Ezra W. Taft (August 26, 1800 – February 8, 1885) was a politician from

Dedham, Massachusetts Dedham ( ) is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 25,364 at the 2020 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest b ...

. He represented the Massachusetts House of Representatives' 1st Norfolk district in the

Great and General Court The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ...

. Taft was born to Frederick and Abigail Wood Taft in

Uxbridge, Massachusetts Uxbridge is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts first colonized in 1662 and incorporated in 1727. It was originally part of the town of Mendon, MA, Mendon, and named for the Marquess of Anglesey, Earl of Uxbridge. The town is located south ...

on August 26, 1800. Early in life he commenced that business activity which became characteristic of the man. He moved to Dedham in 1815 and went to work with Frederick A Taft who started the Dedham Manufacturing Company. He remained in Dedham until 1820. In that year, then only twenty years of age, he went to the neighboring town of Walpole where he hired a little mill and made forty thousand yards of

negro cloth Negro cloth or Lowell cloth was a coarse and strong cloth used for slaves' clothing in the West Indies and the Southern Colonies. The cloth was imported from Europe (primarily Wales) in the 18th and 19th centuries. The name ''Lowell cloth'' came ...

for the Southern trade. In 1823, he went to Dover, New Hampshire and assisted in starting the Cocheco Mill, one of the largest cotton mills in New England. He remained three years as overseer. In 1826, he returned to Dedham and took the agency of the Dedham Manufacturing Company, a position he retained six years. In 1832, Taft severed his connection with this company and assumed the agency of the Norfolk Manufacturing Company at East Dedham where he built the stone mill still standing. He remained in this connection thirty years. At the time Taft first identified himself with the manufacturing business, all yarn was spun at the mills and sent out through the country to be woven. He lived to witness the development of the new woolen mill, described as one of the wonders of the nineteenth century. In 1864, Mr Taft retired from manufacturing and after that time devoted himself almost continuously to the business of the Town of Dedham. For more thirty years he was a member of the school committee. For thirty one years he was a director of the Dedham Bank, including as president beginning in 1873. He was connected with the Dedham Institution for Savings since its organization and was on the investment committee. He was also a member of the Norfolk Insurance Company and a director in the Dedham Mutual Insurance Company. He was for fourteen successive years a Dedham selectmen, during twelve of which he was chairman of the board. He also represented Dedham for four years in the Legislature besides filling many other positions of honor and trust. It was said that no citizen of the town of Dedham had been so continuously connected with bank and town business as Taft. Taft was a member of the Orthodox Church in Dedham and a Republican. On September 8, 1830, Taft married Lendamine Draper, the eldest daughter of Calvin Guild of Dedham. Their family consisted of six children.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Taft, Ezra W. 1800 births 1885 deaths Members of the Massachusetts General Court Dedham, Massachusetts selectmen Businesspeople from Dedham, Massachusetts People from Uxbridge, Massachusetts