Nelson Taylor, the father, born in Le Raysville, Pennsylvania, in 1816, died at Ames,' Story county, Iowa, at the venerable age of ninety-two, after residing here for twenty-five years. He had been a pioneer of the middle west of 1855, at which time he settled in Illinois. He had followed the tanner's trade in early life but after his removal to the west carried on agricultural pursuits and was actively connected with farming up to the time of his death, being ill only four days. His wife, who was born in Le Raysville, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1820, died in Illinois, in 1868. In their family were six sons and two daughters, of whom four sons and a daughter are yet 'living. The oldest brother, Byron F. Taylor, served for three years as a soldier in the Civil war. After losing his first wife his father married again.
Charles E. Taylor was a youth of eleven years when he accompanied his parents on their removal from Pennsylvania to Illinois. He remained with them upon the farm in the latter state until twenty years of age and then started west. He traveled over the Union Pacific Railroad when its terminal was at Cheyenne. He then returned to Nebraska and from there retraced his steps into Iowa. Between the ages of twenty and thirty-one years he largely devoted his time to teaching in the common schools through the winter months and a portion of the summer seasons were spent in Illinois. In 1868 he came to Ames but the following year his mother's death recalled him to Illinois, where he again taught school for one term. In March, 1870, he made his way to the Pacific coast and conducted a meat market in Amador county, California, but in, August, 1871, returned to Illinois, where he again followed the profession of teaching for two terms. After that period he came again to Iowa and has since been a resident of Ames with the exception of three years, which were spent in Del Rio, Texas. He was engaged in clerking in Ames for fourteen years and for the past twenty years has been engaged in carpenter work. As time has passed on he has met with success in this undertaking and is now in comfortable circumstances.
On the 1st of December, 1874, Mr. Taylor was united in marriage to Miss Nancy M. Wilder, of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and unto them have been born four children: Edna M., the wife of Silas Kalsen, of Woodbine, Iowa ; Phila Etta, at home ; Harry N., who is employed by the Northwestern Railroad Company and resides at Boone, Iowa; and Charles E., who is a conductor with the Chicago & Northwestern at Des Moines. There are also two grandsons and three granddaughters and Mr. Taylor also has two half-brothers and a half-sister living in Story county.
Mr. Taylor is a well informed man, keeping in touch with the general interests of the day. He is also greatly interested in the geological formation of the county and has written some articles upon that subject. He belongs to Iowa Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution and since twenty-one years of age has been a member of the Masonic frater-