Taylor, Matthew A.

TAYLOR

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 7/2/2021 at 21:06:01

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.440

MATTHEW A. TAYLOR
M. A. Taylor, an honored veteran of the civil war now living retired in New Virginia, Iowa, claims Pennsylvania as his native state, being born near Harrisburg, on the 2d of June, 1841. His parents, William and Elizabeth (Braught) Taylor, were also natives of Pennsylvania and of Scotch descent. They spent their entire lives in Pennsylvania.
Our subject was reared and educated in much the usual manner of boys of his day and early became interested in the trouble between the north and the south arising from the question of slavery. His patriotism being aroused he joined the boys in blue, enlisting in August, 1861, at the age of twenty years, in Company D, Forty-sixth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He took
part in the battles of Cedar Mountain, Virginia; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Resaca and Peach Tree Creek, Georgia, and the siege of Atlanta. At Cedar Mountain he received a gunshot wound which confined him to the hos­pital for eight months, and at Gettysburg he was wounded by a shell, but not seriously. He entered the service as a private but was promoted to the rank of corporal and did sergeant duty for awhile. When his term of enlistment expired he received an honorable discharge and was mustered out at Atlanta in September 1864.
Returning to his home in Pennsylvania, Mr. Taylor remained there until the spring of 1866, when he came to Iowa and purchased eighty acres of un­improved land in Squaw Township, Warren County, upon which he lived for eighteen years. He then bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres and made that his home for twenty-two years, but in 1906 he retired from active farming and has since lived retired in New Virginia, purchasing one of the nicest homes in the village.
Before leaving Pennsylvania, Mr. Taylor was married October 12, 1865, to Miss Mary Lebo, who is also a native of that state, and they became the parents of seven children, of whom one died in infancy. Those living are: William G., a farmer of Virginia Township; Rebecca, the wife of James Gar­rison, a farmer of Squaw Township; Ada, the wife of Lloyd Reed, of Jack­son Township; Ira A., a farmer of Squaw Township ; Nora, the wife of Fred Reddish, a farmer of Nebraska; and Dell, the wife of Walter Mitchell, a busi­ness man of New Virginia.
For many years Mr. Taylor affiliated with the Republican Party but is now independent in politics. He is a strong temperance man and does all in his power to promote the cause of temperance in his locality. He has served as school director and justice of the peace but has never cared for political honors, though as a public-spirited and enterprising citizen he gives his support to any measures which he believes will advance the general wel­fare. He now holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church at New Virginia and he assisted in building the church at Medford, where he served as trustee and treasurer. He is a man honored and respected wherever known and has a host of friends throughout Warren County.