Biography of Oscar H. Taylor, page 381. History of Northeast Indiana; 
LaGrange, Steuben, Noble, and DeKalb Counties, Vol. II, under the editorial 
supervision of Ira Ford, Orville Stevens, William H. McEwen, and William H. 
McIntosh.  The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago and New York, 1920.

   Oscar H. Taylor.  His long and active life Oscar H. Taylor has spent 
altogether in northeastern Indiana, where he has rendered service as a 
teacher and farmer, and for many years as a private banker in the Village of 
Hamilton
    Mr. Taylor was born in Franklin Township of DeKalb County, January 20, 
1853, as son of John and Sarah A. (McEnterfer) Taylor. His parents were both 
natives of Stark County, Ohio, his father born in 1826 and his mother in 1832.  
John Taylor arrived in DeKalb County, Indiana, in 1846, with his parents, 
John and Elizabeth Taylor. The Taylor family bought 160 acres of wild land 
in Franklin Township, and in 1847 moved their home to this farm.  The 
grandmother, Elizabeth Taylor, died there in 1863, and two years later 
John Taylor Sr., went to eastern Iowa and later to Carroll County in the 
same state, where he died at the venerable age of eighty-seven.  John 
Taylor, Jr., was twenty years old when he came to Indiana, and some years 
later he acquired eighty acres of the old homestead and also bought the 
interests of the other heirs in the remaining eighty.  His individual 
labors largely contributed to the clearing of the land and he lived there, 
seeing his efforts prosper, until his death in 1902.  His widow passed 
away in 1908.  He was a republican without political aspirations, and his 
wife was a member of the United Brethren Church. Their children were: 
Oscar H.; Ellen, wife of John T. Wilcox, of Edgerton, Ohio; and Ida., wife 
of H.K. Leas, of Waterloo, Indiana.
   Oscar H. Taylor spent his early life on the old homestead in Franklin 
Township. Partly by his own efforts he secured a good education, attending 
public school and select schools, and later he entered the Valparaiso 
Normal in the second year of its existence.  He spent nearly three years 
in the normal, which is now the great Valparaiso University.  He qualified 
as a teacher at the age of sixteen, and his first term was taught in the 
same school where he himself had been a pupil. Altogether he taught for 
eleven years, and in only four districts.  He was also interested in 
farming, and in 1882 bought the Boyer farm in DeKalb County of 236 acres.  
He still owns that fine place, though for the past fifteen years his 
energies have been chiefly devoted to banking.
   Mr. Taylor in 1905 bought the private bank of Oliver P. Learned at 
Hamilton. It is now known as the Hamilton Bank, but Mr. Taylor is its sole 
owner, his three sons having also been interested with him in its 
management.
   Mr. Taylor is a republican, and during his residence in DeKalb County 
he filled the office of Trustee of Franklin Township four years. He is a 
member of the Grange and his wife is a Methodist. 
   April 25, 1878, he married Miss Libbie Leas, a native of Steuben County 
and a daughter of John and Susan Leas.  Her parents were early settlers in 
Steuben County, where her mother died in 1881 and her father in 1900.  Mr. 
and Mrs. Taylor have three sons. John Leas, the oldest, was educated in 
the public schools of Franklin Township, DeKalb County, and at Valparaiso 
University, taking the full course in the department of business and 
commerce.  He married Blanche Jacobs and has two sons, named Oscar A. and 
Willis H.  Benna B. Taylor, who was educated similarly to his brother, 
married Edna M. Oberlin. They had one son, Harry P., who was killed in 
April 1918, when five and a half years old.  The third son, Russell H., 
graduated from the Hamilton High School and completed his educational 
training at Valparaiso University, and was a bookkeeper at in his father’s 
bank for two years, when he joined the army and saw eight months of service 
in the ordnance department.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com