Taylor sailed from Boston Harbor in a schooner that he purchased with a group of friends, arriving in San Francisco ten months later.

"[1] In 1853, Taylor left for Hawkins Bar, California, in Tuolumne County to prospect for gold.

Taylor married Sarah Washington Irving, raised a family of seven boys and one girl, and served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Working with other concerned citizens, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor helped stop the importation of Chinese slave girls into San Francisco.

After Samuel Taylor's death in 1886, his wife lost the paper mill and land around it in the Panic of 1893.