Howard Singleton Taylor

(1846- )
Illinois

"Howard Singleton Taylor, LL.B., . . . city prosecutor of Chicago, was born in Lexington, Virginia. As a lad he took part in the Civil War, enlisting in the Federal army and doing service for the Union cause, while one brother and many of his friends and kindred were wearing the gray and serving the Confederate cause.

He studied law and was graduated from the Law School of Cincinnati with highest honors. After leaving Indiana he located for the practice of the profession in Chicago . . . . The possessor of poetical gifts, such as required to produce the famous 'Man with the Musket' or 'The Soldier of Peace,' needs no wordy praise; but many will regret that he has not given more of his life to the production of poetry for which he has such a fine equipment."

[Benjamin S. Parker & Enos B. Heiney (eds.), Poets and Poetry of Indiana 457-458 (New York: Silver, Burdett and Company, 1900)]

Another source has Taylor born in Staunton, Virgina, and indicates that he was born in 1946. He was

graduated from Burlington College, Iowa, in 1868, and from the Cincinnati Law School in 1881, where he too the first prize of the institution for the best essay on constitutional law.

Mr. Taylor came to chicago in 1883, and has been actively engaged in the practice of law in Chicago ever since. He held the office of City Prosecuting Attorney of Chicago for ten successive years (1897-1907) under the administrations of Mayors Harrison and Dunne, and is now (1913) in the city public service as Election Commissioner.

Mr. Taylor is widely know as the author of peoms, sever of which have reaching a national reputation. Aong these are "The Creed of the Flag," "Liberty Bell," "Jacons's Day," "Washington's Name," "The War Widow," The First Battle," "Confessional," "The Man With the Musket" and "The Soldier of Peace."

[Chicago (Ill.) Bureau of Statistics, The Chicago City Manual 21-22 (Chicago: Bureau of Statistics and Municipal Library, 1908)]