ROCHESTER ALUMNI REVIEW 41

II IN ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT II

A Worthy Public Servant The recent el­

evation of Hor­ace F. Taylor, '93, to the presi­dency of the Buffalo Cham­ber of Com­merce signal­ized a successful career of many years standing in that city. He was born on Dec e m b er 3, 1871, in Buf­alo, where he

had his preliminary and high school educa­tion prior to entering Rochester in the fall of 1889. At college he was an Alpha Delt and active in the musical organizations. Upon graduation in 1893 he became asso­ciated with his father's business, Taylor & Crate, Inc., nationally known wholesale lumber concern of Buffalo, and soon mast­ered all of its details. In pursuing the high principles inculcated by his worthy sire, Frederick W. Taylor, he has become one of the outstanding representatives in the lumber industry of this country and has made his concern one of the largest of its kind. His father died in 1899, and following the death of Mr. Crate in 1903 Mr. Taylor, at the age of 32, became presi­dent of the firm, which position he has maintained since.

Mr. Taylor served as president of the Buffalo Lumber Exchange from 1916 to 1918 ; was presiden t of the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association from 1918 to 1920, and the National Hard­wood Lumber Association from 1920 to 1922. It was at the annual dinner of this association early in 1920 that he had the privilege of introducing the late Warren G. Harding, then United States Senator from Ohio, when he jovially remarked: "The lumbermen all hope to support Mr. Harding as president of the United States some day." Though complimentary, this ,statement was really the first publicly out­spoken prophecy ,of Mr. Harding's election

to the presidency. For the past twelve years Mr. Taylor has been a member of the executive committee of both of these national lumber organizations.

During the World War Mr. Taylor was chairman of the Buffalo Lumber Group of the Liberty Loan and Charity drives. He was also in Washington as a dollar-a­year man, serving on the War Industries Board which had charge of the distribu­tion of hardwood supplies for the United States and its allies. His civic interests have been many and varied. He has been on the council and treasurer of the Uni­versity Club of Buffalo; a director of the Buffalo Club; has served as a trustee and deacon of the Westminster Church and also as director of several banks and other civic institutions in the community.

Mr. Taylor is a life-member of the Buf­falo Fine-Arts Academy; a member of the Buffalo Club; Buffalo Athletic Club, the Buffalo and other Country Clubs and a director of the Buffalo Chamber of Com­merce, to the presidency of which he was elected on June 24, 1931. He is also president of the Sunflower Plantation, Inc., and vice-president of the Lumber Mutual and Casualty Insurance Company of New York City.

Personally Mr. Taylor is the most charming of men, entirely unassuming, calm and deliberate. His judgment is always well balanced. He is unusually clear in his thinking and very conscien­cious. The numerous positions which he has held from time to time were never sought by him, but usually thrust upon him in recognition of his natural ability and personal qualities.

A man of his type, possessing the very essence of loyalty to his fellow men and the enterprises with which he is connected, soon manifested this towards his Alma Mater. In 1906, in conjunction with a few of his loyal fellow alumni, he was one of the founders of our Buffalo Association. In recognition of his loyalty to, and inter­est in, Rochester his associates in 1908 elected , him as' the second president of the association and again so honored him in 1931, when the association celebrated the 2 Sth year of its foundation. ,In 1912,· our

Horace F. Taylor in 1936

Frederick W. Taylor, Buffalo, New York had four children:

Horace F, Shirley G, Nelson S & Alice R. Frederick Taylor

was in the lumber business. Frederick W. Taylor died in

the late 1800's, his funeral was held at the Prospect Avenue

Baptist Church and he was buried in the family plot in

Forest Lawn cemetery.

Horace F. Taylor became president of the Taylor and Crate

Lumber Company, Buffalo, New York, which had been

established by his own father, Frederick W. Taylor in 1865.

Simultaneously, Horace was also to be president of

Sunflower Plantation, Inc., a four-thousand-acre cotton/corn

plantation, and vice-president of the Lumber Mutual

Casualty Insurance Co., in New York City. An alumnus

(class of 1893) of the University of Rochester, he served

from 1912 until his death as a trustee of that institution, and

was elected president of the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce

in 1931. During the First World War, he served as a “dollar

a year man,” heading the lumber division of the War

Industries Board. In this capacity he supervised the

distribution of hardwoods used for fighting accessories

between the United States and the allied nations. Following

the war, Taylor was elected president of the National

Wholesale Lumber Dealer’s association for two consecutive

terms, and later was elected president of the National

Hardware Lumber Association.

Horace F. Taylor had married Sara Althea Chase, the daughter of an interesting combination of

families. Her father, Luther Chase, had been a Buffalo lumber merchant and was a relative of

Salmon P. Chase, U.S. senator from and governor of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury under

Abraham Lincoln, and chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, while her mother, Martha

Lovecraft, was a cousin of the American writer of weird fiction, H. P. Lovecraft. Horace and

Sara would bear three children.

Frederick Chase Taylor was born on October 4, 1897 in Buffalo, New York. His well-to-do

family hardly seems the typical ground from which one of radio’s most unorthodox talents would

spring, but such is the case.

It was indeed a very respected household into which F. Chase Taylor (and later his brother

Horace F. Jr., and sister Althea) was born. Of course, Frederick Chase Taylor initially set his

sights on making the family lumber business his life’s work. Education included a mix of public

and private schools, including the Nichols Prep School in Buffalo and the Montclair Academy in

New Jersey.

After military duty in WWI he worked for the family business as bookkeeping clerk, salesman,

and then, in 1923, assumed charge of soft wood purchases and sales. He had also married, in

1919 to Lois DeRidder, daughter of a Rochester, New York business man. Soon after, the

couple’s only child, F. Chase Taylor, Jr., was born.

Eventually, the young F. Chase Taylor drifted into the new phenomenon of radio (!) and in the

early 1920’s starred for radio station WGR in the “Smax” and “Smoke and Ashes” programs, the

latter being yet another variation on the “Amos and Andy” formula. The deeper he allowed

himself to go, the more convinced he was that radio was where his destiny lay. He thoroughly

enjoyed being a writer and comedian. The Taylor family hardly knew what to make of Chase’s

choice of comedy radio as a line of work, but did not discourage him.

By 1927, Sara Chase Taylor had died, at the age of 56. F. Chase Taylor, still a young man and

wanting to find his own direction in the world, left the family business to join the brokerage firm

of Pistell, Deans & Co. on November 21, 1927, twenty-three months before the “crash” of ’29

brought the entire market down.

It was Horace F Taylor, Jr. who was most involved with the family businesses, lumber

especially. Horace F. Taylor, III is listed as Dartmouth College, Class of 1954

Large-scale timber operations must, of necessity, find efficient means of transporting heavy,

bulky logs. In nearly every case the answer is a river, a railroad or combination of the two.

Railroad enthusiasts do a marvelous job of finding and keeping records of even short, and short-

lived railroads. Here’s an extract from the Mississippi Logging Railroad List maintained by

Tony Howe

http://www.loggingrailroads.com/ms.htm

Railroad Name

[or Lumber Co] Town County Begin Year End Year Gauge

Taylor & Crate Hinchcliff Quitman ca. 1904 1917 or later Std?

Taylor & Crate Hiram Tallahatchie by 1914 unknown unknown

Taylor & Crate Merigold Bolivar 1899 1904 36"?

Taylor & Estes Sledge Quitman ca. 1910 1911 or later Std

Taylor, E.W. Sledge Quitman 1906 unknown Std

Diamond Lbr. Co. Bexley George 1901 1903 Std

Douglas &

Walkley Co. Drew Sunflower by 1907 1910 or later Std

Postmarked 1909, this card is an ad for the lumber yard and is addressed to Watertown Carriage Co.

Another Taylor & Crate postcard