My Genealogy Hound

John Henry Taylor, editor of the Hazen Free Press, was born April 25, 1862, in Panola County, Tex., his parents, Thomas H. and Annie A. Taylor, being married there in 1855. The father was a Georgian, who went from the State of his birth to Texas in 1849, the mother having moved there from her native State (Alabama) with her parents in 1850. Thomas H. Taylor was one of the gallant “boys in gray,” and spent four years faithfully fighting for the cause of the South. After the proclamation of peace he began the study of medicine, graduating in his profession in 1866, and two years later moved to Hopkins County, Tex., where he was successfully engaged in the practice of his profession until his death, in June, 1888, being recognized as one of the leaders of the medical fraternity. J. H. Taylor spent his early life, up to the age of sixteen years, on a farm, and became thoroughly familiar with the details and intricacies of farm labor, acquiring also that sturdy independence and honesty of purpose which is characteristic of the average farmer’s boy, and which has remained among his chief characteristics up to the present day. Upon reaching the above-mentioned age he entered the office of the Sulphur Springs (Texas) Gazette as an apprentice, remaining there until he attained his twentieth year; then went to Jefferson, Marion County, Texas, and worked for two years as foreman of a book and job office for Wortham & Mullins, but thinking he could do better for himself elsewhere, he, in 1885, went North and traveled over the whole of the Eastern and Northern States, working in nearly every town containing over 10,000 inhabitants. This tour extended over a period of two years, and he acquired a keen insight into the political views of the different sections, from which he is deriving a great benefit. In the spring of 1886 he went to Waco, Tex., where he took charge of the newspaper and book and job office of Rev. J. B. Cranfill, called the Advance office. He was also foreman of the daily, and it was published in favor of the prohibition campaign, which was agitating Texas in 1887. In June, 1888, he landed in Little Rock, Ark., and in July of the same year he settled in Prairie County, and in August established the Vox Populi, a paper which he edited in a very able manner, winning considerable notoriety as a journalist. February 12, 1889, he was united in marriage to Miss Rosa Cuneo, at Hazen, Ark., and they took a trip to Texas and spent some three months sight-seeing in the Lone Star State. In May, 1889, he established and is now running the Hazen Free Press, an eight-page quarto, at a subscription price of $1 per year. This journal, under the efficient editorship of Mr. Taylor, is already wielding a widespread influence for good, and some interesting and valuable information can always be gleaned from its columns. That a brilliant future in the field of journalism lies before Mr. Taylor is conceded by all, and he gives every promise of becoming one of the leading men of Arkansas. He is of a social and genial nature, “With malice toward none and charity for all.”