Ezra W. Taft

Ezra W. Taft (August 26, 1800 – February 8, 1885)[1] was a politician and businessman from Dedham, Massachusetts.

[4] 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.

[4] He lived to witness the development of the new woolen mill, described as one of the wonders of the nineteenth century.

[4] In 1864, Mr Taft retired from manufacturing and after that time devoted himself almost continuously to the business of the Town of Dedham.

'"[5] However, a correspondant to the Boston Globe wrote that "Mr. Taft's weakness, it is said, is a hallucination that he officially owns the town, and he therefor has no delicacy about altering the sense of a petition, it is asserted, signed by tax-payers for insertion in a town meeting warrant.

[4] On September 8, 1830, Taft married Lendamine Draper, the eldest daughter of Calvin Guild of Dedham.