Looking East at Taylor
Residence
photo credit: detail of Carl &
Mary Jane Defilippi Collection
This is the Taylor Residence, built after
the death
of A.N. Taylor.
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1902: Popular Sheriff Buys A.N. Taylor Residence
William B. Clarke,
sheriff of McKean County,
was born in Westbrooke, Conn., in 1845, and when he was two years of age his
father moved to New York City. He was educated in the high schools of
that city, from which he subsequently graduated.
When about eighteen years of age he entered the employ of Jacob Lorillard, the
celebrated tobacconist, for whom he worked for four years. The Lorillard
establishment employed over 600 men at that time, and Mr. Clarke was the principal
bookkeeper, having also entire charge of the internal revenue branch of the
business. There was a heavy tax on tobacco in those war times, and thousands
of dollars of internal revenue tax was paid monthly by this one establishment.
Mr. Clarke had the confidence of his employer to such an extent that very few
men possess before the age of twenty-one years, and he has in his possession
a letter of recommendation from Jacob Lorrilard which he values very highly.
In 1866, at the instance of a brother-in-law, who owned a majority of the stock
of the Home Petroleum Company, he visited Oil Creek, the valley of which was
then booming as an oil territory. This company owned the Blood farm, which
was then a fine producing territory, and Mr. Clarke was induced to take the
position of assistant superintendent, and was given considerable charge of the
property. He remained in the employ of the company nearly nine years,
during five of which he lived at Titusville. He came to McKean County
in 1875, locating at Tarport, and for four years had charge of the oil properties
of Col. A.I. Wilcox. For a long time he was in the employ of his father-in-law,
Fredrick Crocker, whose producing interests were very large, and during a portion
of the time he superintended the extensive coal business of Sheriff Bannon.
In January, 1884, he was appointed the principal deputy sheriff under Sheriff
Bannon, and in 1887 was elected to the office of sheriff, proving himself one
of the most popular officials of the county. He was married in 1876 to
Edna Crocker, daughter of Fredrick Crocker, and they have one son. Mr.
Clarke has taken the thirty-second degree in Freemasonry and is a member of
the consistory at Bloomsburg; is also a member of the Knights of Pythias.
taken from: The History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron and
Potter, Pennsylvania ©1890
