Taylor

(submitted by Dorothy Tiedje)

Thomas Bartholomew (T. B.) Taylor (1851–) worked as a druggist in Watford from 1868 until 1922. One of eight children of William Robert and Ellen Octavia Taylor, he was born in Leeds County. When T. B. was a young boy, the family moved to Brooke Twp., Lambton County.

Family lore has it that, when in his teens, he made himself a pair of pants so that he could apply for a job as an apprentice to a Watford druggist. Thomas worked hard, became the proprietor of his own drug store, married Emma Rice of Stratford, built a house on the corner of Main and Erie St., and with his wife raised a daughter and three sons, all three of whom became druggists. The Ontario Photographers’ List, 1851–1925 lists T. B. Taylor as a photographer in Watford from 1875 to 1905.

T. B. Taylor used recipes from doctors’ prescriptions to make up medicines such as Taylor’s Throat and Lung Balm, Taylor’s English Rheumatism capsules, and Taylor’s Stomach and Liver Cure. Besides drugs T. B. Taylor sold new and second-hand bicycles, paint, wallpaper, stationery, fine china, jewellery and marriage licences. One newspaper ad states “Eggs Same as Cash.”

Taylor built the Taylor Block on Main St. It housed four stores on the ground level and the Lyceum, once Watford’s entertainment centre, upstairs. Watford’s first movie presentations were held here.

The Taylors’ oldest son, Frederick Arthur, served in World War I as a cavalry captain and earned a D.S.O. (Distinguished Service Order). The other children were Jesse R., a school teacher, Franklin T., and Herbert George. The three brothers moved to London where they operated as many as six drug stores at one time.

My grandparents liked to be called Monny and Poddy by my brother and me. I remember the Taylor house with the two bronze knights jousting on the mantelpiece, the stained glass over the front door, the chemical toilet, the brass samovar type coffee maker and the full-length painting of Monny hidden at the back of a big closet. Later, when Poddy was at our house in London to visit Monny, who was a cancer patient in the hospital, I remember sitting on his knee while he illustrated, with pencil and paper, a story he was telling me.

Taylor family in front of T.B. Taylor’s house on Nauvoo Rd. Back: Frederick A. Taylor and his wife Madeline (Whitemore) Taylor. Middle: Franklin Thomas Taylor, Franklin Thomas B. Taylor (son of F. T. and Jessica), Emma (Rice) Taylor and husband Thomas Bartholomew (T. B.) Taylor. Front row: Jessica M. (Coupland) Taylor (wife of F. T. Taylor), Dorothy M. (Taylor) Tiedje (daughter of F.T. and Jessica). Courtesy D Tiedje.

Chapter 24 of 25 - Taylor Family

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