No work purporting to contain mention of any
number of the pioneers of Jasper county, Missouri, would be at all complete
without some reference to Charles H. Taggart, who lives on section 4, Jasper
township. Mr. Taggart was born in Macoupin county, Illinois, February 21,
1842, a son of Joseph F. and Elizabeth (Owens) Taggart. His grandfather, a
native of Ireland, was an early settler in Kentucky. Joseph F. Taggart, a
native of Kentucky, was a farmer and brick mason. He went to Macoupin
county, Illinois, in 1831, and died there at the age of sixty-six years.
Politically he was a Whig and afterward a Republican, and he was a devoted
member of the Methodist Episcopal church. His wife was born near Fort
Donelson, Tennessee, and has been dead some years. She bore her husband four
children, of whom the immediate subject of this sketch was the third in
order of nativity.
Mr. Taggart was reared and educated in his native
county and remained with his parents until 1862. On the 20th of March, of
that year, he enlisted in Company C, Thirty-second Regiment, Illinois
Volunteer Infantry, with which he served about six months, when he was
discharged for disability. Returning to his native county in Illinois, he
engaged in farming and remained there until 1869, when he removed to Jasper
county, Missouri, and located at Georgia City. Here he carried on
agricultural pursuits and, in 1881, bought his present farm, which he has
brought to a good state of improvement. He gives his attention to general
farming and to stock-raising.
In 1863 Mr. Taggart married Sarah A.
Myers, a native of Licking county, Ohio, who had been orphaned at an early
age and had been reared by her grandmother. They have three children: Mary
I., the wife of J.P. Riley, of Asbury, Missouri; Albert E., principal of the
public school at Waco, Jasper county; and Della M., the wife of Frank L.
Morrow, of Medoc, Jasper county. Mr. Taggart is a member of Stephen Decatur
Post, No. 142, G.A.R., of Medoc, and has been elevated to its several
chairs. He has usually voted the Republican ticket, but voted for the Hon.
William J. Bryan for the presidency in 1896 and in 1900. He was tax
collector of his township in 1874 and 1875 and has filled the offices of
road superintendent and special road overseer. A man of good judgment, his
advice is sought in many important public affairs and he is a citizen of
prominence and influence.
Contributed 2022 Oct 24 by Aimee Edgeworth, extracted from The Biographical Record of Jasper County, Missouri, by Malcolm G. McGregor, published in 1901, pages 398-399.
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