William S. Taylor

William Sylvester Taylor (October 10, 1853 – August 2, 1928) was the 33rd Governor of Kentucky. He was initially declared the winner of the disputed gubernatorial election of 1899, but the Kentucky General Assembly, dominated by the Democrats, reversed the election results, giving the victory to his Democratic Party (United States) opponent, William Goebel. Taylor served only 50 days as governor.

A poorly educated but politically astute lawyer, Taylor began climbing the political ladder by holding local offices in his native Butler County. Though he was a Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic state, divisions in the majority party resulted in his election as Attorney General of Kentucky on a ticket with the Commonwealth's first Republican governor, William O. Bradley. Four years later, Taylor was elected in 1899 to the governorship.

When the General Assembly reversed the election results after a dispute, incensed Republicans armed themselves and descended on Frankfort. Taylor's Democratic opponent, William Goebel, was shot and died after being sworn in on his deathbed. Taylor exhausted his finances in a legal battle with Goebel's running mate J. C. W. Beckham over the governorship. Taylor ultimately lost the battle, and was implicated in Goebel's assassination. He fled to neighboring Indiana. Despite eventually being pardoned for any wrongdoing, he seldom returned to Kentucky. Taylor died in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1928.

William S. Taylor (politician)

William S. Taylor (1795–1869) was an American politician that served in the Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas State Legislatures, and was Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives briefly in the Seventh Texas Legislature. Taylor, at 62, is the oldest person to assume the office of Speaker of the Texas House.

Taylor was born in Georgia in late 1795. After moving to Alabama, Taylor enlisted and fought in the First and Second Seminole Wars, serving as a captain in the latter. He was appointed brigadier general of the Alabama State Militia in 1841, and thereafter was always known as General William S. Taylor.

From 1836 to 1842, Taylor represented Fayette County, Alabama, in the Alabama Legislature in the Fifteenth through the Twenty-first, and Twenty-third Alabama Legislatures. By 1844, Taylor had moved to Tippah County, Mississippi where he served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives. In April 1847, Taylor and family moved to Larissa, Texas (ten miles northeast of Rusk) in Cherokee County. In 1855, Taylor was elected to the Sixth Texas Legislature for the first of two terms to the Texas House of Representatives, where he represented Cherokee and Anderson counties.

William Taylor

William Taylor may refer to:

Military

Political figures

Australasia