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BAXTER TAYLOR
Vol. 3, p. 1079-1080

Shortly before the admission of Oklahoma as one of the sovereign
states of the Union and after Gov. Robert Taylor, of Tennessee, had
returned home from a lecture in which Oklahoma had been included,
that executive said to his nephew, Baxter Taylor, that Oklahoma was
in need of ambitious, industrious young men. "Go out to that country,
Baxter," he said. "Go to Atoka. I've been there recently and the town
wants a newspaper man. Get yourself a plant and go into business.
Statehood is coming soon, and when it comes you can enter the
practice of law and make a success."

Baxter Taylor heeded his uncle's advice and came to the West. He
established his residence at Atoka in 1906, the year before the
admission of the state to the Union, and here he became editor of the
Atoka Democrat. Prior to that time he had held an editorial position
of the Courier, at Bristol, Tennessee.

The removal of Baxter Taylor to Oklahoma was historically
significant to himself, and that significance is the basis of some
interesting events bearing upon the history of Oklahoma. When Andrew
Johnson, of Tennessee, became President of the United States, one of
his early acts was the appointment of Nathaniel G. Taylor, of
Tennessee, as commissioner of Indian affairs. Johnson and Taylor had
been opponents in Tennessee politics, but both had represented that
State in Congress, where their superficial political enmity was
absorbed by their comradeship. Commissioner Taylor made a visit to
what is now the State of Oklahoma and found the need of more military
protection for the frontier settlers. Upon his recommendation Fort
Sill was founded, in the late '60s.

Taylor visited a number of the tribes in the Indian Territory and
here familiarized himself with points that are now of great historic
interest, the while he formed a friendship with John Ross, chief of
the Cherokees. He was accompanied on the trip by his son Alfred, who
later served with distinction as congressman from Tennessee, and by
Henry M. STANLEY, a journalist, connected with a Cincinnati
commercial paper, and who later achieved worldwide reputation through
the medium of his great explorations in Africa.

The building, therefore, in Oklahoma as now constituted, of one of
the most important military posts in the United States had its
inspiration and inception in the recommendation made by the paternal
grandfather of Baxter Taylor.

The other specially interesting and somewhat coincidental thing is
that Mr. Taylor now lives in a community that was visited during the
Civil war by John T. THOMAS, a soldier in the Confederate command of
General Price. Thomas traversed the Indian Territory of his way to
Texas, in which state be became a pioneer settler of Kauffman County,
where his marriage was solemnized. In later years the family removed
to Tennessee, and it was at Bristol, that state, in 1907, that Baxter
Taylor was united in marriage to Miss Love THOMAS. As the forebears
of each had been granted definite pioneer experience in the West, so
Mr. and Mrs. Taylor set out for the same great section of our
national domain, here to initiate, under conditions far different
than those to which they had been accustomed, their wedded life.

Baxter Taylor was born at Happy Valley, or Watanga Point, as the
place is likewise known, in Carter County, Tennessee, on the 20th of
January, 1877. He is a son of James P. Taylor, who is the eldest
brother of Robert and Alfred Taylor, two of the most distinguished
public men that Tennessee has produced. James P. Taylor is a man of
much learning and culture, but of a nature to whom publicity and
notoriety are abhorrent. He has, therefore, spent his life quietly
with his family and his books. Whatever ambitions he may have
cherished in his youth as tending to statesmanship he transmitted to
his younger brothers, Robert and Alfred, who were indebted to him for
their excellent training in their young manhood and each of whom has
served as governor of Tennessee. In recent years James P. Taylor has
to some extent devoted his attention to literary work. One of his
recent productions, a monologue that was inspired by the great
European war and that is written in classical bland verse, represents
the war demon as speaking, and it has been by high authorities
pronounced one of the literary masterpieces called forth by the
terrible conflict of military forces in Europe.

The maiden name of the mother of Baxter Taylor was Mary Susan
GEORGE, and she is a daughter of James D. George, who was a native of
Tennessee and who became a pioneer settler of Grayson County, Texas,
he being well remembered by hundreds of former Texans who are now
living in Southern Oklahoma. The wife of Mr. George died shortly
after the birth of her daughter Mary Susan, who was reared in the
home of kinsfolk in Tennessee, her father never having seen her from
the time of her infancy until she had become a woman.

The early education of Baxter Taylor was acquired in the public
schools of Tennessee, and after a course in the high school at
Johnson City he eventually entered Washington College, that state,
where he pursued higher academic studies. In preparation for his
chosen profession he entered the law department of Cumberland
University, at Lebanon, Tennessee, in which he was graduated as a
member of the class of 1901 and from which he received his degree of
Bachelor of Laws. Shortly afterward he became identified with
newspaper work, and prior to coming to Oklahoma he had been associate
editor of a paper at Bristol, Tennessee, as previously noted in this
context.

In early manhood Mr. Taylor was a close companion and a veritable
protege of his distinguished uncle, Hon. Robert Taylor, former
governor of Tennessee, and this honored kinsman made it possible to
complete his education under auspicious circumstances.

Mr. Taylor began the practice of law at Atoka in 1907, and a little
later he was elected to the bench of the County Court of Atoka
County, being the second incumbent of this office after Oklahoma had
been admitted to statehood. He holds unequivocal prestige as one of
the leading members of the bar of this section of the state and
controls a large and representative practice. He holds membership in
the Atoka County Bar Association and the Atoka Commercial Club, is
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of
America, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian
Church.

Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have three children: James P. is a scion of the
forth generation of the family to bear this personal or Christian
name; Baxter, Jr., is named in honor of his father; and Robert Love
Taylor will in his generation perpetuate the name of one of
Tennessee's greatest men.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Carolyn Smith Burns on November 22, 1998.