{{Short description|American politician}} {{inline citations|November 2024|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder |name = Abner Taylor |image = Abner Taylor (Illinois Congressman) 2.tif |caption = C. M. Bell Collection, Library of Congress |state = Illinois |district = {{ushr|Illinois|1|1st}} |term_start = March 4, 1889 |term_end = March 3, 1893 |predecessor = Ransom W. Dunham |successor = J. Frank Aldrich |office2 = Member of the Illinois House of Representatives |term2 = 1884-1886 |birth_name = |birth_date = {{Birth date|1829|1|19}} |birth_place = Bangor, Maine, U.S. |death_date = {{Death date and age|1903|4|13|1829|1|19}} |death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S. |resting_place = Rock Creek Cemetery<br />Washington, D.C., U.S. |party = Republican |spouse = {{marriage|Clara Babcock|1889}} |children = | allegiance = Union | branch = Army | battles = American Civil War | rank = General's deputy; United States Treasury agent }}
'''Abner Taylor''' (January 19, 1829 – April 13, 1903) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois.
Born in Bangor, Maine, Taylor moved with his parents to Champaign County, Ohio, in 1832, thence to Fort Dodge, Iowa, and subsequently to Chicago, Illinois, in 1860. He served the Union the American Civil War as a general's deputy, and later a colonel and United States Treasury agent. As a business man, Taylor engaged in extensive contracting, building, and mercantile pursuits, and participated in the construction of the Texas State Capitol. In exchange for the construction of the Texas State House, Taylor was awarded three million acres of land in northwest Texas in 1882. He served as a delegate to the 1884 Republican National Convention. Further, Taylor served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1884 to 1886.
Taylor was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-first and Fifty-second Congresses (March 4, 1889 – March 3, 1893). He married Clara Babcock, a daughter of business associate Colonel A C Babcock on September 9, 1889, in Cassopolis, Michigan. Clara was nearly thirty-two years his junior. The millionaire and his lively bride were well known in Congress. Clara made international news when she announced that rather than keeping Congressmen's signatures in an autograph book, she would have them embroidered onto a petticoat in silk to keep as a record of the 52nd Congress.
Taylor did not campaign in 1892, he instead resumed the building and contracting business. He died in Washington, D.C., in 1903, and was interred in Rock Creek Cemetery.
==See also== *XIT Ranch
==References== {{CongBio|T000062}} * {{cite book | title = America's Successful Men of Affairs: The United States at Large | editor = Hall, Henry | year = 1896 | publisher = The New York Printing Co |page= 779 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Hp0MAQAAMAAJ&q=abner%20taylor%20clara%20babcock&pg=PA779 }} * "Michigan, Marriages, 1868-1925," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NQ7T-VT2 : accessed 30 Sep 2012), Abner Taylor and Clara L. Babcock, 09 Sep 1889. * {{cite news | title = An Autograph Petticoat | work = The Advertiser (Adelaide, South Australia) | page = 6 | date = October 17, 1892 | url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25339681 }} *{{cite web |title=Collection: Abner Taylor Papers {{!}} The Fort Worth Library Local History Archives and Genealogy Collection |url=https://fortworthlibrary.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/351 |website=fortworthlibrary.lyrasistechnology.org |access-date=19 November 2024}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Illinois | district=1 | before=Ransom W. Dunham | after=J. Frank Aldrich | years=1889–1893 }} {{s-end}} {{USCongRep-start|congresses= 51st–52nd United States Congresses |state=Illinois}} {{USCongRep/IL/51}} {{USCongRep/IL/52}} {{USCongRep-end}} {{Bioguide}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Abner}} Category:1829 births Category:1903 deaths Category:Republican Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives Category:Politicians from Chicago Category:American businesspeople in construction Category:Politicians from Bangor, Maine Category:Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery Category:Politicians from Fort Dodge, Iowa Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Illinois Category:People of Illinois in the American Civil War Category:19th-century American businesspeople Category:19th-century United States representatives Category:19th-century members of the Illinois General Assembly