Samuel T. Taber was descended from an old New England family, whose ancestral home was in Massachusetts. His grandfather, William Taber, left the paternal homestead in early life and settled in the State of New York, purchasing a farm on Chestnut Ridge, which lies in the most fertile portion of Dutchess county. This fine property passed by inheritance to his son Thomas, the father of Samuel, who in 1828 represented the district in the XXth Congress. In the old-fashioned, roomy and comfortable farm house at Chestnut Ridge Samuel T. Taber was born, on the 13th of April 1824. He early evinced a taste for intellectual pursuits, and after completing his youthful education entered Union College, from which he graduated in 1842. His preference being for the law he passed a year in the law school at Cambridge, Mass., and afterward continued his studies for two years more, and until 1845, with a law firm in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; at the end of which period he was admitted to practice. Inheriting ample means and possessing quiet and studious tastes, he did not enter upon the active practice of his profession; but, having in the same year that he was admitted to the bar married Miss Kate Hiller, of Chautauqua county, N.Y., preferred to retire to the home farm on Chestnut Ridge, where he passed several years in agricultural pursuits. In 1856, having inherited from his mother’s family the fine estate and ancestral home of the Tituses in Queens county, he removed to Roslyn, and thenceforth was a resident of Long Island. In his new home he found himself in the midst of congenial surroundings, and seemed to enter upon a life of quiet and uninterrupted happiness. His fine farm was under a high state of cultivation, and he took constant pleasure in improving it by adding the latest inventions in agricultural machinery, and in introducing the most approved methods of using them. He was much interested in fine stock of all kinds, but especially in poultry, swine and cattle, the best strains of which he always kept. His herd of thoroughbred Durhams was the finest on the island, and year after year won the highest prize at the county fair. His cultured taste made him also an admirer of all that was beautiful in nature. Trees and flowers were especial favorites, and the ample lawns surrounding his residence were tastefully planted with choice varieties of shade and ornamental trees, while a fine conservatory attached to the house was always kept well stocked with beautiful and rare plants. He was an excellent practical botanist and an authority on the native flora of the island. His quiet and studious habits withdrew him from active public life, and he modestly shrank from assuming the leading position in politics which his ability and social standing would otherwise have given him. He was nevertheless a man of sincere and decided convictions, and never hesitated to espouse promptly and earnestly any cause that he believed just and right. He was quick to respond to calls of patriotic duty of every kind, and all legitimate schemes for public improvement or political advancement found in him an earnest advocate and a generous supporter. While Mr. Taber’s inclinations turned toward the quiet life of a country gentleman, wherein he found his greatest pleasure in the cultivation of his fertile acres and the enjoyment of the home circle, he was a man of excellent business capacity, and managed his estate and the various important interests intrusted to his care with prudence and success, evincing great natural ability for mercantile pursuits. He was in the board of directors of the Brooklyn-Bank, and also president of the North Shore Transportation Company, which latter corporation, under his careful supervision, achieved a marked success. In 1866 the Queens County Agricultural Society, which had been leading a species of nomadic life, decided to make for itself a permanent home To this end a tract of 40 acres of land donated by the town of Hempstead was accepted, and the work of planting trees, erecting buildings, and otherwise preparing the ground immediately begun. In a few years nearly thirty thousand dollars had been expended in these improvements, and the society could justly take pride in having the best arranged and most beautiful agricultural ground in the State. In this great and laborious undertaking Mr. Taber was a leading spirit, and to him more than to any other person are the people of Queens county indebted for its successful accomplishment. He was president of the society three consecutive terms, and during those years, by his energy, good judgment and generosity, converted a doubtful experiment into a permanent success, and established the society on so firm a basis that it has ever since gone prosperously onward. He was also greatly interested in the State agricultural society, and at the time of his death was one of its vice-presidents, as well as a leading manager in its affairs. Had he lived a few weeks longer, and until the annual meeting, he would probably have been elected to the presidency. On the 24th of May 1841, during Mr. Taber’s junior year in college, ten Union College men, of whom he was one of the leaders, met and founded the since well known college fraternity of Chi Psi, which now numbers twenty-three alphas or chapters, in as many of the leading colleges of America. He was honored with the highest office in the gift of this society, and always maintained a warm interest in its affairs. Mr. Taber was by birth a member of the religious society of Friends, and, although never professing to adhere in all things to the more rigid rules of the sect, was a conscientious and respected member of the society, and lived up squarely to his ideal of the highest and most advanced principles of Quakerism. While a thorough gentleman in appearance and address, he was especially plain and unassuming in all things, inheriting the Friends’ aversion to personal vanity and ostentatious display. Although generous and hospitable in a marked degree, he was conscientiously careful to waste nothing in useless luxury, and evinced through life the effect of his early Quaker training in frugality, industry and simplicity. He was a keen sportsman and loved his dog and gun, although in this, as in all other matters, he maintained a sensible moderation, and never allowed pleasure to interfere with the strict performance of duty. He used frequently to make excursions to the locality where game was found, and took great satisfaction in sharing the results of his luck and skill with his neighbors. It was during one of these gunning trips that he contracted the malady which caused his death. He, with several friends, leased a large tract of meadow and marsh land on the borders of Currituck Sound, in North Carolina, and in the autumn of each year it was his custom to spend a week or more in hunting the wild fowl that frequent these waters. It is supposed that during his last visit to the south the malaria lurking in the swampy lands of his shooting grounds poisoned his system, and thus was the indirect cause of his death, which occurred a short time after his return, and on the 4th of February 1871.
