Louis Denison (L.D.) Taylor (1857-1946) served eight terms as Mayor of Vancouver. He was elected to office in 1911, 1915, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1930 and 1932, and held the position for a total of eleven years.
L.D. was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Gustavus and Amy (nee Denison) Taylor ([1822]-1904). He had one sibling, Kate ([1850]-1931), who married Eugene Cooley (1849-1938) in 1871, and moved to Lansing, Michigan in 1872. Amy Taylor later joined her daughter in Lansing.
After graduating from high school, and working in various positions in Ann Arbor, L.D. Taylor moved to Chicago in 1891 to work for the Wabash Railroad. In Chicago, he met Annie Louise Pierce ([1867]-1928), the daughter of architect and American Civil War veteran Osborne J. Pierce ([18--]- 1912) and his wife Caroline ([1847]-1936). The Pierce s had another daughter, Winifred ([1872]-1919), a school teacher. Annie and L.D. were married on May 26, 1892.
In August 1896, L.D. was arrested for charges of embezzlement relating to his partnership in the North and Taylor Bank on West Madison Avenue in Chicago, and fled north to Canada. He arrived in Vancouver, on September 8, 1896.
Shortly after L.D. s departure, Annie gave birth to their first child, Theodore (Ted) Pierce Taylor (1896-1963). Annie and Ted did not join L.D. in Vancouver until 1901, when L.D. was managing the Circulation Department of the Daily Province. The following year, a second son, Kenneth (Ken) (1902-[19--]) was born.
In 1905, L.D. purchased The Vancouver Daily World newspaper. Although he lost the paper due to financial difficulties in 1915, he continued to publish various political and mining-related newspapers until the late 1930s.
In 1906, L.D. and Annie separated and she and the children went to live with Osborne and Caroline, who had moved to Los Angeles. They formally divorced in 1916, and L.D. married Alice Helena Berry ([1871]-1919), former Managing Director of The World. After Alice s death, L.D. never re-married.
Following in their father s footsteps, Ted and Ken both entered the newspaper/press business in Los Angeles. In the early 1920s, Ken was an editor at the Los Angeles Times. Ted was working for the Los Angeles Record and was a partner in the Los Angeles Press Service. Prior to that, he had also worked for the Times and had been a Hollywood press agent for a few years. After a brief marriage to Ruth Wing, Ted left for Paris in 1925, where he married Mary Beaton ([1906]-1925), daughter of Octavia Beaton (d. 1946), and worked for the Paris Times. Later that year, Ted and Mary had a daughter, Mary Louise (1925-[199-?]). Mary passed away as a result of complications during childbirth. Ted moved back to California with Mary Louise in 1928 and continued working as a journalist in Hollywood and Los Angeles. Mary Louise Taylor had a daughter and two sons, including Roy Denison Werbel.
During the Second World War, Ken was stationed at Camp Santa Anita in Arcadia California and Fort Lewis, Washington and worked on the camp newspapers. After the war, he continued his career as a journalist and lived in Seattle for a period of time.