James Alfred TAYLOR, Congress, WV (1878-1956)

TAYLOR, James Alfred, a Representative from West Virginia; born near Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio, September 25, 1878; attended the public schools; employed in a printing office in Ironton, Ohio; moved to Alderson, W.Va., and engaged in the newspaper business; moved from Greenbrier County to Fayette County in 1905; served as a noncommissioned officer in the West Virginia National Guard 1908-1911; member of the State house of representatives 1916-1918, 1920-1922, 1930-1932, and 1936-1938, serving as speaker 1930-1932; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-eighth and Sixty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1923-March 3, 1927); was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1926 to the Seventieth Congress; resumed the newspaper publishing business; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the gubernatorial nomination in 1928; served as secretary of the West Virginia Liquor Commission 1941-1945; elected a member of the Fayette County Board of Education in 1946 for a six-year term; died in Montgomery, W.Va., on June 9, 1956; interment in Huse Memorial Park, Fayetteville, W.Va.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present