Taylor, Texas (Unnamed Copywriting)

Taylor, Texas is a town started by business, supported by business, and a town that created its own monumental Texas businesses afterward. The town was born solely by the Texas Land Company, the state’s largest company at the time, and went on to create the state’s first large savings and loan company.

In 1876, it was known to the Texas Land Company that the International-Great Northern Railroad was planning on building a new line through what would now be Taylor. In anticipation of the arrival of the railroad, the company split its land in the area into lots and auctioned them off.

The lots were largely bought by railroad executives, and they created a town. The town was named after a railroad executive named Edward Moses Taylor. Initially, it was named Taylorsville, but the name was shortened to Taylor when the town was officially incorporated in 1882.

Originally, the town was settled by Czechoslovakian and other Slavic immigrants, and later also attracted numerous immigrants from Germany and Austria. These immigrants found success when the railroad line was finally built through the town. It became a busy shipping point on the railroad for cattle, grain, and cotton.

The town grew very quickly, based on the success of its shipping business. By 1878, the town had over 1,000 residents, and over 32 businesses. It was a thriving frontier town, full of individual success. However, 20 of the local businesses were ruined in a fire that consumed the town in 1879. The future looked bleak for the town, until, in 1882, the Taylor, Bastrop and Houston Railroad brought a second railroad line through the town.

Having two separate railroad lines run through the town made it easy to rebuild, as there was now a need for not only a shipping industry in the town, but now also a need for a machine shop industry and a roundhouse to service both lines. The majority of the businesses that were destroyed in the fire were rebuilt by 1890, and the economy of the town was again thriving. The town opened the state’s first savings and loan to handle the economy of the bustling town.

Taylor remained an economic powerhouse throughout the end of the century and attracted such novel new business as an electric company, a cotton compress, and many different newspapers. It grew throughout the turn of the century, until larger neighboring towns, such as Austin began to eclipse it, and started to steal new businesses away from it. By the last census, the town had grown to a level of over 13,000 residents.