Ink-Slinger Profiles: Roy W. Taylor

Roy W. Taylor was born in Indiana in November 1876, according to the 1900 U.S. Federal Census. In the 1880 census, Taylor was the youngest of two children born to William and Mary. The family lived in Richmond, Indiana at 32 South Sixth Street.

He illustrated Strickland W. Gillilan’s Finnigin to Flannigan: An Irish Dialect Story in Verse (Richmond, Ind., Nicholson Printing and Mfg. Co., 1898).

Taylor lived in Chicago, Illinois at 242 West 66th Street when the 1900 census was taken. His occupation was newspaper artist. Many of his comics are mentioned at Hoosier Cartoonists, and Lambiek.

He has not been found in the 1910 census. Taylor passed away on October 21, 1914, in Washington, D.C. The Washington Herald reported his death on October 22.

Comes Home to Die
Funeral Services for Roy W. Taylor Will Be Held Today

Roy W. Taylor, cartoonist, who died of Bright’s disease yesterday at the home of his mother, Mrs. A.L. Marshall, 723 Third street northwest, will be buried in Richmond, Ind. The body will be sent to that place following funeral services here this afternoon at 5 o’clock.

Mr. Taylor was employed on the Philadelphia North American at the time of his death, and previously had been on the staff of the New York World and of the Chicago Sunday Tribune, drawing for the Sunday comic sections which give pleasure to thousands of children. He came to Washington some weeks ago feeling that he was growing weaker gradually and had not much longer to live. He was thirty-six years old.