Charles Sabin Taft (1835 - 1900)

Born 30 Aug 1835 in Lyons, Wayne, New York, United States

Ancestors

Died 18 Dec 1900 at age 65 in Mount Vernon, Westchester, New York, United States

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Biography

Charles Taft is Notable.

Charles was born in 1835. He was the son of Horatio Taft and Lorinda Sylvester.

Charles served in the Civil War as a surgeon.

On 14 Apr 1865, Charles attended a performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC, because he wanted to see President Lincoln who was in attendance that night. He accompanied Mrs. Ann Wright, whose husband was the theater's stage manager. During the second scene of the third act, the sharp report of a pistol rang through the house.

According to the Doctor's own words, after some moments of pandemonium and confusion, “I leaped from the top of the orchestra railing in front of me upon the stage, and, announcing myself as an army surgeon, was immediately lifted up to the President’s box by several gentlemen who had collected beneath.” He helped to diagnose the wound, declared to be mortal, and assisted in carrying Mr. Lincoln to a back room in a boardinghouse across the street. Through the remainder of the night, in a small room filled with cabinet officers, Lincoln’s wife and son, and physicians, Dr. Taft assisted with various medical procedures.

After the War, Dr. Taft continued to serve as an Army surgeon at posts in the South through 1876. He then established a private medical practice in New York City. In retirement, he relocated with his wife and daughter to Westchester County where he owned a home on South 7th Avenue in Nt. Vernon.

He attended the First Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon and was active in the local Farnsworth Post of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Dr. Taft died of throat cancer in his Westchester County home on 18 Dec 1900. He was the city cemetery section of St. Paul’s Graveyard.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSP7-MT1 : accessed 9 October 2020), Charles S Taft, Mt. Vernon City, Westchester, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 83, sheet 4B, family 81, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,175.

• Wikipedia: Charles Sabin Taft

• Find A Grave: Charles Sabin Taft