Charles R. Taggart(1871-1953)
- Writer
Charles Ross Taggart was born in Washington, D.C.
His mother, Emily Divoll Taggart, was a missionary working in the
Freedman's Bureau in Washington. His father, John Nelson Taggart, was
from Pennsylvania, a Union soldier during the Civil War, and a postal
clerk. He died 5 months before Taggart was born. At the age of 2, he
and his mother relocated to Topsham, Vermont, where she had grown up
and her parents still lived. Charles Ross Taggart was educated at a
local district school, going on to the Mt. Hermon School for Boys in
Northfield, Massachusetts, and later the Emerson School of Oratory and
the New England Conservatory of Music, both in Boston, MA.
From the time he was eight years old, he took music lessons, first on
his mother's melodian, then on piano, with formal piano lessons in
Montpelier, VT.
In Topsham, Taggart taught the district school, the local singing
school, as well as doing some clock tinkering, store clerking, and
worked in the railroad express office in Bradford. He also traveled all
over his locale with horse and buggy as a music teacher.
In 1895, he had been inspired by a traveling performer to start
performing himself, which he did for the first time on October 8th,
1895, at the Topsham Town Hall. Taggart would, for the next 43 years,
travel all over the United States and parts of Canada as a one-man
musical humorist and entertainer, playing the fiddle, piano, doing
monologues, violin mimicry, ventriloquism, and various stunts.
He would be in over 400 Chautauqua and Lyceum circuits, including the
famous Redpath Chautauqua Bureau of Chicago, IL, where he was
associated for over 25 years. In one of his publicity brochures from
the 1920's, it was claimed that Taggart had given over 4,000
presentations, covering 44 of the 48 states in the Union at that time.
One of Taggart's best known and best loved characters was "The Old
Country Fiddler."
As his early traveling was done primarily by train, Taggart moved from
Topsham to Newbury in 1907, purchasing a home he named Elmbank, which
just overlooked the local railroad depot.
His credits include over 40 records for the Victor, Edison, Brunswick
and Columbia companies. In 1923, Taggart appeared in a Lee DeForest
Phono-Film, one of the earliest "talkies," entitled, "The Old Country
Fiddler at the Singing School," one of Taggart's Old Country Fiddler
routines. This was 4 years before Al Jolson appeared in "The Jazz
Singer," which is often incorrectly called the first talking movie.
Though he was primarily a one-man act, for a short while in the mid
1920's, Taggart was teamed up with 2 other fiddlers, and became "The
Old Country Fiddler and his Fiddlers' Three." He also did one
Chautauqua circuit in western New York state with his youngest
daughter, Elizabeth, after her graduation from Grinnell College in
Iowa, c. 1928.
In 1937, during a performance, Taggart suffered a stroke, which, at the
time, the audience simply assumed was part of the act. Unfortunately,
the affliction was real. Taggart, in his resourceful Yankee way, simply
reworked his program and continued for a short while afterward, playing
one-handed piano pieces and strapping his fiddle bow to his right hand
with a loose rubber band .
In 1938, Taggart would officially retire, later selling his beloved
home, Elmbank, and he and his wife, Edna, relocated to North Carolina
to live with their eldest daughter and her family. He still continued
to do some performing once in a while, mostly for free, or for an
occasional meal.
The family moved around the country, as the Taggart's son-in-law was a
fisheries biologist who stocked trout ponds all over the U.S.
Mrs.Taggart died in College Station, TX in 1950.
Mr. Taggart wanted to relocate back to New England, and so in the
spring of 1952, the family headed from College Station, TX towards
Kents Hill (Town of Readfield), ME, where his youngest grandson and
namesake, Charles Ross Chamberlain, was to be enrolled in the Kents
Hill School. For a short time, the family stayed with friends in the
Lebanon, NH area, and Taggart did some touring around up in his old
haunts of Topsham and Newbury. It would be the last time Mr. Taggart
would ever see Vermont.
Arriving in Kents Hill, ME by September of 1952, Taggart would
experience the last 10 months of his life. His mind and body began to
diminish. In early 1953, his left leg was amputated above the knee, but
he managed to write about the experience to his former school at MT
Hermon, an institution he kept in constant contact with for all of his
life, occasionally giving them benefit performances. Charles Ross
Taggart died on the 4th of July, 1953. A simple grass marker in the
Readfield Corner Cemetery has been the only testament to him, with only
his name and years of existence, with no mention of his contribution to
our cultural past.
In 2011, a Vermont State Historic Roadside marker is to be erected in
Newbury, VT, next to his former home, Elmbank, as well as a bronze
plaque on the Topsham Town Hall, where he gave his first performance on
October 8th, 1895.
His mother, Emily Divoll Taggart, was a missionary working in the
Freedman's Bureau in Washington. His father, John Nelson Taggart, was
from Pennsylvania, a Union soldier during the Civil War, and a postal
clerk. He died 5 months before Taggart was born. At the age of 2, he
and his mother relocated to Topsham, Vermont, where she had grown up
and her parents still lived. Charles Ross Taggart was educated at a
local district school, going on to the Mt. Hermon School for Boys in
Northfield, Massachusetts, and later the Emerson School of Oratory and
the New England Conservatory of Music, both in Boston, MA.
From the time he was eight years old, he took music lessons, first on
his mother's melodian, then on piano, with formal piano lessons in
Montpelier, VT.
In Topsham, Taggart taught the district school, the local singing
school, as well as doing some clock tinkering, store clerking, and
worked in the railroad express office in Bradford. He also traveled all
over his locale with horse and buggy as a music teacher.
In 1895, he had been inspired by a traveling performer to start
performing himself, which he did for the first time on October 8th,
1895, at the Topsham Town Hall. Taggart would, for the next 43 years,
travel all over the United States and parts of Canada as a one-man
musical humorist and entertainer, playing the fiddle, piano, doing
monologues, violin mimicry, ventriloquism, and various stunts.
He would be in over 400 Chautauqua and Lyceum circuits, including the
famous Redpath Chautauqua Bureau of Chicago, IL, where he was
associated for over 25 years. In one of his publicity brochures from
the 1920's, it was claimed that Taggart had given over 4,000
presentations, covering 44 of the 48 states in the Union at that time.
One of Taggart's best known and best loved characters was "The Old
Country Fiddler."
As his early traveling was done primarily by train, Taggart moved from
Topsham to Newbury in 1907, purchasing a home he named Elmbank, which
just overlooked the local railroad depot.
His credits include over 40 records for the Victor, Edison, Brunswick
and Columbia companies. In 1923, Taggart appeared in a Lee DeForest
Phono-Film, one of the earliest "talkies," entitled, "The Old Country
Fiddler at the Singing School," one of Taggart's Old Country Fiddler
routines. This was 4 years before Al Jolson appeared in "The Jazz
Singer," which is often incorrectly called the first talking movie.
Though he was primarily a one-man act, for a short while in the mid
1920's, Taggart was teamed up with 2 other fiddlers, and became "The
Old Country Fiddler and his Fiddlers' Three." He also did one
Chautauqua circuit in western New York state with his youngest
daughter, Elizabeth, after her graduation from Grinnell College in
Iowa, c. 1928.
In 1937, during a performance, Taggart suffered a stroke, which, at the
time, the audience simply assumed was part of the act. Unfortunately,
the affliction was real. Taggart, in his resourceful Yankee way, simply
reworked his program and continued for a short while afterward, playing
one-handed piano pieces and strapping his fiddle bow to his right hand
with a loose rubber band .
In 1938, Taggart would officially retire, later selling his beloved
home, Elmbank, and he and his wife, Edna, relocated to North Carolina
to live with their eldest daughter and her family. He still continued
to do some performing once in a while, mostly for free, or for an
occasional meal.
The family moved around the country, as the Taggart's son-in-law was a
fisheries biologist who stocked trout ponds all over the U.S.
Mrs.Taggart died in College Station, TX in 1950.
Mr. Taggart wanted to relocate back to New England, and so in the
spring of 1952, the family headed from College Station, TX towards
Kents Hill (Town of Readfield), ME, where his youngest grandson and
namesake, Charles Ross Chamberlain, was to be enrolled in the Kents
Hill School. For a short time, the family stayed with friends in the
Lebanon, NH area, and Taggart did some touring around up in his old
haunts of Topsham and Newbury. It would be the last time Mr. Taggart
would ever see Vermont.
Arriving in Kents Hill, ME by September of 1952, Taggart would
experience the last 10 months of his life. His mind and body began to
diminish. In early 1953, his left leg was amputated above the knee, but
he managed to write about the experience to his former school at MT
Hermon, an institution he kept in constant contact with for all of his
life, occasionally giving them benefit performances. Charles Ross
Taggart died on the 4th of July, 1953. A simple grass marker in the
Readfield Corner Cemetery has been the only testament to him, with only
his name and years of existence, with no mention of his contribution to
our cultural past.
In 2011, a Vermont State Historic Roadside marker is to be erected in
Newbury, VT, next to his former home, Elmbank, as well as a bronze
plaque on the Topsham Town Hall, where he gave his first performance on
October 8th, 1895.