John Taggart and Anna Hare
Husband John Taggart 1 2
Born: 15 Mar 1799 - County Antrim, Ireland 1 3 Christened: Died: 24 Nov 1890 - Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA 4 Buried: - Uniondale Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA
Father: Andrew Taggart (1762-1849) 1 5 Mother: Sarah Wilson (Abt 1768-1855) 1 5
Marriage: 1824 - County Antrim, Ireland 1
Other Spouse: Jane Porter (1798-1888) 1 6 - 14 Mar 1828 1
Wife Anna Hare 1 7
Born: Christened: Died: 1824 - Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA 7 Buried: - Oak Alley Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA
Father: William Hare ( - ) 8 Mother:
Children
1 M [Infant] Taggart
Born: Christened: Died: 1824 7 Buried: - Oak Alley Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA
General Notes: Husband - John Taggart
He was born at Tobergill House, Donegore Parish, Taggartsland, County Antrim, Ireland. In 1818 he came with his parents to the United States, settling on a farm in Deer Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, near the Butler County line.
Pittsburgh was the market town for southwestern Pennsylvania and here John Taggart brought the products of the farm for sale. In 1820 he formed a partnership under the name of John Taggart and Company with Francis Hare, his future brother-in-law, and opened a warehouse in Diamond Alley for the handling of groceries and farm products generally.
In 1824 he purchased a tract of land in the Reserve Tract, now included in the twenty-second ward, Pittsburgh, North Side, and in 1830 erected on this land a red brick mansion house in Irwin Ave., modeled in lines and arrangement after Tobergill House, County Antrim. He added to his real estate holdings from time to time, purchasing in 1834 the Lowry Plan in Federal St., which he improved with dwelling houses.
In 1834 he formed a partnership with Joseph McKean and Jacob Stuckrath, thus founding the John Taggart Leather and Tanning Company. This plant was destroyed by fire in 1842, but a new one was immediately erected in Pasture Lane of greater capacity and operated by steam power. The plant was conducted under the personal supervision of James Stuckrath, and the Anthony Smith patent for the breaking and fleshing of hides was purchased and introduced at this time.
In 1850 Mr. Taggart, accompanied by the Rev. James Rodgers, pastor of the Second United Presbyterian Church of the North Side, and by Mr. James McCandless, who was later to become his partner in the milling business, visited Ireland, not having seen his native land since he returned to Ireland to marry Anna Hare.
After a visit of two months with relatives and friends in Ireland, the trio returned, bringing back with them seventeen young Irish girls who were received into the homes of Doctor Rodgers' parishioners.
In 1851, Mr. Taggart added to his real estate holdings by purchasing "Out Lots" in Allegheny City, later the site of the Outer Depot of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
In 1857 he formed a partnership with James McCandless and Arthur Kirk under the name of John Taggart and Company for the purpose of operating a steam flour mill. The plant, which was known as the Diamond Steam Mill, was located in Pitt Alley, between Water St. and Gay Alley, North Side. By the articles of agreement "Arthur Kirk bound himself to devote the whole of his time, attention, diligence and skill to the said business of the said John Taggart and Company."
In 1863 he entered into a partnership with Thomas J. Hackett, John Hopkins, John McKee and James Reno under the firm name of The Union Coal Company of Pittsburgh for the mining and distribution of coal.
In 1865, through the withdrawal of Messrs. Reno and McKee, Mr. Taggart became the principal owner of the company. Its lands, which embraced the estates of Blanford and South Hall, adjoined those of John Neville on Chartiers Creek, Allegheny County. The tipples were at Fort Pitt Station on the Panhandle Railroad, a short distance from the later location of Taggart Station.
In later years Mr. Robert Taggart, his son, leased 412 acres of this land to G. M. Merritt of the Pennsylvania Railroad and in 1898 he leased the Pittsburgh vein of coal to the Lake Superior Coal Company. In 1890 this vein was purchased by the Pittsburgh Coal Company.
In 1866 John Taggart purchased large tracts of timber in northern Pennsylvania, carrying on the lumber business under the firm name of The Porter-Taggart Land Company, which later was merged into the Pittsburgh and Forest County Land Company, which was operated under the direction of his son, Andrew C. Taggart.
In 1870 his tanneries in Pasture Lane, having been totally destroyed by fire, Mr. Taggart retired from the tanning business and turned his attention to the development and improvement of his real estate holdings on the North Side and to the operation of the Union Coal Mines. At the time of his death, at the age of ninety-one years, he was superintending the erection of several houses on his property.
John Taggart's religious affiliations were almost as varied as his business enterprises. He was a member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, whose existence may be said to date from the Second Reformation in Scotland, 1638-46. One of his strong characteristics was his devotion to the tenets and government of that body. When he became a resident of Pittsburgh he united with the Rev. Robert Bruce's congregation, where he remained until he removed to Allegheny City, later the North Side of Pittsburgh.
He was one of the petitioners, Apr. 19, 1837, to the Associate Presbytery of Allegheny for a new organization on the North Side, a petition which met with some opposition from Doctor Bruce who was appointed to organize it. The new congregation of the Associate Reformed Church came into being Oct. 26, 1837 with twenty-three heads of families as a nucleus, William Bell and John Chambers as ruling elders and the Rev. James Rodgers as pastor who was installed in July of the following year. The lecture room of the new church building was occupied by the congregation in the fall of 1838.
In September, 1839, John Taggart, Robert Dickey and G. A. Martin were added to the session, the first remaining in that body until 1860. (See page 9, History of the Second United Presbyterian Church.) Under the charter of incorporation granted Jan. 10, 1846, Mr. Taggart was named a member of the Board of Trustees. (Page 11, History of the Second United Presbyterian Church.)
In 1853, Mr. Taggart was a staunch supporter of Doctor Rodgers in his efforts to establish the Indian Mission of the Associate Church of America and contributed largely to its support financially.
In the spring of 1858, the Synods of the Associate and the Associate Reformed churches met to consider a union; the former in Pittsburgh and the latter in Allegheny. At this time joint action was taken by both synods favoring the movement. On May 26th the Synods met in City Hall, Pittsburgh and consummated the union, thus giving birth in this section to the United Presbyterian Church whose first General Assembly met in Xenia, Ohio, May 18, 1859. Doctor Rodgers' church was thence known as the Second United Presbyterian Church.
In 1859 John Taggart was appointed by the Presbytery a delegate to organize the Fourth United Presbyterian Church, of which corporate body he became a founder and elder. Besides contributing generously to the church, he purchased eight pews which became vested forever in himself and his seven children. Some years later he became interested in the Fifth United Presbyterian Church and offered it a plot of ground near his residence in Irwin Ave., and contributed largely to its building fund. He eventually threw in his lot with this congregation and was a ruling elder at the time of his death.
He was opposed to innovations, favored the Token system and the old version of the Psalms, the adoption of the new version causing him to return for a short period to the Reformed Church under the Rev. Samuel Young. This adherence to old customs was remarkable for one whose forebears had passed through so many religious crises from the day when the sagart or tagart was the sacrificial priest at Applecrossen, through the persecutions of the Reformation and the upheavals in Ireland, where his immediate forebears, Andrew Taggart and John Wilson, were banished from Antrim for their religious and civic principles. Mr. Taggart was an incorporator of Westminster College, Mt. Union Cemetery, now Uniondale Cemetery, a director of the Allegheny Gas Co., a director of the Union Coal Co., and a vice president of the Sesqui-Centennial Celebration of Pittsburgh, July 17, 1890. (History of Allegheny County by Wilhelm, page 115.)
After an absence of about five years, he returned to Ireland to wed his first wife. She died at the birth of their first child, about eighteen months after their marriage, the child surviving its mother only one day.
General Notes: Wife - Anna Hare
She died at the birth of her son.
1 —, The History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Part II (Chicago, IL: A. W. Warner & Co., 1889), Pg 289.
2 Blanche T. Hartman, Genealogy of the Nesbit, Ross, Porter, Taggart Families of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, PA: Privately printed, 1929), Pg 88, 156.
3 Blanche T. Hartman, Genealogy of the Nesbit, Ross, Porter, Taggart Families of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, PA: Privately printed, 1929), Pg 172.
4 Blanche T. Hartman, Genealogy of the Nesbit, Ross, Porter, Taggart Families of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, PA: Privately printed, 1929), Pg 176.
5 Blanche T. Hartman, Genealogy of the Nesbit, Ross, Porter, Taggart Families of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, PA: Privately printed, 1929), Pg 155.
6 Blanche T. Hartman, Genealogy of the Nesbit, Ross, Porter, Taggart Families of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, PA: Privately printed, 1929), Pg 80, 156.
7 Blanche T. Hartman, Genealogy of the Nesbit, Ross, Porter, Taggart Families of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, PA: Privately printed, 1929), Pg 156.
8
Blanche T. Hartman, Genealogy of the Nesbit, Ross, Porter, Taggart Families of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, PA: Privately printed, 1929), Pg 173.
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