next four years at Georgetown, D. C, and at Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1869 till 1873. In 1870-'2 he was co-editor of "Our Monthly," published in Cincinnati. From 1873 till 1883 he was president of Wooster university, Ohio. He continued to be connected with the institution as professor of logic and political economy and dean of the post-graduate department for Ave years longer, editing in 1886-'8 "The Post-Graduate," a quarterly journal of philosophy. He then became editor of "The Mid-Continent," the organ of the Presbyterian church in the southwest, published in St. Louis, Mo. He received the degree of D. D. from Wooster in 1872, and that of LL. D. when he retired from the presidency in 1883.
|
|
TAYLOR, Bayard, author, b. in Kennett Square, Chester co., Pa., 11 Jan.. 1825; d. in Berlin, Germany, 19 Dec., 1878. He was the son of Joseph and Rebecca (Way) Taylor, and was of Quaker and South German descent. His first American ancestor, Robert Taylor, was a rich Quaker, who came over with Penn in 1681, and whose eldest son inherited land that now includes “Cedarcroft,” the poet's recent estate. His grandfather married a Lutheran of pure German blood, and was excommunicated by the Quakers. The poet's mother, although a Lutheran, was attached to the Quaker doctrines, and the Quaker speech and manners prevailed in her household. Bayard was named after James A. Bayard, of Delaware, and his first book bore on its title-page, through a mistake of Griswold, its editor, the name of “James Bayard Taylor.” After reaching his majority he always signed his name Bayard Taylor. His boyhood was passed near Kennett on a farm. He learned to read at four, began to write early, and from his twelfth year wrote “poems, novels, historical essays, but chiefly poems.” At the age of fourteen he studied Latin and French, and Spanish not long afterward. In 1837 the family removed to West Chester. There, and at Unionville, the youth had five years of high-school training. His first printed poem was contributed in 1841 to the “Saturday Evening Post,” Philadelphia. In 1842 he was apprenticed to a printer of West Chester. His contributions to the “Post” led to a friendship with Rufus W. Griswold, who was then connected with that paper and was also editor of “Graham's Magazine.” Griswold advised him concerning the publication of “Ximena, and other Poems” (Philadelphia, 1844), which was dedicated to his adviser and sold by subscription. By this time he found a trade distasteful, and, to gratify his desire for travel and study in Europe, he bought his time of his employer. The “Post” and the “United States Gazette” each agreed to pay him fifty dollars in advance for twelve foreign letters. Graham bought some of his poems, and with one hundred and forty dollars thus collected he sailed for Liverpool, 1 July, 1844. Horace Greeley gave him a conditional order for letters to the “Tribune,” of which he afterward wrote eighteen from Germany. His experiences abroad are well condensed in his own language: “After landing in Liverpool, I spent three weeks in a walk through Scotland and the north of England, and then travelled through Belgium and up the Rhine to Heidelberg, where I arrived in September, 1844. The winter of 1844-'5 I spent in Frankfort-on-the-Main, and by May I was so good a German that I was often not suspected of being a foreigner. I started off again on foot, a knapsack on my back, and visited the Brocken, Leipsic, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, and Munich, returning to Frankfort in July. A further walk over the Alps and through northern Italy took me to Florence, where I spent four months learning Italian. Thence I wandered, still on foot, to Rome and Civita Vecchia, where I bought a ticket as deck-passenger to Marseilles, and then tramped on to Paris through the cold winter rains. I arrived there in February, 1846, and returned to America after a stay of three months in Paris and London. I had been abroad for two years, and had supported myself entirely during the whole time by my literary correspondence. The remuneration which I received was in all five hundred dollars, and only by continual economy and occasional self-denial was I able to carry out my plan.” His letters were widely read, and shortly after his return were collected in “Views Afoot, or Europe seen with Knapsack and Staff” (New York, 1846). Six editions were sold within the year. In December, 1846, Taylor bought, with a friend as partner, a printing-office in his native county, and began to publish the Phœnixville “Pioneer.” But after a year he sold his newspaper and obtained a place on the New York “Tribune” in the literary department and as man-of-all-work. In December, 1848, he published “Rhymes of Travel, Ballads, and Poems,” which gave him repute as a poet. In 1849-'50 he was sent by the “Tribune” to California to report on the gold discoveries, and his letters were collected in “Eldorado, or Adventures in the Path of Empire” (1850). The same year he delivered the Φ Β Κ poem at Harvard. On 24 Oct., 1850, Taylor married, at Kennett, Mary Agnew, a Quaker girl of exquisite character, to whom he had long been betrothed, but who was now in an incurable decline, and she died within two months. He obtained an interest in the “Tribune,” and also issued “A Book of Romances, Lyrics, and Songs” (1851). In the autumn he again visited Europe as a correspondent, went to Egypt, and thence to Syria, Palestine, and Asia Minor, and reached London in October, 1852. His instructions next led him to join Com. Perry's expedition to Japan. Travelling through Spain, he proceeded to Bombay via Cairo and Suez, journeyed through India to Delhi and Calcutta, thence, to the Himalayas and back, and finally voyaged to Hong Kong, China, which he reached in March, 1853, joining Perry's flag-ship in May, and obtaining the nominal appointment of master's mate. He remained with the expedition until September, sharing its visit to Japan, and transmitting graphic accounts thereof to the “Tribune,” besides furnishing valuable notes to Perry for the latter's report to the U. S. government. After his return home he was in demand as a lecturer, and made lecturing a vocation throughout much of his after career. In 1854 he published “A Journey to Central Africa” and “The Land of the Saracen.” “A Visit to India, China, and Japan” appeared in 1855. In 1854 he also brought out his “Poems of the Orient,” perhaps his freshest, most glowing and characteristic book of verse. The next year or two were occupied with lecturing, travelling in this country,
