Stewart Taylor (Villard, 1910)

Stewart Taylor, the only one of the raiders not of American birth, was but twenty-three when killed, having been born October 29, 1836 at Uxbridge, Canada. Of American descent, and a wagonmaker by trade, he went to Iowa in 1853, where in 1858 he became acquainted with John Brown through George B. Gill. He is described as being “heart and soul in the anti-slavery cause. An excellent debater and very fond of studying history. He stayed at home, in Canada, for the winter of 1858-59, and then went to Chicago, thence to Bloomington, Illinois, and thence to Harper’s Ferry. He was a very good phonographer [stereographer], rapid and accurate. He was overcome with distress when getting out of communication with the John Brown movement, he thought for a time that he was to be left our.” – Letter of Jacob L. Taylor, Pine Orchard, Canada West, April 23, 1860, to Richard J. Hinton, - in Hinton Papers, Kansas Historical Society. Taylor was a spiritualist.