My Genealogy Hound

ALMON N. TAYLOR, A.M., principal of the Westfield academy and Union schools, is a son of Gurdon M. and Catherine (Mosher) Taylor, and was born in the town of Portland, Chautauqua county, New York, November 1, 1855. The Taylors are of English origin and the grandfather of Prof. Almon N. Taylor was Erastus Taylor, one of the early settlers of Portland. He was a farmer and served in the war of 1812, in which he was wounded. His son, Gurdon M. Taylor (father), was born in 1821, in Portland, where he died in 1863. He was a prosperous farmer and respected citizen of his town which he served as supervisor for several terms. He was a democrat in political matters, and had been a member of the First Congregational church of the town of Portland for many years prior to his death. He married Catherine Mosher, who is a member of the M. E. church.

Almon N. Taylor, after attending the schools of his native town, entered the University at Ann Arbor, Michigan, from which well-known educational institution he was graduated in 1882. During the same year, after graduation, he became a law student in the office of Clinton & Clark, of Buffalo, with whom he read for eighteen months. At the end of that time he accepted the position of baggage master on the W. N. Y. & P. R. R., which he held for one year. He then turned his attention to teaching and was elected annually for five years as principal of Sherman. In 1889 he left Sherman to accept of the principalship of the Westfield academy and Union schools. Prof. Taylor was re-elected in 1890 and again in 1891, and has labored faithfully and efficiently in the advancement of the academy and these schools. He has taken great interest in the culture of grapes in the town of Portland, where he has a flourishing vineyard of forty-seven acres. He is a democrat in politics and a member of the First Presbyterian church of Westfield. In Masonry he passed through lodge and chapter and is now a member of Dunkirk Commandery, No. 40, Knights Templar.

In 1882 he united in marriage with Adelaide L. Vincent, daughter of James Vincent, of Sherman, and a graduate of Syracuse university. They have two children: Almon V. and Catherine M.