Los Angeles County
Biographies
FREDERICK HARRIS TAFT
TAFT, FREDERICK HARRIS,
Attorney-at-Law, Los Angeles, California, was born April 4, 1857, at Pierrepont Manor, Jefferson County, New York, the son of
Stephen Harris Taft and Mary Antoinette (Burnham) Taft. He married Frances
Maria Welch, February 23, 1881, at Humboldt, Iowa. Three children
were born, Alice Marie, who died in infancy, Muriel Charlena
(Shutt) and Harris Welch Taft.
Both families, those of the father and the mother, have
been in America more than 220 years.
Mr. Taft was taught in the public schools of Humboldt,
Iowa. When he had completed these he studied at Humboldt College and got his
Bachelor of Arts in the year 1878. He attended the law course of the Northwestern
University of Sioux City, Iowa, after a lapse of more than a decade, in order
to qualify himself for the law, and was admitted to practice by the Supreme
Court of Iowa at Des Moines, May 11, 1892. Associated as Sawyer &
Taft, he immediately began practice in Sioux City.
Mixed in with his educational career was an early
activity in the newspaper field. At seventeen he became owner and editor of the
Humboldt Kosmos, the official Republican weekly of
his county.
He founded the Hardin County Citizen at Iowa Falls, in
1883. The following year he became associated with George E. Roberts,
now director of the United States Mints, as editor of the Fort Dodge Messenger.
From 1888 to 1892 he was editor and superintendent of the Sioux City Newspaper
Union.
Mr. Taft moved to California, January 1, 1893, and helped
found the firm of Tanner & Taft, now Tanner, Taft
& Odell. The main office has been in Los Angeles since 1897.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
12 May 2011.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page Page
652, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES