27th President William Howard Taft

1857 - 1930  (72 years)    Has more than 100 ancestors and 5 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	William Howard Taft
  Prefix	27th President
  Birth	15 Sep 1857	Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA
  Gender	Male
  Prominent People	1909	USA
  US President, dick
  Death	8 Mar 1930	Washington, District of Columbia, USA
  Burial	Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, USA
  Siblings	5 Siblings
  1. Samuel Davenport Taft,   b. 1855   d. 1855  (Age 0 years) + 2. 27th President William Howard Taft,   b. 15 Sep 1857, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA d. 8 Mar 1930, Washington, District of Columbia, USA  (Age 72 years) ▻ Helen Herron,  m. 19 Jun 1886   3. Henry Waters Taft,   b. 27 May 1859   d. Yes, date unknown ▻ Julia Walbridge Smith   4. Horrace Dutton Taft,   b. 1861   d. 1943  (Age 82 years) ▻ Winifred S. Thompson   5. Horace Dutton Taft,   b. 18 Dec 1861   d. 1943  (Age 81 years) ▻ Winifred S. Thompson   6. Frances Louise Taft,   b. 18 Jul 1865   d. Yes, date unknown ▻ William A. Edwards
  Person ID	I74698	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	30 Jan 2010

  
  

  Father	Alphonso Taft,   b. 5 Nov 1810, Townshend, Vermont, USA d. 21 May 1891, San Diego County, California, USA (Age 80 years)
  Mother	Louisa Maria Torrey,   b. 11 Sep 1827, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA d. 8 Dec 1907, Millbury, Massachusetts, USA (Age 80 years)
  Family ID	F30366	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Helen Herron,   b. 2 Jun 1861, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA d. 22 May 1943, Washington, District of Columbia, USA (Age 81 years)
  Marriage	19 Jun 1886	Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA
  Children	+ 1. Robert Alphonso Taft,   b. 8 Sep 1889, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA d. 31 Jul 1953, New York, New York, USA (Age 63 years)   2. Helen Herron Taft,   b. 1 Aug 1891, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA d. Feb 1987, Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA (Age 95 years) + 3. Charles Phelps Taft, II,   b. 20 Sep 1897, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA d. Jun 1983, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA (Age 85 years)
  Family ID	F30365	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	30 Jan 2010

  
  

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  		Prominent People - US President, dick - 1909 - USA Death - 8 Mar 1930 - Washington, District of Columbia, USA Burial - - Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

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• Notes

  - US President No. 27 Won the Republican Nomination upon Roosevelts recommendation. Won the 1908 election over William J. Bryan by a popular vote of 7,675,320 to 6,412,294 and an electoral vote of 321 to 162. James S. Sherman was his vice-president. On June 30, 1921 he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Because of his weight of 332 pounds he was nich-named "Big Bill". Distinguished jurist, effective administrator, but poor politician, William Howard Taft spent four uncomfortable years in the White House. Large, jovial, conscientious, he was caught in the intense battles between Progressives and conservatives, and got scant credit for the achievements of his administration. Born in 1857, the son of a distinguished judge, he was graduated from Yale, and returned to Cincinnati to study and practice law. He rose in politics through Republican judiciary appointments, through his own competence and availability, and because, as he once wrote facetiously, he always had his "plate the right side up when offices were falling." But Taft much preferred law to politics. He was appointed a Federal circuit judge at 34. He aspired to be a member of the Supreme Court, but his wife, Helen Herron Taft, held other ambitions for him. His route to the White House was via administrative posts. President McKinley sent him to the Philippines in 1900 as chief civil administrator. Sympathetic toward the Filipinos, he improved the economy, built roads and schools, and gave the people at least some participation in government. President Roosevelt made him Secretary of War, and by 1907 had decided that Taft should be his successor. The Republican Convention nominated him the next year. Taft disliked the campaign--"one of the most uncomfortable four months of my life." But he pledged his loyalty to the Roosevelt program, popular in the West, while his brother Charles reassured eastern Republicans. William Jennings Bryan, running on the Democratic ticket for a third time, complained that he was having to oppose two candidates, a western progressive Taft and an eastern conservative Taft. Progressives were pleased with Taft's election. "Roosevelt has cut enough hay," they said; "Taft is the man to put it into the barn." Conservatives were delighted to be rid of Roosevelt--the "mad messiah." Taft recognized that his techniques would differ from those of his predecessor. Unlike Roosevelt, Taft did not believe in the stretching of Presidential powers. He once commented that Roosevelt "ought more often to have admitted the legal way of reaching the same ends." Taft alienated many liberal Republicans who later formed the Progressive Party, by defending the Payne-Aldrich Act which unexpectedly continued high tariff rates. A trade agreement with Canada, which Taft pushed through Congress, would have pleased eastern advocates of a low tariff, but the Canadians rejected it. He further antagonized Progressives by upholding his Secretary of the Interior, accused of failing to carry out Roosevelt's conservation policies. In the angry Progressive onslaught against him, little attention was paid to the fact that his administration initiated 80 antitrust suits and that Congress submitted to the states amendments for a Federal income tax and the direct election of Senators. A postal savings system was established, and the Interstate Commerce Commission was directed to set railroad rates. In 1912, when the Republicans renominated Taft, Roosevelt bolted the party to lead the Progressives, thus guaranteeing the election of Woodrow Wilson. Taft, free of the Presidency, served as Professor of Law at Yale until President Harding made him Chief Justice of the United States, a position he held until just before his death in 1930. To Taft, the appointment was his greatest honor; he wrote: "I don't remember that I ever was President."