CINCINNATI

William Howard Taft, the 27th President of these United States, was a native Cincinnatian.  He was the son of Alphonso Taft -  a really great Cincinnatian.

Alphonso was born in Vermont in 1810.  He was a descendant of Robert Taft who had immigrated from County Louth, Ireland.

Alphonso finished high school at Amherst Academy and then went to Yale College.  He graduated in 1833 and then entered Yale Law School.  He collaborated with William Huntington Russell to form the famous secret society known as the Skull and Cross Bones in 1832.  He graduated from Yale Law in 1837 and passed the Connecticut Bar in 1838.  A year later, he and his family emigrated to Cincinnati.

Almost immediately, he was very influential in Cincinnati politics and was soon a member of City Council.  He was on the board of the University of Cincinnati Law School and Yale College.

Alphonso fathered 10 children in Cincinnati; five with one wife and, when she died, had five with his second wife.  William Howard Taft was the seventh in that line.

In 1856, Alphonso was named a delegate to the Republican National Convention.  He was a judge on the Superior Court of Cincinnati from 1866 to 1872; then resigned to go into private law practice.  He was coaxed that year into being the first president of the Cincinnati Bar Association.

In 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant named Alphonso Secretary of War and shortly after, moved him to Attorney General of the United States.  Though he lost two bids for Governor of Ohio, in later years, Alphonso was named as minister to Austria-Hungary and later to Russia by President Chester A. Arthur.

Okay, you heard of William Howard but probably not Alphonso who was the real patriarch of the powerful Taft Family in Cincinnati.  Now you know. 

Alphonso - - - - - - - - - William Howard