USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume II > Part 22
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ROBERT SAYRE TAYLOR-Robert Sayre Taylor, B.S., of Lchigh University, Pennsylvania, graduate of the New York Law School, and now one of the leading attorneys of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in which city he has been in successful and ever-inercasing legal practice for twenty years, comes of a family which for three generations has had residence in America. He was born December 17, 1873, at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, the son of John and Annie (Esser) Taylor, and grandson of Edmund Taylor, a native of Hertfordshire, England, who came to this country in 1819, and settled in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, eventually marrying into an old New Eng- land family of the name of Wilson. Edmund Taylor appears to have perma- nently settled in Wilkes-Barre, notwithstanding that records show that for a time he and his wife resided in England. Their son, John Taylor, father of Robert Sayre, was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on January 4, 1832, and in that eity most of their other children were born. John Taylor's business career was a meritorious one, and was closely connected with the early history and development of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. He was in the employ of that company for more than forty years, starting in humble capacity in 1852 and gradually rising until four years before he died he had reached one of the highest executive offices of the corporation. One of his
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first employments was with the engineering corps that surveyed the railroad from Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, to Easton, so that with Robert H. Sayre, James P. Donnelly of Easton, and H. Stanley Goodwin he may be considered to have been one of the pioneers of the road. John Taylor, at the outset of his association with the Lehigh Valley Railroad, was a conductor ; later he became ticket clerk and express agent, undertaking these offices concurrently, and he gradually rose from one post of responsibility to another of greater until he was eventually entrusted with the general traffic management of the road. He worked hard, was an able administrator, and by his personality and example was able to get whole-hearted co-operation from most of the men with whom he worked. In 1891 he was appointed general manager of the Consolidated Anthracite Railroad, and held that office until his death, which occurred in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on November 4, 1895. John Taylor was an ardent Democrat, and followed the national politics closely. He never, however, accepted political office excepting that of chairman of the Democratic county committee. Religiously, he was a Presbyterian, and fraternally was a Mason of high degree-thirty-second. His wife, Annic, daughter of George and Elizabeth Esser, was born in Allentown, Pennsyl- vania, on September 5, 1841, and although now nearing octogenarian age she is still active and in good health, living in Bethlehem, where she is near most of her children. John and Annie (Esser) Taylor were the parents of the following children : Harry E., who was born in 1859, and now lives in Beth- lehem ; Edmund K., who died in New York City in 1910; Annie E., who is unmarried and lives with her mother in Bethlehem; George S., who died in New York City in 1905; Elizabeth, who married George W. Halliwell, for- mer cashier of the Lehigh Valley Bank, and is referred to in more detail, elsewhere in this volume; Mary W., who married H. S. Snyder, regarding whom also further description is contained elsewhere in this publication ; John, who was born on December 9, 1871, eventually married Alice Prince, and lives in Bethlehem; Robert Sayre, of whom further; and Richard F., who was born on December 4, 1878, and lives in Bethlehem.
It is worthy of note herein that Charles Taylor, great-uncle of above named children, had the distinction of being with Lord Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar, in 1805.
Robert Sayre Taylor was born December 17, 1873, in Mauch Chunk, but to all intents and purposes he is a native of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for soon after his birth, the Taylor family moved to that city, and there Robert S. received all his elementary and intermediate education. He passed through the public school of Bethlehem, graduated at the Bethlehem High School in 1890, and was prepared for college at Ulrich's preparatory school. In 1891 he entered Lehigh University. His university career was noteworthy ; he was one of the honor men of his year, 1895, when graduation brought him the degree of B.S. He was admitted, in 1895, to membership in the Phi Beta Kappa honorary fraternity.
Entering professional life, Robert S. Taylor became a registered law student in the office of R. E. Wright, one of the leading attorneys of Allen- town, Pennsylvania. As an indentured student he remained associated with the Allentown attorney for three years, during that period, however, attend- ing the New York Law School, which at that time was conducted in the old Equitable building, New York City. After successfully graduating from that well known law school, Robert Sayre Taylor, having completed his articled term of study with the Allentown lawyer, was admitted to practice at the legal bar of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. The date of his admittance to practice was June 7, 1897. A weck later, having satisfactorily passed the qualifying examination, he was also admitted to practice at the Northampton county court. Mr. Taylor has always been in business by himself. He occupies offices in the same building as when he first entered into practice,
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but the suite of offices has grown in proportion to the development of the practice, which during the twenty years of good service has been substantial. It is not only in activities connected with the court and legal affairs of Northampton county that Mr. Taylor has come into prominence in Bethle- hem ; he is a man of aggressive optimistic spirit, and has ever been willing to give his time to matters that have bearing on the public welfare. This is evident from the reading of his public record since 1900. Ile was borough solicitor, 1900-01 ; burgess, 1903-06; and was school director for six years, retiring in 1917. When chairman of the recreation committee, he inaugurated supervised play in Bethlehem, and he has been so prominently identified with the beginnings of so many important public movements in Bethlehem that he will be recognized as one of its leading residents. Mr. Taylor was chair- man of the civic committee of Greater Bethlehem Association, and chairman of the campaign to form the Chamber of Commerce; he was treasurer for the Bethlehem Charity Organization during the first four years of its estab- lishment ; he was one of the organizers of the Rotary Club, and became its first president ; was a member of the first Bridge Commission of Bethlehem, and a member of the former Industrial Commission ; he has been president of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, member of executive committee of Committee of Public Safety and National Defence ; chairman of the execu- tive committee of the Organization Committee of Home Defence; and chair- man of the Speakers' Bureau and Four Minute Men of Bethlehem district. In almost all local campaigns of the last decade Mr. Taylor has taken active part; he was captain in the Hill to Hill Bridge campaign; was major on the north side in the consolidation campaign ; and was a member of the executive committee, Knights of Columbus campaign. He is a director of the Associated Charities, and is director of some of the leading financial and industrial corporations of Bethlehem, including the Bethlehem Securities Company, the First National Bank of Bethlehem, and the Minsi Trail Bridge Company. Professionally he is well regarded, holding the respect of the bar and court, which is indicated by his appointment to the committee to revise the rules of the court of Northampton county.
Mr. Taylor is a Democrat in national politics, and has taken active interest in political campaigns, but, like his father, he has never sought office. In 1916, however, he accepted the responsibility of representing his district as delegate to the National Democratic Convention in St. Louis, which nominated President Wilson for the second term.
Mr. Taylor is a member of the Presbyterian church, and a man of definite religious convictions. By his marriage to Miss Caroline M. Wolle, he also came into close relationship with dignitaries of the Moravian church. His wife, née Caroline M. Wolle, whom he married on June 28, 1899, at Bethle- hem. is granddaughter of Bishop Peter Wolle of the Moravian church, and daughter of Theodore and Adelaide (Sussdorf) Wolle, of Winston-Salem. North Carolina. Bishop Wolle has the distinction of being one of the first class to graduate from the Moravian Seminary. His son, Theodore, father of Mrs. Taylor, was for many years professor of music in the college for young women at Bethlehem, and also organist of the Moravian church. Mrs. Taylor herself is a graduate of the Moravian school, and both her chil- dren have graduated from the Moravian Preparatory School. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Sayre Taylor have two children: Frances, who was born on Septent- ber 27. 1900, and Robert S., Jr., who was born April 15, 1903.
THOMAS A. H. HAY-Beginning with the year 1738 the name of Hay became a well known one in Williams township, Northampton county, Penn- sylvania, the family seat being now the site of South Easton. Melchoir Ilay. the founder, was captain of a company of one hundred and four men raised in Williams township to fight for independence, and was also a member of
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the committee of public safety. He came from a patriotic Scotch ancestor, his father being Colonel Malcolm Hay. Melchoir Hay became, with his two brothers, the American founder of the Hay family in Amerca. Captain Melchoir Hay imbibed the military ardor of his ancestors, although he spent the greater part of his life as a farmer. This military spirit continued strong in his descendants, and in every war in which the United States has since been engaged they have been found with colors on the field of conflict. With Captain Jacob Hay, a great-grandson of Captain Melchoir Hay. the name became a prominent one in Easton's commercial circles as founder of a large wholesale dry-goods business and also afterward of a wholesale shoe store. He purchased large holdings of city real estate near the farm properties formerly owned in the family and became one of the most progressive, public spirited men of his day. Following the example of his father, Thomas A. H. Hay, with his brother, William O. Hay, devoted a large part of his life to those lines of business activity which benefit the public. and during the last twenty-five years of a life, hardly yet more than in its prime, has been a leading factor in all the great public service transportation companies of the Lehigh Valley. He has achieved much in his selected line of business opera- tion and is as vigorously planning greater things for the city of his birth as he was a quarter of a century ago when with his brother he organized the Easton Power Company, the first hydro-electric plant in this section of Penn- sylvania. He has been equally prominent in civic life, and there has been no department of Easton's public life but has had for him a deep interest.
Returning to the American ancestor, Captain Melchoir Hay, the records show that with two brothers he came to Pennsylvania in 1738, located on land now a part of South Easton, and in 1752 aided in the layout of the town of Easton. In 1771 he bought twenty-six acres from Israel Morris of Philadelphia, and later in the same year three hundred and seventy-five acres from Peter Rush, all being formerly owned by William Penn. This property was bought outright, as shown by the deed dated August, 1771, and was held by Captain Hay until 1796, when he sold it. His public spirit was manifested in other ways than by his Revolutionary services. He donated a large lot and land for a burying-ground to the Reformed church, the edifice erected on the lot still being known as Hay's Chapel, and the land as Hay's Burying-Ground. After the Revolution he bought a large farm in the Dry- lands district, three miles west of Easton, some of which is yet owned in the family. Captain Hay married and left a son, Melchoir (2).
(II) Melchoir (2) Hay, son of Captain Melchoir Hay, succeeded his father and in turn gave to Northampton county sons who added to the family honor and perpetuated the name. These sons were: Abraham Horn, of further mention ; Peter, George, Melchoir (3), Charles and John.
(III) Abraham Ilorn Hay, son of Melchoir (2) Hay, was one of the sub- stantial men of his day. He married and was the father of four sons: Peter, Andrew, Thomas J. and Jacob, all of whom became useful and prominent citizens of Easton.
(IV) Captain Jacob Hay, son of Abraham Horn Hay, was the founder of that residential part of Easton lying west of Twelfth street, where he spent $150,000 mainly in the interest of the public, furnishing them a park and beautiful walks and drives. He was born April 27, 1829, and after completing his studies entered mercantile life in Easton. He was very successful in business and became the owner of much Easton real estate. He was head of the dry-goods house of J. Hay and Sons, founded in 1866, the first in the State outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and of the wholesale boot and shoe house, Hapgood, Hay & Company, founded in 1875. He ranked high as a broad-minded, progressive merchant, sound in judgment and strong in principle. In his realty dealings he planned largely for Easton's needs in the future, and bought extensively of unimproved land within and without
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the limits of the city, intending to create a residential section of the highest order. He improved a great deal of this land, laid out beautiful drives and walks at heavy cost to himself, and then generously gave the streets and walks to the public free of charge, an unusual thing in that day. He died full of years and honors, November 17, 1894. Captain Jacob Hay married in 1854, Annie Wilson, born October 29, 1831, died August, 1910, daughter of Alexander Wilson, of Easton, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Their children were: Thomas A. H., of further mention ; Annie W., married Colonel Asa WV. Dickenson; Ida Wilson, married William C. Atwater, of New York; William O., a prominent business man of Easton. (See following sketch.)
(V) Thomas A. H. Hay, eldest son of Captain Jacob and Annie (Wilson) Hay, was born in Easton, July 1, 1855, and is yet an honored resident of his native city. He completed a public school course with high school graduation in 1872, then entered Lafayette College, whence he was graduated A.B., class cf 1876. The following three years were spent in the territory of Montana in company with his college friend, Russel B. Harrison, son of Benjamin Harrison, later President of the United States. While in Montana he was employed in the Helena assay office as assistant superintendent, and marricd Helen Moore Ruger, elder daughter of Major-General Thomas HI. Ruger, U. S. Army. He returned to Easton in 1879, and for the ensuing ten years was engaged in the mercantile enterprises with which his father was so prominently connected, and was also associated with him in real estate opera- tions. In 1889 he was appointed by President Harrison as postage agent at New York, and in that office was in charge of the distribution of postage stamps to all the post-offices in the United States. He continued in office until the advent of the second Cleveland administration in 1893. Mr. Hav was the originator of the idea of commemorating prominent events in our national history by a series of special of jubilee stamps, the first of these series being the Columbian, commemorating the four hundredth anniversary of the landing of Columbus.
The Easton Power Company of Pennsylvania and New Jersey was organized by Thomas A. H. and William O. Hay in August, 1895, Thomas A. H. being elected its first president. In 1897 the same brothers built the first interurban street railway in their section of the State, that first line connecting Easton with Bethlehem. This was the beginning of a great con- structive program which was continued in 1899 by the construction of an electric line from Easton to Nazareth, in 1901 by the building of the Easton- Bangor line, and in 1903 the Phillipsburg-Washington electric line was built. The Delaware Valley railroad from Stroudsburg to Bushkill was constructed by Mr. Hay in connection with Easton and Stroudsburg capitalists in 1904. Mr. Hay being elected first vice-president. He has continued his interest in street transportation and other public utilities and has held many official posi- tions, among others a member of the board of directors of the Easton, Palmer and Bethlehem; Easton and Nazareth. Easton, Tatamy and Bangor, and Slate Belt Street Railway companies ; Northampton. Easton and Washington Traction Company ; Northampton Traction Company, the Montgomery Trac- tion Company, Easton and Doylestown Street Railway companies. He is also president of the board of trustees of the Bangor and Portland Traction Company, and Northampton, Easton and Washington Traction Company. When the Wahnetah Silk Company, of Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, was incor- porated in 1905, Mr. Hay was among its original stockholders and is now one of its directors. The converting of the grounds of the Easton Fair Associa- tion into one of Easton's fine residential sections was accomplished by Mr. Hay and his brother William, they buying the grounds in 1899 and converting them into residence sites in a practical, modern manner. More genuine public improvement has rarely heen compressed into a similar number of years than the above record shows, and it is to Mr. Hay's credit that he is N. H. BIOG .- 4
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not resting upon past achievement as well as he might, but is actively "in the harness" and leading the way for younger men.
In younger years Mr. Hay was a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard and as a second sergeant of Company C, Fourth Regiment, was on duty during the disastrous and bloody railroad strike of the year 1877. He was heart and soul in his country's service during the World's War and did all in his power to aid his country's cause as chairman of the Pennsylvania Council of National Defense and Committee of Public Safety. He is classed among the Progressive Republicans, who followed the Roosevelt leadership, and in 1912 to 1913 served as a delegate to the National Republican Conven- tion in June, and the following August, as a Progressive, also State delegate at large in 1916 to the National Progressive Convention. He cham- pioned the reforms of that day and supported with his influence the creation of a Public Service Commission, favored a Workman's Compensation and Employer's Liability Act, a bill to regulate women's hours of labor as well as children's, and was equally interested in the passage of laws regulating primary elections and preserving the purity of the ballot-box. In religious faith he is a Presbyterian and in fraternity he is affiliated with Easton Lodge No. 152, Free and Accepted Masons; Easton Chapter No. 173. Royal Arch Masons ; Pomp Council No. 20, Royal and Select Masters; Hugh De Payens Commandery No. 19, Knights Templar ; Quator Coronatis Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons of London ; England, and Easton Lodge No. 121, Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks. His clubs are the Pomfret of Easton, Art of Philadelphia, Quaint and Zeta Psi of New York. For a quarter of a century he was president of the Orpheus Club and the Orators Society of Easton, and for a lifetime has been a lover of music, this love and taste having been greatly strengthened through his connection with the Orpheus and Oratorio societies. A hobby with Mr. Hay has been "seeing America first," and there are no parts of the United States which he has not visited or no province of Canada which he has not partially explored with the possible exception of Prince Edward Island.
Mr. Hay married, September 7, 1881, Helen M. Ruger, born in Wisconsin in 1859, daughter of Major-General Thomas H. Ruger, U. S. Army, born in Lima, New York, April 2, 1833. General Ruger was a graduate of West Point, class of 1854, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Third Regi- ment of Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry in 1861, having resigned from the regular army and adopted the law as his profession. He rose to the rank of major-general of volunteers, and for gallantry at Gettysburg was brevetted brigadier-general in the regular army. He was superintendent of West Point Military Academy from 1871 to 1876 and in important command until his retirement in 1897. Mr. and Mrs. Hay are the parents of : Helen Ruger Hay, a graduate of Wilson College, married J. Mark Smith, and is living in Cuba ; Anna Ruger Hay, a graduate of Goucher College, Baltimore, married George Fred Wilson. and is living in Easton; Ruger Wilson Hay, a graduate of Lafayette College, class of 1906, later a mining engineer of Calumet, Arizona. and in 1918 captain in the U. S. Engincers, Chemical Warfare Service de- partment, at the front in France, and is the third Captain Hay in this immediate family to fight for his country and for the liberty of men.
WILLIAM OSCAR HAY-A life-long Fastonian and intimately con- nected with his father in his commercial enterprises and with his brother. Thomas A. H. Hay, in many constructive activities, William O. Hay is one of the fifth generation bearing the name, Hay, who have contributed largely to the upbuilding of the county of Northampton and its principal city, Easton. He is a son of the late Captain Jacob and Annie ( Wilson) Hay, the Hay family history given at length in the preceding sketch.
William O. Hay was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, May 21, 1861, and
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is still a resident of the city which gave him birth. He was educated in the public schools of Easton, his poor eyesight in youth forbidding his continu- anee in college after entering Lafayette. He early entered mercantile life with his honored father and in 1882, upon his twenty-first birthday, he became a partner of the firm of J. Hay & Sons. This firm was founded in 1866 by Captain Jacob Hay, who admitted his sons, Thomas A. H. and William O., it being the first wholesale drygoods house in Pennsylvania, outside of Phila- delphia and Pittsburgh. For ten years William O. Hay was purchasing agent for J. Hay & Sons, and in 1889 engaged with his father in the whole- sale boot and shoe business, founded in 1878 by Jacob Hay, and until the death of Captain Hay in 1894, father and sons were closely associated. The dry goods business was sold in 1896 but the brothers continued the Hay Boot and Shoe Company until 1910, William O., the buyer and general man- ager. The ground upon which the store stood was owned in the Hay family as early as 1856 and has always been utilized for business purposes.
In 1896 Thomas A. H. and William O. Hay organized the Easton Power Company of which Thomas was president; William, secretary and treasurer. They took over the abandoned cotton mills and by the use of modern turbine water wheels developed the water power of the Lehigh river, formerly used by the old Lehigh Cotton Mills and the Stewart Wire Company, making the Power Company a profitable concern, which later was consolidated with the old Edison Illuminating Company. In 1897, with the aid of New England capitalists, the Hay brothers built the first interurban street railway in this section, the line connecting Easton and Bethlehem. In 1898 they organized a company to build the line from Easton to Nazareth and from Nazareth to Bangor, and the same year began the construction of the Easton and Nazareth line, completing it in 1901. The Easton, Tatamy and Bangor street line was begun in 1902 and in 1903 being completed was consolidated with the Easton and Nazareth line as the Northampton Traction Company, the consolidated company operating from Easton to Nazareth and to .Bangor. Thomas was the first president of the company, William O., its secretary. In 1905 they built the Northampton-Easton and Washington Traction Company, from Phillipsburg, New Jersey, through Washington to Port Murray, New Jersey. At the present time Mr. W. O. Hay is vice-president and general manager of the Northampton Traction and the Bangor and Portland Traction Com- pany of Pennsylvania, and the Northampton-Easton and Washington Trae- tion Company of New Jersey, embracing a mileage of about fifty-five miles. The Delaware Valley Railroad was another road in which the Hay Brothers were interested in building. Other enterprises have elaimed Mr. Hay's attention and he was a director in many operating public utility corporations including the original Easton Power Company, of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, afterwards absorbed in the Pennsylvania Utilities Company. In 1889 the brothers purchased the abandoned Easton Fair Grounds and laid out Fairview Park, this purchase with the land bought by their father giving them title to nearly all the ground between Twelfth and Seventeenth streets, north of Northampton street, and from Seventeenth to Twenty-first street, south of Northampton street, a most valuable and beautiful residential sec- tion in the western portion of Easton, now beautifully decorated with trees of their own planting and built up with hundreds of homes.
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