It is no mere assumption that energy and consecutive application will eventuate in success in nearly every instance, and proof is afforded in the case of Mr. Taggart, who is one of the well known pioneers and prosperous farmers of Antrim county, his well improved farm being located in Central Lake township.
Mr. Taggart is a native of the province of Ontario, Canada, where he was born on the 2 1st of March, 1859, and he is a son of Robert and Eliza (Wiley) Taggart, the former of whom was born in Ireland and the latter in Scotland, while both passed the closing years of their lives in Huron county, Michigan. The father was a weaver by trade but devoted the greater portion of his active career to agricultural pursuits, being in independent circumstances and being- a man who ever held the confidence and esteem of those with whom he came in contact.
The subject of this review passed his youthful years in his native province of Ontario, where he learned the lessons of practical industry by aiding his father in the work of the farm, and his educational privileges were those afforded in the public schools. In 1879, at the age of twenty years, he came to Michigan and located in Huron county, and thereafter he devoted his attention to labors of various descriptions until 1890, when he came to Antrim county and settled in the village of Central Lake. For two years thereafter he was identified with lumbering enterprises here, and he then, in 1897, located on his present farm, to whose cultivation and improvement he has since devoted himself, having developed one of the valuable places of the county. His farm comprises one hundred and sixty acres, of which one hundred and twenty have been made available for successful cultivation, and he raises the various products best suited to the soil and climate, also having a good orchard, while he has made the raising of live stock a profitable phase of his farming-enterprise, giving preference to the Shorthorn and Durham types of cattle and the Chester White and Poland China hogs. Mr. Taggart purchased this property in 1897 and at that time the greater portion of the place was covered with the native timber, which has been cleared off through his own efforts, while he has also made all of the improvements on the farm, which is equipped with good buildings and bears evidence of unmistakable thrift and prosperity.
In the matter of politics Mr. Taggart is found stanchly arrayed as a supporter of the Republican party, and he has served in various local offices of trust, including that of pathmaster and also that of member of the school board of his district. In a fraternal way he is identified with the tent of Knights of the Maccabees at Central Lake and with the organization of Orangemen, having been reared in the Protestant faith and being of stanch Irish lineage. He has reason to be gratified with the success which he has gained here, for he came to the county a poor man and is now numbered among the substantial farmers and popular citizens of Central Lake township.
In the year 1890 Mr. Taggart was united in marriage to Miss Hulda A. Mathers, who was born and reared in Central Lake township, being a daughter of John Mathers, who was a farmer by vocation and who passed the closing years of his life in Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Taggart have seven children, namely: Mary E., a daughter of his first wife, John R., William T., Peter M., George M., Henry E. and Elizabeth G.
Source: Biographical history of northern Michigan containing biographies of prominent citizens; Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1905.