W. S. Taylor
was born in Butler County, Kentucky on October 10, 1853. However, having
no formal education until the age of fifteen, he became a successful attorney.
Taylor was elected Butler County Clerk and later served two terms as county
judge. In 1884, he joined the Republican party and soon began to attend
national conventions and serve on state committees. When William O. Bradley
won the campaign for Governor in 1895, Taylor was elected attorney general.
Four years later, he took the party's nomination for governor and opposed
William Goebel in one of the most bitter campaigns in Kentucky history.Taylor served as Governor from December 12, 1899 until January 31, 1900. The General Assembly challenged Taylor's victory. A group of armed Republicans from eastern Kentucky came to Frankfort to prevent, what they thought was a Democratic plan to take the governorship from Taylor. On the morning of January 30, 1900 Goebel was critically wounded by a rifle shot as he approached the capitol. Goebel was taken to the Capital Hotel, where he died four days later. Taylor, indicted as an accessory to murder, fled to Indianapolis. Never extradited, Taylor stayed in Indiana, returning to Kentucky only rarely. There he became a successful insurance executive. In 1909, he was pardoned by then Governor Augustus Willson. Taylor died in Indiana on August 2, 1928 and was buried in Indianapolis.
![[Image]](pict1.jpg)