Description:

William Howard Taft
New Haven, CT, March 20, 1917
Former President William Howard Taft Thanks Correspondent for Genealogy
TLS
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, Typed Letter Signed, to John Phelps, March 20, 1917, New Haven, Connecticut. 1 p., 7" x 9.25".

In this brief letter, former President Taft thanks a correspondent for some genealogical information and informs him that he has sent it to his half-brother in Cincinnati. At the time, Taft was a member of the faculty of the Yale Law School, but five years later, he would be appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Taft's oldest half-brother Charles Phelps Taft (1843-1929) was a graduate of Yale College and earned a law degree from Columbia Law School. He undertook additional studies in Germany before opening a law practice in Cincinnati, Ohio. He served in the Ohio House of Representatives (1871-1873) and then purchased a Cincinnati newspaper, of which he became the editor in 1879. He represented Ohio in Congress from 1895 to 1897. In 1905, he financed the purchase of the Chicago Cubs Baseball Club, purchased it himself in 1914, and sold it to William Wrigley Jr. in 1916.

William Howard Taft's and Charles Phelps Taft's father was Alphonso Taft (1810-1891), who served briefly as Secretary of War (1876) and Attorney General (1876-1877) in the closing months of President Ulysses S. Grant's administration, then as Minister to Austria-Hungary (1882-1884) and Russia (1884-1885) in President Chester Arthur's administration.

Complete Transcript
March 20th, 1917.
My dear Mr. Phelps:
I have your letter and its enclosure, and thank you for sending them on to me. I have transmitted them to my brother, Mr. Charles P. Taft in Cincinnati, to whom Father refers. He may be interested in the genealogy, and I have asked him to acknowledge the receipt of the letter to you.
Sincerely yours,
Wm H Taft
Mr. John Phelps,
88 Main Street,
Northfield, Mass.

William Howard Taft (1857-1930) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated from Yale College in 1878. He received a bachelor of laws degree in 1880 from Cincinnati Law School. After gaining admission to the bar, Taft worked on the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper full time, covering local courts. After a brief stint as an assistant prosecutor, Taft was appointed to the Superior Court of Cincinnati in 1887. In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison appointed him as Solicitor General of the United States, a position he held until Harrison appointed him to the United States Court of Appeals, where he served from 1892 to 1900. He was Governor-General of the Philippines from 1901 to 1903, then Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt from 1904 to 1908. In 1908, he was elected President of the United States as a Republican over Democrat William Jennings Bryan. After his defeat in the three-way election of 1912, Taft joined the faculty of the Yale Law School from 1913 to 1921, when President Warren G. Harding appointed him as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, a position he held until his death nine years later.

John Phelps (1884-1957) was born in Vermont, the son of Brigadier General John W. Phelps (1813-1885). By 1900, he was living with his mother and grandparents in Northfield, Massachusetts. In 1917, he was a farmer and was married to Grace Joslin Sanbey (1875-1926).

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  • Dimensions: 7" x 9.25"
  • Medium: TLS

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