Henry Morehouse Taber 
 A Memoir 
 
LAWRENCE J. GUTTER 
 
 Collection of Chicogoono 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 AT CHICAGO 
 
 The University Library 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arcliive 
 
 in 2010 witli funding from 
 
 CARLI: Consortium of Academic and Researcli Libraries in Illinois 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/henrymorehousetaOOtabe 
 
Henry Morehouse Taber 
 A Memoir 
 
^'K.y^y 
 
Henry Morehouse Taber 
 A Memoir 
 
 BY 
 
 SYDNEY RICHMOND TABER 
 
 TTOIJJ3 omaoj gajflAH.) ya 
 
 MDCCCXCVni 
 
 PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION 
 CHICAGO 
 
FROM A PORTRAIT PAINTED 
 
 BY CHARLES LORING ELLIOTT 
 
 IN 1 863 
 
 M^- 
 
 r 
 
 ■>M 
 
 /V 
 
Henry Morehouse Taber 
 A Memoir 
 
 BY 
 
 SYDNEY RICHMOND TABER 
 
 ^ 
 
 MDCCCXCVIII 
 
 PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION 
 CHICAGO 
 
TO HIS 
 
 GRANDSON, 
 
 WHOM MY FATHER KNEW AND LOVED, 
 
 AND TO HIS 
 
 GRANDDAUGHTER, 
 
 WHOM DEATH PREVENTED HIM FROM KNOWING AND LOVING, 
 
 THESE PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
HENRY MOREHOUSE TABER 
 
 ALTHOUGH the subject of this memoir 
 passed sixty-eight out of the seventy- 
 '^ three years of his life in New York City 
 and was closely identified with its business and 
 social growth, yet his New England birth and 
 inheritance played so large a part in his life that 
 attention must first be directed to his ancestry. 
 
 All his progenitors for two centuries had been 
 men and women of Massachusetts, Rhode Island 
 and Connecticut. The earliest ancestor in Amer- 
 ica in the Taber line was Philip, "one of several 
 men of ability who have borne their part in the 
 great charges of the foundation" of Plymouth Col- 
 ony. He came to America in 1633, took the oath 
 of freeman and became one of the representatives 
 to the first General Court. Another of the Ply- 
 mouth pioneers from whom my father was de- 
 scended was Kenelm Winslow, likewise freeman 
 and representative, and brother of Edward Wins- 
 low, who was one of the Mayflower passengers 
 and who became Governor of the Colony. Still 
 9 
 
Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 another ancestor, Francis Cooke, was also one of the 
 Mayflower pilgrims and a sturdy and prominent 
 member of the new colony. 
 
 In my father's veins also flowed the blood of 
 a soldier. His great-grandfather, Levi Taylor, 
 served in the French and Indian wars, and was at 
 Crown Point under General Amherst in 1759; ^^^ 
 later became lieutenant of a company in a Con- 
 necticut regiment during the Revolutionary War. 
 Among others of his ancestors he numbered several 
 selectmen, town clerks and surveyors of highways, 
 and still others filled the offices of assessor, justice 
 of the peace, judge of the Probate Court and judge 
 of the Court of Common Pleas. 
 
 The family of his mother, Esther Morehouse, 
 had had their home in Fairfield county, Connecti- 
 cut, for many generations. She was a woman 
 of great force as well as of strong affections. Her 
 erect carriage, which was maintained almost to 
 the day of her death at the age of ninety-six, com- 
 ported well with the inflexibility of her principles 
 and her strength of character. Her husband, 
 Corey Taber, was born in Massachusetts. Though 
 likewise somewhat rigorous in the training of his 
 sons, he was of a most sociable disposition and 
 genial temperament. 
 
 It was of such ancestry and of such parentage 
 
A Memoir ii 
 
 that Henry Morehouse Taber was born on 8th Feb- 
 ruary, 1 825, the fifth of eight children. His birth- 
 place was a town that was then known as Saugatuck 
 but is now included in Westport, Connecticut. 
 Here he remained only about five years, when his 
 father removed the family to New York City. His 
 education was obtained first at a public school and 
 later at the private school of Forrest & Mulligan, 
 one of the largest and best in the city at that time. 
 With a view to inculcating in the son a taste for the 
 law, his father placed him for about a year in the 
 law ofiice of Ketchum & Fessenden. Not becom- 
 ing enamoured of the law, however, at the age of 
 fifteen he entered into business in which he remained 
 more or less actively engaged up to the time of his 
 death — a period of fifty-seven years. His first busi- 
 ness connection was that of clerk in the office of his 
 father, who was engaged in the cotton brokerage 
 business at 76 Wall street under the firm-name of 
 Taber & Jenkins. After a seven years' term of 
 service as clerk to the firm of Bogert & Kneeland, 
 he returned in 1848 to the office of Taber & Jen- 
 kins. By this time his father had died, and his 
 elder brother (Charles Corey Taber) was continuing 
 the business with Mr. Jenkins. In the following 
 year the latter died while his partner was abroad, 
 and through this combination of circumstances the 
 
12 Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 whole care and responsibility of this considerable 
 business was for a time cast upon the shoulders of 
 the brother Henry, when he was but twenty-four 
 years old. This experience, entailing hard work 
 and long hours, no doubt did much to develop the 
 self-reliance and capacity for responsibility that char- 
 acterised his later career. 
 
 In 1849 ^^^ ^^^ brothers formed a partnership 
 as cotton brokers under the firm-name of Taber & 
 Co., but within two years business disasters over- 
 took them and they were obliged to suspend pay- 
 ment. Having effected an honourable settlement 
 with their creditors, they resumed business under the 
 same firm-name and later under the name of C. C. 
 & H. M. Taber. During the Civil War the trans- 
 actions of the firm reached a considerable magnitude, 
 and shortly after the close of that period they 
 estabhshed branch houses or agencies at New 
 Orleans, Memphis, Mobile, Providence, Boston, 
 and Fall River. In 1871 another firm was 
 formed in which the brother Henry was a special 
 partner, but again business losses, combined with 
 heavy peculations by some of the employees, 
 forced the house into liquidation. It is note- 
 worthy, as being characteristic of the subject of this 
 sketch, that every debt was paid in full although 
 this necessitated the payment of a very considerable 
 
A Memoir 13 
 
 sum by the special partner above the amount of 
 his limited liability. 
 
 In 1876 he entered into a new partnership, under 
 the name of Henry M. Taber & Co., with his son, 
 William Phillips Taber, whose sympathetic co-op- 
 eration and sound judgment he found helpful and 
 reliable. This partnership continued until his son's 
 untimely death in October, 1897, — less than two 
 months before his own, which occurred on the 24th 
 of December following. 
 
 In addition to the cotton business which he con- 
 ducted under the foregoing firm-names, he and his 
 brother became at various times largely interested 
 in real estate, both in New York City and Provi- 
 dence. Among other properties so owned was the 
 building at the corner of Pearl and Beaver streets, 
 in which he had his office for thirty-two years, and 
 also a tract of land at Riverside Drive and 119th 
 street, which was sold at auction in the spring of 
 1897. This sale constituted the largest real estate 
 transaction in New York City for that year, and the 
 extensive preparations for it, which were personally 
 conducted by him at the age of seventy-two years, 
 furnished a striking illustration of his energy and 
 vitality. 
 
 These two brothers also owned and operated 
 various steamers, among others the propeller 
 
14 Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 " Vicksburg " and the side-wheeler " City of Provi- 
 dence." They were jointly interested in the Utica 
 Cotton Company and its mill at Utica. My father 
 was president of that company, and was also one of 
 two lessees of a large cotton mill at Baltic, Connecti- 
 cut. These various interests involved much litiga- 
 tion and many large losses — some of the latter 
 being caused by the unforeseen exigencies of busi- 
 ness, but others resulting from embezzlement by 
 business confidants. 
 
 The same qualities that my father manifested in 
 his private business made him much sought after 
 in corporate business enterprises. A man of 
 unswerving rectitude and of a nice sense of honour 
 that abhorred the suspicion of unfairness could not 
 fail to be in demand as trustee. Among the many 
 institutions in which he held positions of trust may 
 be mentioned the Continental National Bank and 
 the Manhattan Savings Institution. In each of 
 these he was] one of the directors for a period of 
 about thirty years, and his connection with the 
 United States Lloyds — as a member of the advisory 
 committee — covered the same period. A similar 
 position was held by him in two other marine 
 insurance companies. He had at different times 
 been a director in six fire insurance companies, and 
 at the time of his death was serving the Home 
 
A Memoir 15 
 
 Insurance Company in that capacity, having been 
 elected in 1865. He was one of the incorporators and 
 trustees of the Continental Trust Company. His 
 membership in the New York Cotton Exchange 
 dated from its organisation, and that in the Chamber 
 of Commerce continued for thirty-eight years. In the 
 language of a resolution passed shortly after his 
 death by one of the boards of which he had been a 
 member — "the many directorships and positions 
 of honour and trust held by him in other institutions 
 of various kinds bear further testimony to the high 
 esteem in which he was held by the community at 
 large, and serve to evidence a public recognition of 
 the exalted integrity of purpose and practice that 
 animated and signalised his long and honourable 
 career as a merchant and citizen." The resolution 
 further records " the bank's gratitude for the bene- 
 fits thus derived from Mr. Taber's long connection 
 with it, both as director and client — with an added 
 record of the deep sense of loss on the part of this 
 board, as well as of each individual member thereof 
 to whom he had endeared himself by his uniform 
 kindness and the genial courtesy that characterised 
 his intercourse with all." The minutes of other 
 institutions speak of his " devotion and loyalty," his 
 being " constant and faithful to his duties " and "his 
 keen business instinct and unwavering integrity." 
 
Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 He was further recommended to his business 
 associates by his zeal and energy. Not only was he 
 impelled to a course of action by high principles, but 
 he had the will and determination to maintain it and 
 the perseverance to follow it until success should be 
 achieved. As a creditor he was patient and liberal; 
 as a debtor, scrupulously honest ; and as an 
 employer, considerate and generous. In minor 
 matters, too, his characteristics were marked — pre- 
 cision and punctiliousness in small as well as large 
 obligations, and promptitude in correspondence and 
 in all business and social duties. His intensely 
 systematic habits of life were carried into his busi- 
 ness relations. His conservatism with respect to 
 personal habits was evidenced by his clinging to a 
 custom that antedated the postal delivery system. As 
 long as he lived he retained a letter-box in the New 
 York post-office and was in the habit of sending 
 thither for his mail several times each day. Punc- 
 tuahty was also one of his lesser virtues; it is probably 
 within bounds to say that during his long career he 
 was never late for an appointment. 
 
 His usefulness as trustee was not confined to 
 institutions of business. Charitable enterprises also 
 profited by his judgment, sympathy and activity. 
 He was a life-member of the Charity Organization 
 Society of New York, and with the Northern Dis- 
 
A Memoir 17 
 
 pensary he was connected for over twenty years, at 
 first as director and later as president. One of the 
 incorporators of the Presbyterian Hospital in 1868, 
 he served on its Board of Managers and as record- 
 ing secretary until 1884. His connection with the 
 Board of Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church, 
 as treasurer and subsequently as president, terminated 
 in 1880 after a service of over twenty years. 
 
 When one comes to speak of my father as a 
 public-spirited citizen, the catalogue of his services 
 is a long one. Jury duty with him was a conscien- 
 tious obligation which he never shirked. He served 
 frequently during his long life, and in 1890 was 
 foreman of the grand jury that investigated the 
 police scandals brought to light by the Lexow com- 
 mission. For many years he was connected with 
 almost every movement of citizens directed towards 
 political reform or patriotic celebration. In 1863 
 he was one of a committee of arrangements for a 
 public dinner given in honour of the admiral of the 
 Russian fleet ; in the following year he was on the 
 executive committee of the Farragut testimonial 
 fund; as secretary of a citizens' committee he was 
 active in arranging for the Lincoln memorial cere- 
 monies in New York, and one of a similar com- 
 mittee to tender a reception to General Grant at the 
 close of the Civil War. In 1867 he assisted in 
 
1 8 Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 organising a movement to present General Grant's 
 name for the Presidency as " the candidate of the 
 commercial, business and industrial interests of 
 New York," and was secretary of a committee 
 appointed in 1874 to oppose the inflation of the 
 currency and to present to the President a peti- 
 tion signed by twenty-five hundred bankers and 
 merchants of New York. 
 
 His interest in politics began at an early age. 
 During the period of his apprenticeship in the law 
 oflice of Ketchum & Fessenden, Daniel Webster, 
 who was an intimate friend of one of the partners, 
 was in the habit of calling there frequently. An 
 acquaintance between the statesman and the young 
 law student thus sprang up and no doubt contributed 
 much to inspire the latter with his life-long admira- 
 tion for eloquence and his lofty ideals of statesman- 
 ship. When only fifteen years old he joined the 
 Boys' Harrison Association and attended some 
 political meeting every evening during the presi- 
 dential campaign of 1 840. Again in 1 844, though 
 still not old enough to vote, he was, as he afterward 
 wrote, "intensely interested in the campaign of that 
 year," and "went home with a sad heart" the night 
 he heard of Clay's defeat. During one of Mr. 
 Clay's visits to the Astor House in New York, my 
 father, though a mere lad and without other intro- 
 
m 
 
 FROM A PHOTOGRAPH 
 TAKEN IN I 895 
 
lb Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 organising a movement to present General Grant's 
 name for the Presidency as " the candidate of the 
 commerciul, business and industrial interests of 
 New York," and wa:. %.rr»«?tary of a committee 
 appointed in 1874 lo i^ppotc the inflation of the 
 currcfv.i, md fi present to the Prcsidenf a peti- 
 tion jtigKtHj bv twenty -five hundred bankers and 
 merchants of New York. 
 
 His interest in politics began at an early age. 
 During the period of his apprenticeship in the law 
 office of Ketchum & Fessenden, Daniel Webster, 
 who was an intimate friend of one of the partners, 
 was in ihv* habit of caliiiOA^oblccHflt a^mqp <\t]v An 
 acquaintance between the ^^A-. s¥ fu i*''a r .i the young 
 law student thus sprang up and no doubt contributed 
 much to inspire the latter wirii his life-ltjng admira- 
 tion for eloquence and his lofty ideals of statesman- 
 ship. When only fifteen years old he joined the 
 Boys' Harrison Association and attended some 
 pohtical meeting every evening during the presi- 
 dential campaign of 1 840. Again in 1 844, though 
 still not old enough to vote, he was, as he afterward 
 wrote, '* intensely interested in the campaign of that 
 year," and "went home with a sad heart" the night 
 he heard of Clay's defeat. During one of Mr. 
 Clay's visits to the Astor House m New York, my 
 fath<rr, though a mere lad and without other intro- 
 
A Memoir 19 
 
 duction than his ardent admiration, called on the 
 statesman and was received with characteristic 
 cordiaHty. His sympathies were with the Whigs, 
 largely on account of their high-tariff policy, which 
 always remained one of the cardinal principles in his 
 political creed ; and when the Republican party 
 came into existence, it found in him a ready and 
 warm advocate. In 1856 he took an active part in 
 the campaign for the election of General Fremont. 
 At the outbreak of the Civil War, all the ardour 
 of his enthusiastic nature was aroused in behalf of 
 the Union cause. His anti-slavery sentiment was 
 intense. An apparently trivial incident of that time 
 is significant of his feeling. A small American 
 flag, discoloured by age, was found hanging in his 
 office after his death. It had been placed over his 
 desk at the beginning of the nation's struggle for 
 existence — at a time when even patriotic men were 
 doubtful of the righteousness and expediency of the 
 struggle, and when to display the national colours 
 signified much courage and resolution. He joined 
 the 22d Regiment of the New York State Militia 
 with the expectation of going to the front, but the 
 consideration of his family's dependence upon him 
 and the force of their persuasion compelled him to 
 resign. He gave, however, of his time and sub- 
 stance to the Federal cause; scarcely a war meeting 
 
20 Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 was held in New York in the arrangements for which 
 he was not active ; of the great Sanitary Fair for the 
 benefit of Union soldiers he was among the pro- 
 moters and subscribers. He was one of the 
 organisers of the Loyal League of Union Citizens, 
 and in 1862 joined the Union League Club, the 
 organisation of which had been prompted by the 
 same patriotic impulse. During the entire period of 
 the war, his loyalty and devotion were unflagging. 
 In later life there deepened within him, under 
 the mellowing influence of years, a conviction of the 
 horrors of war. Though it cannot be doubted 
 that his patriotism would again have asserted itself 
 in promoting a conflict of arms had an equally 
 righteous cause arisen, yet war was abhorrent to his 
 humane nature and he greatly deprecated the spirit 
 of militarism that manifested itself in our own land 
 some years before his death. He conceived that 
 the love of country is best evinced by promotion of 
 the arts of peace, and he became a warm advocate 
 of the settlement of international disputes by arbi- 
 tration. For principle he was ever ready, to fight, 
 if need be; but the kind of combat that most met 
 with his approval was a battle of intellect. Being a 
 lover of the country's flag, he never failed to display 
 it from his house, whether in town or in the country, 
 on every occasion of patriotic celebration. 
 
A Memoir 21 
 
 His public spirit was further manifested by 
 encouragement of the various institutions in New 
 York that stood for the promotion of science and 
 art and the advancement of knowledge. He became 
 a life member of the National Academy of Design 
 in the days of its infancy, and upon his death its 
 council certified to their " appreciation of his early 
 encouragement of American art." He also held 
 life-memberships in the Metropolitan Museum of 
 Art, the Mercantile Library Association, the 
 American Geographical Society, the New York 
 Historical Society and the American Museum of 
 Natural History. 
 
 An evidence of his progressiveness as well as of 
 his courage was afforded by his warm advocacy of 
 cremation as the most rational method of disposing 
 of mortal remains. He held for a time the office 
 of president of the New York Cremation Society. 
 Since the movement commended itself to his reason 
 as being in accordance with correct sanitary princi- 
 ples, and to his consideration for the welfare of the 
 living, he suffered no sentiment or conservatism to 
 oppose his adoption of it. The incineration of his 
 own body took place in compliance with his repeated 
 and solemn injunctions to his family. The fact that 
 the popular mind had not stamped this practice with 
 approval rendered it all the more his duty, as he 
 
22 Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 conceived it, to commend it by his own example in 
 death. 
 
 A firm advocate of the political equality of the 
 sexes and an ardent admirer and champion of 
 womanhood, he was attracted to the Nineteenth 
 Century Club by its admission of women as well as 
 of men to its membership and to its discussions, and 
 he gladly enrolled himself a member of that organ- 
 isation. Another of its features that appealed to 
 him was its tolerance of the free discussion of all 
 subjects. He was an enthusiastic member of the 
 New England Society and a faithful attendant at 
 each recurring banquet of the society on " Fore- 
 fathers' day," where he keenly enjoyed renewing the 
 reminiscences of the Pilgrims and their achieve- 
 ments. 
 
 The only social club with which he was con- 
 nected, besides those already mentioned, was the 
 Metropolitan Club of New York, but this he rarely 
 visited — " my club-house being my home, in 
 preference," as he explained in one of his letters. 
 The same sentiment was evidenced by the legend 
 " There's no place like home," which met the eye 
 in the house at No. 42 West Twelfth street, where 
 his last thirty-seven years, embracing the greater 
 part of an exceptionally happy married life, were 
 passed. 
 
A Memoir 23 
 
 On October 3, 1855, his marriage took place 
 with Mary Elizabeth, second daughter of Rev. 
 William Wirt Phillips, D.D., pastor of the First 
 Presbyterian Church of New York. Three sons, 
 of whom one died in infancy, and a daughter, were 
 born to them. This marriage proved to be a rare 
 union of two deeply affectionate natures. In his 
 wife, my father found a noble comrade, worthy of 
 the great devotion of which he was capable. Upon 
 her and upon his children he lavished the wealth of 
 his loving nature — tender, unselfish, indulgent. 
 
 Child-life appealed particularly to him. An 
 incident that occurred during the summer of 1897 
 was strikingly characteristic. A child was stolen 
 from its home in Albany. Though the bereaved 
 parents were complete strangers to him, he evinced 
 the deepest interest, communicating to the public 
 through the newspapers and offering a reward for the 
 child's return ; and when the lost was finally found, 
 his tears of joy expressed the gladness that choked 
 his utterance. 
 
 The precepts that he was fond of instilling into 
 the minds of his young children indicate some of 
 his own strongest characteristics. The homely 
 motto " Mind your own business " was the forcible 
 expression of his horror of meddlesomeness. He 
 recognised to the fullest extent the right of liberty 
 
24 Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 of choice, and studiously avoided any attempt to 
 control even his own children's tastes and choices 
 of occupations. His habitual cautiousness was 
 indicated by the injunction " You can't be too care- 
 ful;" " A place for everything and everything in its 
 place " expressed his own methodical habits, and 
 " Work first, play afterwards " was used to impress 
 on childish minds the stern lesson of duty and self- 
 control which he himself had learned so well. 
 
 He possessed a kindliness and gentleness that 
 combined rather oddly with an ardent nature and 
 high temper. Towards dumb animals he was ten- 
 der-hearted, and particularly protested against the 
 cruelty of vivisection. All forms of suffering and 
 want appealed to him. His open-handed generos- 
 ity attracted a large circle of needy ones to whom 
 lavish assistance was given. Those who had suf- 
 fered financial reverses, widows, self-supporting 
 women, and young men struggling to sustain their 
 families were among the special objects of his friend- 
 liness. Besides making loans and gifts, he added 
 to the cares of his own business the responsibility of 
 carrying many small accounts of those who could 
 not have obtained elsewhere so generous a return 
 for their slender investments. In addition to 
 pecuniary assistance, he was constantly making 
 presents to persons of all classes with whom he came 
 
A Memoir 25 
 
 in contact. With generosity he combined thought- 
 fulness and foresight. It delighted him to surprise 
 a friend by filling some need or by gratifying some 
 half-expressed wish. He was especially ready to 
 reward attention to duty and deeds of heroism. 
 His life was really a long career of helpfulness. 
 
 My father was an energetic traveller. He 
 delighted in visiting distant places, observing differ- 
 ent conditions and acquiring information about new 
 lands and peoples; and he did in fact travel far and 
 often. An enthusiastic lover of the sea, he was 
 never so happy as when sailing over its waves or 
 swimming in the surf At his cottage by the sea — 
 "Liberty Hall" he was fond of styling it, for each 
 guest was enjoined to follow absolutely his own 
 inclinations — his instinct of hospitality was con- 
 stantly gratified. In his town-house, too, his friends 
 and their friends were always cordially welcomed, 
 but at the seashore more could be and were accom- 
 modated; his pleasure grew with the possibility of 
 keeping " open house" and was considerably en- 
 hanced if the guest was one to whom such an outing 
 was a rarity. While he delighted in entertaining, 
 the simplicity of his own tastes characterised his 
 household. Comfort and abundance without osten- 
 tation were its watchwords. 
 
 Good-fellowship and a keen enjoyment of social 
 
26 Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 life were part of his nature, and his joviaHty was 
 only overshadowed occasionally by bereavement or 
 depression caused by heavy business responsibilities. 
 His buoyancy of spirit, which must in part be attri- 
 buted to his extraordinary physical constitution, 
 persisted wonderfully, even in the face of his last 
 and wearisome illness. 
 
 With all his light-heartedness, my father was 
 peculiarly serious-minded. All his life he had mani- 
 fested a deep interest in the mysteries of life and 
 death, and as old age approached, increasing leisure 
 gave him opportunity for thought and for the wide 
 reading of philosophical and religious works. 
 
 From his New England ancestors — those "im- 
 passioned seekers after the invisible truth" — he 
 inherited not only a keen interest in such search, but 
 their own zeal in the conduct of it. The first of 
 his name to come to America, Philip Taber, was 
 conspicuous as a Baptist. He associated himself 
 with Roger Williams and was one of those who 
 removed to Rhode Island on account of their non- 
 conformity to the prevalent faith in Massachusetts 
 and of the consequent intolerance in that common- 
 wealth. Another ancestor. Rev. John Lothrop — 
 a graduate of Queen's College, Cambridge, and a 
 clergyman of the Church of England — renounced 
 his orders in 1623 and became an independent 
 
A Memoir 27 
 
 preacher. On being released from his consequent 
 imprisonment at Newgate he migrated to New Eng- 
 land ; but even there his' independence of thought 
 proved a stumbling-block to his congregation, with 
 whom he differed on the subject of baptism. Fran- 
 cis Cooke, already referred to, one of the exiles 
 from Scrooby, had fled with Bradford to Leyden, 
 in order to worship there according to the dic- 
 tates of his conscience, before embarking in the 
 Mayflower for the haven of rest in America. Still 
 another of my father's ancestors, Kenelm Winslow, 
 likewise paid the penalty for religious differences by 
 being twice imprisoned in England before coming 
 to these shores. 
 
 His earliest American ancestor in the Foster line 
 (Thomas) was repeatedly called before the Middle- 
 sex County Court and punished for breach of ecclesi- 
 astical laws. The grand jury found him guilty of 
 " absenting himself from the public ordinances of 
 Christ on the Lord's day and on days of humilia- 
 tion and thanksgiving," and it is further recorded 
 that he was "convicted of constant and ordinary 
 frequenting the meeting of the Anabaptists on the 
 Lord's day " and was "sentenced to pay a fine of 
 jf 5 and costs." The descendants of the latter for 
 three successive generations somewhat atoned for 
 their forefather's heresy by serving the orthodox 
 
Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 church in the capacity of deacon. But in the fourth 
 generation, James Foster, after some years of such 
 service, was converted to Universalism, and his life 
 was thereafter rendered unhappy by the opposition 
 of his orthodox neighbours. 
 
 On his mother's side, my father's grandparents 
 Stephen and Esther Morehouse were members of 
 the Congregational Church. The ancestors of this 
 grandfather were generally of the Presbyterian 
 faith and conservative in their religious views. On 
 the other hand, the family of the grandmother (of 
 the surname Taylor) were characterised by independ- 
 ence of thought and fondness for argument and origi- 
 nal investigation. A letter is still preserved that 
 was written by Lieutenant Levi Taylor, above men- 
 tioned, which sets forth his views on the subject of 
 predestination. 
 
 My father's father was not a church-member, 
 but his mother was a member of the Dutch Reformed 
 Church — a woman of strong will and of deep relig- 
 ious faith, conscientiously rigorous in her self-abne- 
 gation and in the training of her children. She 
 imparted some of her own earnestness to her son 
 Henry, though in his case it was differently mani- 
 fested. The rather sombre religious atmosphere of 
 his youth was not congenial to his intense enjoy- 
 ment of life. No more did the enforced attendance 
 
A Memoir 29 
 
 at religious services and the compulsory observance 
 of Sunday harmonise with his love of personal 
 liberty. 
 
 So it seems that his independence of thought in 
 religious matters was the heritage from some of his 
 ancestors of a tendency to break away from previous 
 traditional forms of faith, combined with strong 
 convictions and great earnestness transmitted from 
 them all. As his English ancestors had been 
 Protestants against the domination of Rome, and 
 those of New England were Protestants against the 
 Episcopal hierarchy, so he in turn became a latter- 
 day protestant — against all forms of ecclesiasticism. 
 A new Puritan was he, having inherited the temper 
 but not the theology of Puritanism. 
 
 Upon one thus already out of sympathy with 
 institutional Christianity, conspicuous discrepan- 
 cies between the professions and the conduct of 
 church members could not fail to make a deep 
 impression. The experience of suffering large 
 financial losses through the misconduct of several 
 persons holding high offices in Christian churches 
 came as a shock to a man of uncompromising 
 integrity and resulted in increasing his hatred of 
 religious hypocrisy and in perpetuating his doubt 
 as to the efficacy of religious faith to control human 
 conduct. 
 
30 Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 In the history of the church there was found 
 much to offend one who was conspicuous on the one 
 hand for his humane feelings and on the other for 
 reverence for the " precious right of freedom." The 
 barbarities and oppression practised in the name of 
 Christianity were also revolting to another of his 
 noteworthy traits : in a man lacking his keen sense 
 of justice they would have been productive of only 
 pity and regret, but in him they excited intense 
 indignation. 
 
 As to the modern church, he conceived of dog- 
 matism as exercising a thraldom over the minds of 
 men from which it was the part of true philanthropy 
 to emancipate them. He felt keenly what Matthew 
 Arnold has called "the desire for removing human 
 error." With him reason was the ultimate and the 
 only criterion of creeds. There was nothing in his 
 education and training to develop those qualities of 
 the imagination to which religion makes its most 
 potent appeal. On the contrary there was much in 
 his antecedents and in the circumstances of his boy- 
 hood to suppress such development. Moreover, 
 his attention was increasingly directed to religious 
 matters during a period of widespread questionings 
 and unrest and change in the world of religious 
 thought. His eager thirst for knowledge cordially 
 welcomed the results of modern scientific research. 
 
A Memoir 31 
 
 and his habit of mind — demanding precision, exact- 
 ness, certainty — found much that was congenial in 
 the definite demonstrations of science. With respect 
 to matters of religion there was none of the con- 
 servatism that marked his habits of daily life. In 
 these matters he was a radical, impatient of the pace 
 at which religious thought was moving away from 
 traditional forms of faith. Not being susceptible to 
 the charm of antiquity or the glamour of tradition, 
 he was ever ready, if progress required it, to break 
 with the past. 
 
 To a literalist like himself, religious tenets could 
 have none but a literal interpretation, and, bereft of 
 that, they were deprived of all significance whatever. 
 A modern writer, in classifying the " forms pertain- 
 ing to the Christian truths," declares that " they are 
 true as spiritual experiences to be realised." It was 
 my father's incapacity for spiritual experiences that 
 prevented him from thus realising the truths of 
 Christianity. The " Vision of God" such as Dante 
 saw was not possible to him. The doctrine of the 
 Inferno could never be conceived of as a spiritual 
 realm that a soul persisting in sin creates for itself; 
 and the Immaculate Conception became an unproven 
 allegation of fact and failed to signify to him the 
 ideal purity and nobility of womanhood. Impossible 
 of attainment by him was the attitude of Tennyson: 
 
32 Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 " Spirit seems to me to be the reality of the world. 
 I feel and know the flesh to be the vision ; God and 
 the spiritual the only real and true." 
 
 Nature had withheld from my father one of the 
 most potent aids to the imagination by omitting 
 from his equipment an ear for music. His lack in 
 this respect was complete ; diflFerent tunes were to 
 him utterly indistinguishable. Thus was this 
 entrance into the great realm of fancy and subli- 
 mated feeling completely sealed to him. He was 
 not among those who are carried on 
 
 The tides of music's golden sea. 
 Setting towards Eternity. 
 
 The kinship of music and poetry, through the con- 
 necting link of rhythm, is as subtle but as real as 
 the translation of poetry into sculpture and painting 
 and architecture. How far the dearth of artistic 
 perceptions in my father's nature is traceable to his 
 lack of the feeling for music, would be a matter of 
 indeterminable speculation ; but certain it is that his 
 temperament was no more able to bring to the con- 
 templation of religious questions a feeling for art 
 than his education enabled him to interpret them by 
 the aid of mature scholarship. While other minds 
 found a mystical or aesthetic significance even in 
 doctrines the strict interpretation of which they had 
 
A Memoir ^j 
 
 discarded, the necessities of his conscientiousness 
 not only would not tolerate the retention of anything 
 that actually conflicted with reason, but forced him 
 to abandon everything that was not capable of being 
 apprehended by the reasoning faculties alone. 
 
 Thus what may be called spiritual colour-blind- 
 ness, deficiency in the sense of beauty, sincerity which 
 prevented him from assuming an aesthetic appre- 
 ciation that he could not feel, and a vehemence that 
 characterised everything he did, combined to produce 
 in him a staunch opponent of dogmatic theology. 
 His religious attitude was indicated by his member- 
 ship in the Manhattan Liberal Club and the Society 
 for Ethical Culture. 
 
 Although generally very reticent and while 
 fearful of wounding the religious sensibilities of 
 others, he had the courage of his convictions and 
 was always ready to express his views either in con- 
 versation or by means of his pen. A number of 
 articles contributed at diflferent times to one of the 
 liberal magazines were collected and published in 
 book-form a few months before his death. To say 
 that in these writings he manifested an incapacity to 
 enter fully into doctrines with which he did not 
 sympathise would only be to say that he lacked one 
 of the rarest of human gifts and would in no wise 
 disparage his honesty. If he was incapable of 
 
34 Henry Morehouse Taber 
 
 judicial impartiality, he was equally incapable of 
 untruth. 
 
 He was a warm advocate of the complete sepa- 
 ration of church and state, and the papers referred 
 to are largely concerned with the discussion of that 
 topic. He believed that there was no constitutional 
 warrant for the enforcement of Sunday laws ; he 
 favoured non-sectarian public schools and the dis- 
 continuance of the office of chaplain in Congress, in 
 prisons and in the army and navy, and protested 
 against the exemption of church property from tax- 
 ation ; all of which, he contended, " are questions 
 involving the principle of equal rights and exact 
 justice to every citizen." 
 
 He was careful to point out repeatedly that he 
 spoke not " with any disrespect for the character of 
 Christ;" that he yielded "to no one in admiration 
 of the lofty purposes which were the guiding prin- 
 ciples of his pure and gentle and altruistic life," and 
 that he had no criticism to make of " the true 
 followers of Christ." The Christianity that was the 
 subject of his rebuke was not the " sympathetic, 
 tolerant, humane, loving religion of Christ," nor yet 
 "primitive Christianity," but the "collection of 
 doctrines enunciated " and " remodelled from time 
 to time" by man. His religious ideal was expressed 
 
A Memoir 35 
 
 by his quotation from "Akbar's Dream," which 
 Tennyson describes in these lines: 
 
 I dream' d 
 That stone by stone I rear'd a sacred fane, 
 A temple, neither Pagod, Mosque nor Church, 
 But loftier, simpler, always open-door' d 
 To every breath from Heaven, and Truth and Peace 
 And Love and Justice came and dw^elt therein. 
 
 It has been said that Philosophy aims for the 
 True, Religion aims for the Good, and Art aims for 
 the Beautiful. The subject of this memoir spent a 
 long life in the ardent pursuit of the True and the 
 Good ; and if in his quest he accepted not the aid of 
 Art, it was only because it had not been given him 
 to see clearly the vision of the Beautiful. 
 
PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY 
 AND SONS COMPANY AT THE 
 LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL., 
 UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
 HERBERT S. STONE & COMPANY