Milton D. Taylor

TAYLOR

Posted By: Marthann Kohl-Fuhs (email)
Date: 5/18/2009 at 13:28:21

1889 BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
SHELBY AND AUDUBON COUNTIES, IOWA
W. S. DUNBAR & CO., PUBLISHERS
113 ADAMS STREET, CHICAGO

pages 813-814

MILTON D. TAYLOR,&nb sp; breeder of
Norman horses. Mr. Taylor's farm
is located one and one-half miles west
of the town of Gray, in Lincoln Township.
He was reared upon a farm, and his long ex-
perience in handling live-stock has well fitted
him for his present occupation. His parents
were caught in an early tide of emigration,
and did not settle until they reached Otto
County, Nebraska, where Milton D. was born
in October, 1859. The country was new, and
the privations endured so great that they
packed their effects and went back to Wash-
ington County, Iowa. They are both natives
of Venango County, Pennsylvania, and on
their way west spent one year in Rock Island
County, Illinois, resuming the journey to
Nebraska the following spring. On their re-
turn to Washington County, Iowa, Milton D.
was a mere lad. The father occupied himself
with farming and stock-raising, and is still
engaged in this business. There our subject
grew to manhood, and received his education
in the common schools; he had unusual
opportunities of perfecting himself in his
chosen calling, being under the tuition of his
father. In the fall of 1879 Mr. Taylor came
Audubon County, and bought eighty acres to
of land in section 11, which he broke out and
placed under cultivation. The following fall
he added forty acres to the farm. He re-
mained upon his farm for two years, and then
returned to Washington County. In the fall
of 1887 he came on his present farm, and be-
gan placing upon it permanent improvements.
In February, 1888, he brought to this coun-
try the celebrated Norman horse, Splendid,
imported directly from France. In the
French record book this horse is numbered
18,285, and in the American book it is num-
bered 9,829, Vol. V. Splendid is a beauti-
ful steel gray, four years old. Mr. Taylor is
deserving of much credit for the introduction
of pure-blooded horses into Audubon County.
Enterprise of this kind advances the whole
interests of the county, and is one of the
strong factors of progress.