Dr. Edward Robeson Taylor was born at Springfield, Ill., Sept. 24, 1838. He came to California in 1862, In 1865 he graduated from the Toland Medical College. In 1872, he was admitted to the California bar. He served as dean of the Hastings College of Law. For thirty years he was Vice-President and President of the Cooper Medical College. He was one of the freeholders who framed the present San Francisco municipal charter, and at the time of his selection as Mayor, had served San Francisco and the State in many important public capacities.
Dr. Taylor’s selection gave general satisfaction. “My belief is,” said Governor Gillett in a published interview, “that Joe will make an able and trustworthy executive. It is particularly fortunate that he is identified with no factional politics and can work for a clean reorganized administration of the city government.”
“The most important feature connected with the selection,” said the Chronicle, “is the doctor’s absolute freedom from alliances with any particular interest. He is free from all entanglements, and his ability and firmness of character give assurance that his efforts will be wholly directed to bettering the condition and restoring the confidence of the community. We repeat that San Francisco owes the doctor a debt of gratitude for sinking considerations of personal comfort and devoting himself to the general welfare, and that the prosecution has acted wisely in selecting and inducing him to act.”
On the other hand, The Examiner ridiculed the selection. Labor Union party leaders of the type of P. H. McCarthy were loud in expressions of their disapproval.
Mayor Taylor, the day of his election, issued the following statement:
“I accepted this office with much reluctance, and only because I believed that any man who was requested to serve the city in this capacity in the hour of her need should heed the request, no matter what the personal sacrifice might be.
“Had any pledges been exacted of me by those who tendered the office, I would not have considered the tender for one-thousandth part of a second.
“I would not submit to any dictation in the administration of the office, nor do I believe that any one who knows me would attempt to dictate to me.