More on the World Famous Taft School for Boys that Began in Pelham Manor in 1890

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

One of the nation’s premier college preparatory schools, The Taft School (now located in Watertown, Connecticut), began in Pelham Manor in 1890.  Horace Dutton Taft founded the institution.  Taft was a brother of William Howard Taft who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and, in 1909, became the nation’s 27th President.  Horace Taft had no training in school administration.  Indeed, his only exposure to the teaching world reportedly involved tutoring Latin for three years at Yale, his alma mater.  

Horace Taft was, however, a friend of a prominent Pelham Manor resident – Mrs. Robert C. (Mary G. W.) Black.  Mrs. Black was the wife of a member of the internationally renowned jewelry firm of Black, Starr & Frost.  The Blacks owned large tracts of land in Pelham Manor and had a palatial home known as “Dogwood”.  The home faced the Esplanade on plots where homes located between 955 and 999 Pelhamdale Avenue stand today. 

Robert and Mary Black had two sons:  R. Clifford Black, Jr. and Witherbee Black.  Mrs. Black reportedly contacted family friend Horace Taft seeking a tutor for her boys.  She convinced Taft to open a boarding school for boys in Pelham Manor.  Mrs. Black reportedly named the new school “Mr. Taft’s School” although it quickly became known as The Taft School for Boys. 

1890 Newspaper Advertisement for The Taft School

for Boys in Pelham Manor.  Source:  MR. TAFT'S SCHOOL

for BOYS [Advertisement], New Rochelle Pioneer, Oct. 4, 1890,

Vol. XXXI, No. 26, p. 3, col. 6.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

TEXT READS:  "MR. TAFT'S SCHOOL for BOYS, PELHAM

MANOR, A Boarding and Day School to prepare boys for College.

The principal a graduate of Yale, and for the last three years a

Tutor in that University.  For circular and references address MR.

HORACE D. TAFT, Pelham Manor, N.Y."

The home that stands today at 964 Pelhamdale Avenue reportedly served as the main building for Mr. Taft’s School.  According to a letter prepared in 1936 by one of the students who attended the school during its first year of operation, DeWitt Clinton Noyes, there were two homes that served as the grounds of the school when it opened in 1890 for the 1890/91 school year.  The letter states: “The main house belonged to Mrs. Robert C. Black and was directly behind her own on Pelhamdale Avenue.  The second house was smaller and next door to the West.”  The house that stands today “next door to the West” of 964 Pelhamdale is the home located at 952 Pelhamdale.  After only three school years in Pelham Manor, Mr. Taft’s School moved to Watertown, Connecticut where it is located today.  

Mr. Taft's School began as a boarding and day school with ten "boarding scholars" in 1890.  By the end of its third year in the spring of 1893, the tiny little school had expanded to capacity with twenty "boarding scholars."  Rather than expanding in Pelham Manor (which had no suitable facility into which the school could move and expand over the summer before the next school year), Horace Dutton Taft moved the school to Watertown, Connecticut during the summer of 1893.

During the three years the Taft School for Boys operated in Pelham Manor, it graduated eight young scholars.  The school graduated its first two scholars at the end of its first year of operation in the spring of 1891.  One was Daniel O'Neill of Pittsburgh.  O'Neill attended Yale University beginning the following fall, but died tragically during his first semester in the fall of 1891.  The other graduating scholar in the first class that graduated from the school while it was located in Pelham Manor was Stillman Witt Eells.  He also attended Yale after graduating from the Taft School.  He graduated from Yale in the Class of 1895 and, the same year, married Helene Florence Watterman of Minneapolis.  In 1896 he became Secretary of the Chicago Drop Forge & Foundry Co.  The following year he became President of the Wheeler Mfg. Co. and the Alegnum Co. and served in that role until 1903.  He resigned in 1903 and traveled for four years in Europe, Canada, and the United States.  He then settled for a short time in Cleveland and then moved to Hamilton, Bermuda.

At the end of the Taft School's second year, in the spring of 1892, the institution graduated five students:  (1) S.C. Alger; (2) Walter Bingham Brayton who later worked for The Standard Car Wheel Company in Cleveland; (3) Edward Laurence Brownell (died in 1905); (4) Neil Bernard Mallon (died in 1909); and (5) James Dwight Rockwell who graduated from Yale in 1896 and worked in the chemical business until his health deteriorated and he moved into the Yale Club in New York City.

S.C. Alger Who Graduated from the Taft School for Boys in 1892

When It Was Located in the Village of Pelham Manor.  NOTE:

Click on Image to Enlarge.

James Dwight Rockwell Who Graduated from the Taft School

for Boys in 1892 When It Was Located in the Village of Pelham

Manor.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

At the end of the Taft School's third year (its last in Pelham), in the spring of 1893, the institution graduated a single student:  James Hart Welch, Jr.  Thereafter he worked in the real estate business in Douglaston, Long Island.  

952 Pelhamdale Avenue, One of Two Adjacent Residences that Once Were

Part of The Taft School for Boys That Operated in Pelham Manor 1890 - 1893.

Photograph Taken in 2005 by the Author. NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Horace Dutton Taft in an Undated Portrait.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *

I have written on numerous occasions about the Taft School for Boys as well as Horace Dutton Taft and his brother, Henry Waters Taft, who lived in Pelham Manor.  For a few examples, see:  

Wed., Feb. 04, 2015:  Obituaries of Horace Dutton Taft, Founder of the Taft School for Boys in Pelham Manor.

Mon., Jan. 15, 2007:  Brief Biographies of Henry Waters Taft and Horace Dutton Taft of Pelham Manor (and Other Family Members).

Tue., May 30, 2006:  A Biography Published in 1906 on the Life of Horace Dutton Taft, Founder of the Taft School for Boys in Pelham Manor.

Wed., Nov. 14, 2007:  1890 Advertisement for Taft's School for Boys in Pelham Manor.

Mon., Aug. 15, 2005:  952 Pelhamdale Served as a 19th Century School for Girls, Then a School for Boys.

Bell, Blake A., The Taft School in Pelham Manor, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 23, Jun. 4, 2004, p. 12, col. 1.

Fri., Mar. 14, 2014:  “Life and Practice" of a Country Lawyer Living in Pelham Manor in the 1880s.

Tue., Feb. 14, 2006:  An Account of the Blizzard of 1888 by Pelham Manor Resident Henry W. Taft.

*          *          *          *          *

Below is the text of several items that form the basis for today's Historic Pelham article.  Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.  

"Mr. Taft's Own Account

The Taft School was founded by Horace D. Taft in the fall of 1890 in the village of Pelham Manor, Westchester County, New York.  Mr. Taft had graduated from Yale in the class of '83 and during the three years prior to the opening of the school had been a member of the Yale Faculty.

The first year of the school there were only ten boarding scholars.  The buildings were ordinary residences, the rooms of which were made to serve as school room, class rooms, etc., as well as they might.  Altogether, it was a very small beginning and in some respects comical.  During the second and third years there were twenty boarding scholars, all that there was room for.  In the summer of 1893 the school was moved to Watertown, Connecticut, and located in an old hotel building, the Warren House.  There a new beginning was made with thirty boarding scholars and an enlarged faculty.  Everything about the school, as we look back on it now, was primitive and inefficient, but after Pelham Manor days it seemed magnificent.  A higher standard, both in scholarship and discipline was attained.  Athletic teams were organized and the various activities of school life began.  The hotel building had to be changed in many respects to meet the requirements of a school.  A new plant for heating and plumbing was installed and a gymnasium was built.  The old Fair Ground was leased for an athletic field. . . ."

Source:  "Mr. Taft's Own Account" in Wiggin, Lewis M., ed., The Taft School Biography Book, Vol. 1, p. 9 (Rutland, VT:  The Tuttle Company, 1912).  

"1891
Stillman Witt Eells

Mr. Eells holds the proud distinction of being the oldest living graduate.  He has been followed by several cousins, among them William and James Symington and a nephew, Samuel Eells.  He is the only remaining member of the first class to be graduated from Pelham Manor, the other member of the class, Daniel O'Neill of Pittsburgh, having died during the fall of his Freshman year at Yale.  Eells was graduated from Yale in the class of 1895, having spent his summer vacations traveling in Europe, Canada and the West.  In 1895 he was married to Miss Helene Florence Watterman of Minneapolis and spent the following year in Europe.  In 1896 he became Secretary of the Chicago Drop Forge & Foundry Co. 1897 to 1903 was spent as President of the Wheeler Mfg. Co. and the Alegnum Co.  He resigned in 1903 and spent the following four years traveling in Europe, Canada and the United States.  In 1907 he made Cleveland his headquarters, having since then lived in Bermuda.  His permanent address is P. O. Box 4, Hamilton, Bermuda.

Daniel O'Neill

Deceased.

1892
S. C .Alger

Alger claims that he was graduated the year the school started in Pelham Manor, but the records show it to have been in the second year of the school's history, 1892.  It is on this that he bases his claim to being the oldest alumnus of Taft School, but whether he is or not, he is certainly one of the best.  Graduated from Yale in the class of 1896 S.  He was married in 1896, and has one daughter who was born in 1900. 

Permanent address:  250 West 94th Street, New York.

William Bingham Brayton

Brayton was a member of the 1894 class at Sheff, but did not graduate.  His address is care The Standard Car Wheel Company, Cleveland, Ohio.

Edward Laurence Brownell

Brownell graduated from Sheff. in the class of 1895.  He died in 1905.

Neil Bernard Mallon

Graduated from Yale in 1896.  Died in 1909.

James Dwight Rockwell

The following is Rockwell's own account of how it has happened:  'I went to Yale and graduated, 'mirable dictu,' in 1896.  In 1900 I became associated in the chemical business with the late Edward L. Brownell, '92.  In 1905 my health broke down and I have never succeeded in recovering it, having been confined to my room for several years.  As befits one of the very Oldest Living Graduates, I have all the characteristics of extreme old age, except the whiskers, in proof of which I offer in evidence a photographic crime committed in 1902.'

Permanent address:  Yale Club, New York.

1893
James Hart Welch, Jr.

Welch now in real estate business at Douglaston, L.I. . . ."

Source:  Wiggin, Lewis M., ed., The Taft School Biography Book, Vol. 1, pp. 37-38 (Rutland, VT:  The Tuttle Company, 1912).

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

Brief Biographies of Henry Waters Taft and Horace Dutton Taft of Pelham Manor (and Other Family Members)

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.

On May 30, 2006, I posted a brief biography of Horace Dutton Taft to the Historic Pelham Blog. Taft founded what became one of the nation's premier college preparatory schools, The Taft School (now located in Watertown, Connecticut) in Pelham Manor in 1890. See Tue., May 30, 2006: A Biography Published in 1906 on the Life of Horace Dutton Taft, Founder of the Taft School for Boys in Pelham Manor.

On February 14, 2006, I posted a brief biography and reminiscenses of Henry Waters Taft, Horace D. Taft's brother, who also lived in Pelham Manor for a time. See Tue., Feb. 14, 2006: An Account of the Blizzard of 1888 by Pelham Manor Resident Henry W. Taft.

Today's Historic Pelham Blog posting transcribes genealogical and biographical data of Horace Dutton Taft and Henry Waters Taft (as well as other members of their families) that appeared in a book published in 1907. The material appears within genealogical data regarding the Taft family of Worcester County, Massachusetts. The text that follows includes all of the pertinent information, as well as a citation to the source.

"THE TAFT FAMILY, of Worcester county, Massachusetts, trace their ancestry to Robert Taft, who was a housewright by trade, and settled in Mendon, Massachusetts, in 1669, to which place he came [from] Braintree, which was then a province. His wife, Sarah Taft, bore him five sons: Thomas, born 1671; Robert, 1674; Daniel, 1677; Joseph, 1680; and Benjamin, 1684. The father, Robert Taft, died in February, 1725; the mother, Sarah Taft, in November of the same year.

Captain Joseph Taft, fourth son of Robert and Sarah Taft, was born in 1680, died in 1747. He married, 1708, Elizabeth Emerson, granddaughter of the first minister of Mendon, Massachusetts. They were the parents of nine children, among whom were the following: Moses, born 1713; Peter, 1715; Joseph, 1722; and Aaron, April 12, 1729.

Captain Peter Taft, second son of Captain Joseph and Elizabeth (Emerson) Taft, was born in 1715. He was a farmer in Uxbridge, Massachusetts. He married Elizabeth Cheney, and the sons born of this marriage were: Henry, Gershom, Aaron and Peter.

Aaron Taft, third son of Captain Peter and Elizabeth (Cheney) Taft, was born May 28, 1743. His early education fitted him for Princeton College, but the exigencies of the family called him home before he had established a good reputation as a scholar. He then turned his attention to farming in his native town of Uxbridge, from which, after a residence of thirty years, he removed in March, 1799, to Townshend, Vermont, where he died March 26, 1808. About 1768 he married Rhoda Rawson, daughter of Abner and Mary (Allen) Rawson and great-great-granddauther of Edward Rawson, secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1650 to 1686. Mrs. Taft, who was a woman of superior intelligence and ability, died June 9, 1827. Their children were: Milley, born July 29, 1769; Selina, February 20, 1771; Cynthia, August 17, 1773; Rawson, October 15, 1775, died 1776; Nancy, August 20, 1777; Jeremiah, November 21, 1779; Mary, July 12, 1783; Peter Rawson, April 14, 1785; Sophia, December 3, 1787, died 1843; Judson, Novembe 6, 1791, died 1794; Samuel Judson, October 4, 1794.

Peter Rawson Taft, third son of Aaron and Rhoda (Rawson) Taft, was born April 14, 1785. In 1810 he married Sylvia Howard, and settled in Townshend, Vermont, where he taught school and later was admitted to the bar. He was judge of the court of Windham county, also one of the commissioners of the county and for many years a member of the legislature of Vermont. In 1841 he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he died in 1867, aged eighty-two years, leaving one son, Alphonso Taft.

HON. ALPHONSO TAFT, son of Peter Rawson and Sylvia (Howard) Taft, was born in Townshend, Windham county, Vermont, November 5, 1810. Through the hard work and self-sacrifice of his parents, who possessed a large amount of ambition for their son, and the boy's own intense desire for a thorough education, he entered Yale College in 1829, and graduated therefrom with high honors in 1833. For two years thereafter he taught in Judge Hall's Academy, in Ellington, Connecticut, and was afterward tutor at yale. He studied law in the Yale Law School, and was admitted to the bar of Connecticut in 1838. The following year he began the practice of his profession in Cincinnati, Ohio, rose steadily and rapidly in his profession, was engaged in many important cases and became a leader of the bar of Ohio. In 1857 he argued successfully before the United States supreme court the claim of the city for the bequest of Charles McMicken, whoch secured the fund forming the nucleus of the endowment of the University of Cincinnati.

In 1865 Mr. Taft was appointed by the governor of Ohio to a vacancy in the superior court of Cincinnati. He was afterward twice elected to the office by the people, the second time having the unusual honor of being chosen by the votes of both parties, no opposing candidate being presented. He was considered a model judge. It was said of him that 'no young man was ever turned away with the impression that his case was too small for the judge's patience; no experienced lawyer ever felt that his case was too large, or the questions involved too intricate, for the judge's capacity and learning.' Perhaps the most important case which came before him as judge of the superior court was that of 'The Bible in the Public Schools.' The Catholics and Jews, who formed a large proportion of the citizens of Cincinnati, complained of the introduction of religious instruction in the schools as violating the spirit of the Constitution, and doing them an injustice. The school board stopped the reading of the Bible in the schools. The court was appealed to on the ground that the board had no power to take such a step. A violent contest arose on the question. Feeling ran high, and it was evident that the judge who dared face the storm must incur great unpopularity. To Judge Taft, however, there seemed absolutely no question of the right of the school board to take such action. His mind clear on that point, it was not in the nature of the man to consider for a moment the popular clamor or the effect of the decision on his own career. The other two judges decided against the school board. [Page 1 / Page 2] Judge Taft delivered an elaborate dissenting opinion. When the case was taken to the supreme court of Ohio, this opinion was sustained in every point by a unanimous court of five judges, and has since beome the law throughout the United States. 'The Bible in the Public Schools' case arose in his path several times later and probably prevented his being governor of Ohio. When, however, the storm of prejudice and bigotry had subsided and people had time to consider the matter, Judge Taft's reputation as a judge who knew neither fear nor favor was inevitably increased. In 1872 he resigned from office in order to join his two sons in the practice of law under the style of A. Taft & Sons.

In 1876 Judge Taft was appointed secretary of war by President Grant, succeeding General Belknap, and the following May was transferred to the office of attorney general, which he held until the end of the administration in March, 1877, when he resumed the practice of his profession in Cincinnati, Ohio. In April, 1882, he was appointed by President Arthur, United States minister plenipotentiary to Austria, and in 1884 was promoted to the Court of Russia, remaining until August, 1885. In the spring of that year he had a sever attack of pneumonia, followed by typhoid fever, being one of the numerous Americans who have fallen victims to the Russian climate. The disease broke down his extraordinary rugged constitution and he returned, shattered in health, to private life. He sought relief in southern California, but his death occurred in San Diego, May 21, 1891, aged eighty years.

Judge Taft was exceedingly fond of historical and genealogical research, and gave considerable attention to tracing the lineage of the Taft family. He delivered the historical address at the Taft family re-union at Uxbridge, Massachusetts, August 12, 1874. Judge Taft took an active interest in all educational matters, and served more than twenty years as a trustee of the Cincinnati high school. he was a member of the corporation of Yale College and was honored with its degree of LL. D. in 1867. His five sons graduated from that well-known institution, and his grandsons keep up the family tradition. In politics Judge Taft began life as a Whig and an ardent supporter of Webster. He joined the Republican party at its formation, and was always a warm supporter of its principles. In 1856 he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention, which nominated John C. Fremont for president. In the same year he was nominated by the Republicans of Cincinnati for congress, but was defeated by the Democratic candidate, George H. Pendleton. In every position to which Judge Taft was called he rendered most able, effective and loyal service. He was a gentleman of scholarly attainments, of the highest personal character, and a kindliness and sweetness of disposition which endeared him to all who came in contact with him.

Judge Taft was twice married. He married (first) in September, 1841, Fanny Phelps, daughter of Judge Charles Phelps, of Townshend, Vermont. She died in 1851. Of their five children three died in infancy; the surviving children were . . . . . . . . . .

Judge Taft married (second), December 26, 1853, Louisa Maria Torrey, daughter of Samuel D. Torrey (see sketch of Samuel D. Torrey), of Millbury, Massachusetts. They had five children:

1. Samuel Davenport, died in infancy.

2. William Howard, born September 15, 1857, [became U.S. President and Chief Justice of U.S. Supreme Court] . . .

3. Henry Waters, born May 27, 1859, in Cincinnati, Ohio. After his graduation from Yale College in the class of 1880, he studied law in Cincinnati and Columbia, and established himself in practice in New York city, being now a member of the firm of Strong & Cadwalader. One of his ablest and most important arguments recently was in the United States supreme court, where he was employed by the government to prosecute its suit against the Tobacco trust. The decision of the court was a complete triumph for principles which have far-reaching consequences. This important case is reported as Hale vs. Henkel in volume 201 of the United States Supreme Court Reports. In 1905 Mr. Taft received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Yale. He married in 1883, Julia Walbridge Smith, daughter of Hon. Levi Smith, of Troy, New York, and their children are: Marian Jennings, died in infancy; Walbridge smith, of the class of 1907 at Yale; William Howard, class of 1909 at Yale; Louise Witherbee.

4. Horace Dutton, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, December 28, 1861. He graduated from Yale College in 1883, studied law and was admitted to the bar, but decided to pursue the vocation of teaching. He was for three years a tutor of Latin in Yale College. In 1890 he established the Taft School for boys at Pelham Manor, New York, but in 1893 moved the school to Watertown, Connecticut. The school has prospered and has now about one hundred pupils. The catalogue announces that 'the object of the school is to give boys a thorough preparation for the best colleges and scientific schools, and to make them strong, healthy and manly men.' In 1893 Mr. Taft received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Yale. He married in 1891, Winifred Shepard, daughter of Mrs. Helen Bierstadt Thompson, of Niagara Falls, New York.

5. Fanny Louise, the only daughter, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 18, 1865. She was educated in Cincinnati and at Farmington, Connecticut, completing her studies abroad in music and the languages. In 1890 she became the wife of Dr. William A. Edwards, a physician and surgeon, formerly of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, now resideing in Los Angeles, California.

HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT . . . . . "

Source: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, ed., Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personl Memoirs of Worcester County Massachusetts with a History of Worcester Society of Antiquity, Vol. II, pp. 1-2 (NY Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company 1907).

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.