Taylor, Edmond D.

Born: 1804-10-18 Virginia

Died: 1891-12-04 Chicago, Illinois

Taylor settled in Gallatin County, Illinois, with his family in 1814, where he worked for several years manufacturing salt. Taylor moved to Springfield, Illinois, in the fall of 1823, where he was a merchant with John Taylor, who would later become his father-in-law. On September 28, 1829, he married Margaret Taylor, and they had thirteen children. Taylor was elected to the Illinois legislature in 1830, and again in 1832, defeating Abraham Lincoln. In 1834, voters elected Taylor to the Illinois Senate, but he resigned his seat in 1835 to accept an appointment by President Andrew Jackson as Receiver of Public Moneys at the United States Land Office in Chicago, Illinois. Taylor was a leader in the Democratic Party, and he engaged in banking and land speculating.

Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Sangamon County (Chicago: Munsell Publishing Company, 1912), 2:519-20; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 707-8.