The Three Taylor Brothers, by CB Taylor Kinsella and Pat Kinsella Herdeg

As a follow up to my brother Tim’s story about the three Taylor brothers going to college:

http://taylorbakercousins.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-taylor-brothers-go-to-college-by_16.html

Mom and I would like to put down what we think the three brothers did later in their lives.

Bryant Waller Taylor, my great grandfather, was born in 1859 in Oakfield, NY. B.W. married Emma Jane Carson in 1885.

After Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. B.W. taught school in Oakfield for at least one year per his wife Emma’s diaries. Afterwards, he did help Daniel on the farm with all of the myriad chores. 

By the year 1892, B.W. and Emma were in Springville, NY where the twins were born. B.W. had joined with another man in the running of a store there. Before too long the other fellow ran off with all the money, leaving B.W. holding the bag full of debts. As clearly as I can tell, B.W. kept the store viable, barely, to clear the debts, and somewhere in this time Daniel and Cordelia offered him the same deal that Phebe had offered Daniel, ownership of the farm for their living there for life.

Carlton Walbridge Taylor was born in 1863 in Oakfield, NY. Carlton married Jeannie McNair in 1890.

Carlton and Jeannie moved to Illinois; they both became teachers in Speech Therapy at the Illinois State School for the Deaf in Jacksonville, Illinois. During the years Carlton and Jeannie taught in Illinois, they maintained a summer home—named ‘Bonnie Brae’-- back in New York. It was on the corner of the Oakfield-Batavia road and near Woodlawn, where Carlton’s parents lived.

During the summer months, they lived there, Carlton helping B.W. on the farm and Jeannie visiting with her relatives in nearby Sonyea. When they returned to school, Daniel and Cordelia, Carlton’s parents, moved in to keep house and relieve the congestion of two generations at the Woodlawn farm. When the older parents could no longer live there independently, they returned to an apartment in the farm house and Carlton eventually sold this small house.

For a more in depth look at Carlton Walbridge Taylor, please see the two blog stories below from 2010:

http://taylorbakercousins.blogspot.com/2010/02/

Orrin Taylor

Orrin Morehouse Taylor was born in Oakfield in 1865. He married Mary Ladd Armstrong in 1894. 

He received his education at the University of Wisconsin where his brother-in-law-- Prof.William Arnon Henry--worked. William Henry was in charge of fruit and vegetable horticulture and Orrin worked with him there for two years in the early 1890’s.

By 1896, Orrin began work at Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) in Geneva. NYSAES proudly states that it has developed cutting-edge technologies essential to feeding the world and strengthening New York economies for more than 125 years. 

 Mom writes that Orrin worked as 'fruit professor' at NYSAES, and did all of their fruit propagation, but it all had to be published under his boss' name because Orrin did not have a college degree. He was in great demand, speaking in upstate localities. 

Orrin created many varieties of fruits and with one, an exceptionally tasty red raspberry, he was rewarded by having it named after him, the Taylor variety of red raspberry.

Orrin retired in 1926. Look for more information on Orrin in an upcoming blog post.

The Taylor boys only spent one year at Genesee Wesleyan, but that one year seems to have given them a solid foundation for the paths each boy took later in life.