My Genealogy Hound

JOHN TAGGERT, retired, Allegheny, son of Andrew and Sarah (Wilson) Taggart, was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in March, 1799, and came with his parents to this country and county in 1819. His father, who was a farmer, purchased one hundred acres of land in West Deer township, on which he settled and resided until a short time prior to his decease, which occurred at the home of his son, John, Jan. 9, 1849, when he was eighty- seven years old. His widow died March 8, 1855, at the age of eighty-seven years; they were members of the Seceders’ Church. They had a family of eight children: Elizabeth (wife of Francis Hare, both deceased), John, Matthew (deceased), Agnes (a widow), Mary (wife of William Hare), Margaret (wife of Alexander Hare), Sarah (wife of Alexander Glasgow, of Iowa) and Andrew (deceased).

John Taggart, the subject of this sketch, was twice married, first in 1824 to Anna Hare, whom, after an absence of about five years, he returned to Ireland to wed. She died at the birth of their first child, about eighteen months after their marriage, the child surviving its mother only one day. Mr. Taggart’s second marriage was March 14, 1828, with Jane, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Porter, of this county, and the fruits of this union were eight children: Eliza A. (widow of John Brown, Jr.), Andrew C., Robert, Sarah A. (wife of John Hopkins), Jane M. (widow of Alexander Brown), John and Joseph. Mr. Taggart’s first effort in life was to clear his father’s farm of a mortgage of $123, which he succeeded in doing by hard work at very small pay. Soon after his first marriage he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law and embarked in a butchering business in Pittsburgh. Finding it difficult to dispose of his hides, he took another partner, a Mr. McClure, and commenced a tannery, which he carried on many years in connection with numerous other interests. His first purchase of real estate was about 1825, when he bought a lot in Pittsburgh for $200, on which he built a house. This he sold in 1829 for $1,200, and he then purchased two and one-half acres of land, and here erected the house in which he now resides, on Irwin avenue, Allegheny. From that time forward he became an extensive and successful dealer in real estate. Mr. Taggart’s life has been a long and earnest one of successful labor, and still, at the age of fourscore and ten years, he is hale and hearty. His wife was spared to share his labor and success for about threescore years, having departed this life Jan. 12, 1888, in her ninetieth year. They were both members of the U. P. Church for many years, and cherished an abiding trust in him who is “the resurrection and the life.”