Later that year they chose to become charter members of the first Presbyterian church under Reverend Jeremiah Porter;
Voted in the election of the first town board on Saturday, August 10, 1833;
Entered into a construction partnership with Major Handy and in 1834 built a house on the corner of Canal and Madison streets, but by March the partnership was dissolved as per notice in the Chicago Democrat (Tuesday, March 18, 1834);
Submitted a deposition in regard to wharfing privileges on Tuesday, November 24, 1835, and later that year filed a claim for privileges for lot 3, block 18;
Prior to 1836 Taylor acquired the western half of the Southwest quarter of Section 4 of Township 39 N, according to Andreas, History of Chicago, pp. 112-113;
1839 City Directory: tailor, Clark Street;
1843 and 1844 City Directories: merchant tailor, 42 Clark Street, house: Canal street. born: Washington and Madison Streets, alderman 3rd ward.
He died in Indianola, TX in 1867;
In 1885 his widow lived at 199 S. Peoria Street, Chicago.
Mary was half sister to Julia Ann Trumbull Wilcox, wife of Orlando Bolivar Willcox, later a U.S. general, who, as a lad, visited Chicago repeatedly and occasionally attended Reverend Porter`s Sunday school;
An article, "Life in Chicago Seventy Years Ago," in the Chicago Sunday Tribune, Part Six, Sunday, September 20, 1903, is compiled from Mary`s diary by her niece, Mrs. Julia Willcox Tenney of Boston, and vividly depicts the family`s experiences on the road to Chicago and in the early village.]
