Charles Curtis Taylor, MD

 

Chables Curtis Taylor, M. D., of Cooper, Texas, is a son of Benoni B. Taylor, a retired'farmer and ex-soldier of this city. Benoni B. Taylor dates his identity with Texas back to 1859, when he came here from Pulaski county, Kentucky, and settled in the community of Lake Creek, where he became a teacher of the rural schools, and from which point he volunteered as a soldier of the Confederate army. After the war he spent a few years more in Lamar county school work, and in the early seventies he left the school room to take up farm work. Many of the men who are leaders in the public and business affairs of Texas, or have been during the last score of years, were pupils of his and his influence upon their young lives contributed a virtuous element in shaping their destinies. When he settled down to agricultural pursuits it was at Lake Creek, now a popular community of Delta county, and among her rich localities; and here he confined himself to . farming and kindred industries until 1911, when he retired and removed to Cooper, from where he gives directions in exploiting the substantial interests he still maintains. To go back to his early life and be specific, we record that Benoni B. Taylor was born in Medina county, Ohio, May 4, 1839, and went to Somerset, Kentucky, with his parents in 1845. He grew up there and was educated in the Somerset Seminary. His parents were Cyrus Curtis and Mary L. (Cotant) Taylor. The former was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, June 17, 1807, and died in Lincoln county, Kentucky, in 1875; the latter passed away in 1859. Following are the children of their union: John J., David D., Seth S., Charles C., Anna A., who married Lewis Duderer; Phoebe P., whose first husband was William B. David and who is now the wife of William M. Warden; Mary M., the youngest, resides in Vernon county, Missouri, where Seth S. died and where John J., Charles C. and Mrs. Warden have spent their lives. Nothwithstanding the accident of his birth in Northern territory, Benoni B. Taylor was essentially Southern upon the question causing the Civil war, and he bore arms in defense of the Confederate States. He enlisted at Paris, Texas, January 18, 1862, in the Ninth Texas Battery of light artillery, under Captain J. M. Daniel. Throughout the war he served in the Trans-Mississippi Department, first under General Hindman. then under General Holmes, and finally under Gen. E. Kirby Smith. Fate decreed that he should escape the ordeal of the heavy fighting of his command, as he was either on detail or on furlough when such engagements came off. During more than three years he followed the course of the army of the gray, through Arkansas and Louisiana, and left it when it was disbanded at Alexandria at the end of the war. February 23, 1859, at Somerset, Kentucky, Benoni B. Taylor was married to Miss Martha A. Koplin, a daughter of Matthias and Mary (Strawberg) Koplin of that county. Mrs. Taylor was born September 29, 1840. and died September 21, 1805. The children of their union are Mollie, wife of Charles E. Anderson, one of the wealthy citizens of Delta county and a prominent factor in the varied affairs of Cooper; Maggie, who is the wife of John C. Hendricks of Cooper, Texas; Ella A., wife of B. F. W7hite, of Lake Creek, Delta county; Charles Curtis, of this review; Annie A., now Mrs. B. F. Chambliss, of Lake Creek, and Lewis B., a farmer of that locality. Charles Curtis Taylor was born at Lake Creek, Texas, September 1, 1871, his birth and that of the county being the same year. He spent his life on the farm until he was nineteen, when he began special preparation for his life work. After receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science from the East Texas Normal College, he read medicine in the office of Dr. A. J. Rush, then at Lake Creek, thus paving his way to his work in the university. He entered Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, pursued a medical course, and graduated, his diploma bearing date of March 28, 1894. Thus equipped, he began the practice of his profession at Gough, Texas, a a few miles west of Cooper, and in 1900 came from there to the county seat. That same year he took a post-graduate course in the Chicago Polyclinic. His professional services are directed in line with ethics as defined by societies of the regular school of medicine, and he is a member of the county society, the State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. While his time is taken up chiefly with his professional duties, he has some outside interests. He is a director of the First National Bank of Cooper, farms by proxy, and takes a general interest in public affairs. He has added to the substantial growth of Cooper by the erection of one of the commodious residences of the city. At Richards, Missouri, Doctor Taylor was married to Miss Anna Koontz, a daughter of Judge Frank Koontz, one of the retired judges of the Circuit court of Missouri, and through her father inherits German blood. Her mother's maiden name was Gerry, and she is one of a family of eight children. Doctor and Mrs. Taylor have two children, Galen M. and Flanoy. The family are members of the Christian Church, and the Doctor is, fraternally, an Odd Fellow and a Woodman of the World.

 

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