His other missionary work involved the establishment of self-supporting missions in various countries about the world, bringing him to England, Ireland, India, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Africa, all of which he wrote about in a number of publications.

[2][3][4] In his autobiography, Story of My Life (1896), Taylor describes his grandfather, James, as one of five brothers who were "Scotch-Irish of the Old Covenantor type" who emigrated from County Armagh, Ireland, to the colony of Virginia, about one hundred and thirty years ago" (i.e. 1766).

Due to the thousands of people flooding into California the Methodist General Conference[d] deemed it necessary to send missionaries there to provide social work and religious services.

[14][15] In October 1849 Taylor acquired a lot next to the home of Reverend Hatler on Jackson Street who invited him and advanced him the money at no interest to build his own house.

Not wanting to subject his newly wed and expecting wife to the risks of Indian attack while crossing the plains, or sailing to Panama at the risk of contracting yellow fever by crossing the Isthmus, Taylor got the last berths on the Andalusia, a ship headed for San Francisco by going around Cape Horn at the tip of South America.

About one hundred and fifty days into the voyage Taylor's wife gave birth to a daughter on June 8, 1849, who they named Oceana, while they were going around the cape, and who only lived to be about a year old.

[17][18] Their ship, Captain Wilson at the helm, had arrived in the midst of a thick fog and so he cautiously landed just north of the Golden Gate.

During the voyage they had experienced incidents of damage to the rigging and sails due to high winds, which the captain was able to remedy en route, without have to stop at any port.

Because of poor living conditions and the scarcity of good food, many took sick with scurvy, tuberculosis or Asiatic cholera, often resulting in death.

[24][e] While the building of the permanent Bethel was well in progress it was destroyed during the great San Francisco Fire of 1851, and with the prospect for it to pay off loans Taylor found himself in debt.

[40] Believing that there was much "misapprehension of the principal facts and issues of the American war" among the people of Britain, Taylor was compelled to author a 32 page royal octavo pamphlet entitled Cause and Probable Results of the Civil War in America - Facts for the People of Great Britain, which he had published in London in 1862 [41] The pamphlet was received with mixed editorial reviews among the various newspapers in England.

Taylor made no attempt to sell his pamphlet, but instead put together a long list of names of lords, ministers, and people of all classes, and sent out 11,000 copies for free distribution.

Some years later President Rutherford B. Hayes praised Taylor's effort, saying that the pamphlet was worth more to the American Union than a regiment of soldiers at the front.

[40] After further consideration Taylor set out for Australia In the spring of 1863, first making an extensive tour in Paris, Sicily and other points around the Mediterranean Sea.

[42] After a week long visit to Paris he boarded a steamer, the Massageries Imperialias, and made his way to Beirut and then Palermo, in Sicily.

[48][5] In Melbourne, Taylor raised the funding needed to build ten chapels on plots of land granted to the church by the Australian government.

He had spent a total of seven months in England and Ireland and was well received at every place he visited, but he longed to make his way for Australia and begin missionary work there.

From 1863 to 1865 the prospect of religion was little felt, mainly due to unforgiving circumstances, which included drought that had brought ruin to farmers, which in turn impacted trade.

[51] Taylor arrived in South Africa on March 30, 1866, by way of the ship the St. Vincent, having anchored in Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope.

At this time docks and a break-water were under construction in response to a gale force storm that had reeked death and destruction some eleven months prior.

In the introduction, written by Henry M. Stanley, it states, "The natives everywhere on the territories where his missionary work called him knew him as 'The Flaming Torch,' or 'Fire Stick,' as some might translate the Zulu word Isikunisivutayp.

[60][61][62] His next visit brought him to Georgetown in British Guiana, and not waiting for the scheduled steamer to bring him there, he boarded a small schooner and, enduring a 450 mile voyage over rough seas, made his way to the South American coast thusly, arriving Sunday morning.

Subsequently he felt compelled to clarify his position, leading him to author his work, entitled, Four years' campaign in India[74][71] In Bombay Taylor began a series of meetings in the city's mission chapel which was attended by various Europeans and Indo-Britons.

The first party included A. P. Stonewall, William A Wright and Ira Haynes La Fetra, a Methodist missionary and graduate of Boston University School of Theology who founded the Santiago College in Chili in 1880.

Determined, they had no other recourse but to settle for steerage passage, and each were given a blanket, and a small mattress and together they pooled their money to secure basic canned goods.

His main objective at this time, however, was not to undertake missionary work, but to secure the cooperation and support of the Protestant residents to establish a number of churches.

[83] Among the more prominent residents there at this time was Dr. David Trumbull, a Protestant missionary and founder of the Presbyterian church in Chile who gave his complete support to Taylor's efforts.

He gave them each an assignment and appointed a committee chairman who was responsible for their provisions and salary in their efforts to establishment badly needed schools.

At the World’s Congress of Religions, Taylor exclaimed that he had witnessed first hand in the Congo where women, who were too weak or ill to catch fish, or do other work, were subsequently strangled and burnt to ashes.

[97][p] At the age of seventy-five, longing to be with his family for his remaining years, Taylor was relieved of his responsibilities by the General Conference in 1896 and was replaced by Joseph C. Hartzel.