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Below is a family biography included in the Biographical Review Volume of Biographical Sketches of The Leading Citizens of Hampshire County, Massachusetts published by Biographical Review Publishing Company in 1896.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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HIRAM TAYLOR, of Northampton, has a wide reputation as a railway contractor, having been identified with the work on many of the New England roads and several of the Southern roads. He is a native of the Empire State, having been born in June, 1835, in Schoharie County, son of Hiram Taylor, Sr., who was born in Connecticut in 1796.

The father was a lawyer, and after his admission to the bar settled in Schoharie County, New York, practising in Livingstonville, where his death occurred when sixty-three years of age, in 1859. He married Susan Ingram, a native of Albany; and of the ten children born to them, five sons and four daughters grew to years of discretion. The six following still survive: McKay, a farmer, residing at Wellsbridge, N.Y.; James, likewise engaged in farming, a resident of Durham, N.Y.; Hiram, the subject of this short biography; Alfred, in California, if living; Mrs. Beulah Snyder, of Oak Hill, N.Y.; Phoebe, a resident of Wellsbridge, N.Y. The mother died the year prior to her husband’s decease.

Hiram Taylor spent his early life in his New York home, where his opportunities for securing an education were limited to a few months each year in the district school. Being a boy of high ambitions with a spirit of resolute determination, he struck out for himself when but fifteen years of age, beginning work on a railway, where he drove spikes or did anything that could be expected of a boy, receiving one dollar per day and boarding himself. He worked faithfully, and was amply rewarded by being made foreman the second year, a position seldom given to one so young. He was employed on various New England railways, notably the Connecticut River, the Boston & Albany, the old Hartford, P. & F., now the New England, the Hartford to Willimantic, the Shore Line from New London, and the Hudson River Railroad from Albany to Poughkeepsie. On this latter road Mr. Taylor was first employed in contracting, and was at one time road master there; and he was likewise road master for five years on the Connecticut River road. Before the war Mr. Taylor spent some time on the Georgia Central Railway, and from 1884 until 1889 was in the Carolinas and Alabama, connected with the railways of those States. In defence of the nation’s flag he enlisted in 1862 from New London in the Twenty-first Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, and for thirty-five months thereafter served in the ranks, but, fortunately, escaped the missiles of war, although he had some hair-breadth escapes, at one time his gun having been actually shot from his hands.

Mr. Taylor has been three times married. His first wife, formerly Lizzie Lasher, to whom he was united in 1856, died in 1860, leaving one daughter, Carrie, now the wife of Burr Leavenworth, of New Haven, Conn., and mother of one son, Harold. He subsequently married Mrs. Frances Comstock Billings, the widow of George Billings, a sea captain, who was lost during a voyage, leaving her with one daughter, Fannie. Mrs. Frances C. B. Taylor lived but three years after their union, dying in this city in 1869, leaving one daughter, Harriet W. On February 4, 1870, Mr. Taylor married Miss Emma Paul, of Palmer. The fruits of this union are three children, namely: Susan M., who married Harry Hillman, of Schenectady, N. Y., and has one daughter; Irene Elizabeth; and Beulah, now in the high school.

Mr. Taylor has always evinced an active and generous interest in the advancement of the welfare of city, county, and State, but has refused office as a general thing, although he did serve one term as superintendent of streets. He is an ardent Republican in his political affiliations; and socially he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, to the Red Men, and to the William L. Baker Post, No. 86, Grand Army of the Republic. Religiously, he is bound by no creed, but is a firm believer that in doing good deeds he may find the way to better things to come. In 1890 he bought his delightful home, “Look Out,” located on Prospect Street, where he has seven acres of land, on which is a fine grove of native trees, mostly the fragrant pine. The house commands an extended and charming view of the surrounding landscape, and the attractive home is the centre of a liberal hospitality.

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This family biography is one of the numerous biographies included in the Biographical Review Volume of Biographical Sketches of The Leading Citizens of Hampshire County, Massachusetts published in 1896. 

View additional Hampshire County, Massachusetts family biographies here: Hampshire County, Massachusetts Biographies

View a map of 1901 Hampshire County, Massachusetts here: Hampshire County Massachusetts Map

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