Charles Phelps Taft II

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For President Taft's brother, see Charles Phelps Taft.
Charles P. Taft II
Chas. P. Taft., son of Wm. Howard, (10-24-25) LCCN2016841215 (cropped).jpg
Taft in 1925
Mayor of Cincinnati
In office
1955–1957
Preceded byCarl W. Rich
Succeeded byDonald D. Clancy
Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney
In office
1926–1928
Preceded byCharles S. Bell
Succeeded byNelson Schwab
Personal details
Born(1897-09-20)September 20, 1897
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
DiedJune 24, 1983(1983-06-24) (aged 85)
Political partyRepublican
Charter (municipal)
SpouseEleanor Kellogg Chase Taft
Children7, including Seth Taft
Parents
EducationYale University
Yale Law School
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Branch/serviceUnited States Army
Years of service1918
Battles/warsWorld War I
Charlie with his parents and siblings (1912)

Charles Phelps Taft II (September 20, 1897 – June 24, 1983) was a U.S. Republican Party politician and member of the Taft family. From 1955 to 1957, he served as Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio. Like other members of his family, Taft was a Republican for the purposes of statewide elections. However, when running for municipal office in Cincinnati, Taft was a member of the Charter Party. During his term as mayor, Fortune magazine ranked Cincinnati as the best managed big city in the United States. As mayor, he gained the nickname "Mr. Cincinnati".

Early life

Charles Phelps Taft II was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the youngest of three children born to President William Howard Taft and First Lady Helen Herron Taft. His siblings were U.S. Senator Robert A. Taft and Bryn Mawr College professor Helen Taft Manning. He was named after his uncle, U.S. Congressman Charles Phelps Taft. Taft was only 11 years old when he moved to the White House, upon his father's election as President. During his father's tenure as Secretary of War, he was a frequent playmate of President Theodore Roosevelt's children. On the morning of May 17, 1909, the same day his mother suffered a severe stroke, he underwent a "bloody adenoid operation".[1] Taft dropped out of Yale University in order to serve in the United States Army during World War I and later returned to graduate in 1918, and then earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 1921. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi and a 1918 initiate into the Skull and Bones student society.[2]

Marriage

Taft married Eleanor Kellogg Chase on October 6, 1917, in Waterbury, Connecticut. His wife's father ran the Waterbury Clock Company. They had 7 children:

  • Eleanor Kellogg Hall (Taft) (September 16, 1918 – June 28, 2004)
  • Sylvia Howard Lotspeich (Taft) (August 7, 1920 – June 26, 2008)
  • Seth Taft (December 31, 1922 – April 14, 2013)
  • Lucia Chase Taft (June 6, 1924 – October 29, 1955)
  • Cynthia Herron Taft Manning (April 28, 1928 – July 16, 2013)
  • Rosalyn Rawson Taft (January 7, 1930 – September 4, 1941)
  • Peter Rawson Taft III (1936).[citation needed]

Rosalyn died from polio and Lucia committed suicide.[3][4]

Career

Upon graduation from law school, Taft practiced law and became active in Cincinnati local politics. In 1925, he helped introduce the home-rule charter under which Cincinnati became the first major city in the United States to adopt the city manager form of government. Later that year, he became the youngest President of the International YMCA.[5] In 1926, he and his brother Robert A. Taft helped form the Cincinnati law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister. From 1927 to 1928, he served as Hamilton County Prosecutor. He served on the Cincinnati City Council three times, from 1938 to 1942, from 1948 to 1951, and from 1955 to 1977. During World War II, he served as Director of U.S. Community War Service at the Federal Security Agency and later as Director of Economic Affairs at the State Department, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. From 1947 to 1948, he served as the first layman President of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. In the 1952 election, he ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Ohio, losing to incumbent Frank Lausche.

Personal interests

He was an avid fan of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team and sometimes listened to games on the radio with an earplug during city council meetings. In addition, he was an avid fisherman whose trademark was a canoe tied to his car in anticipation of his next fishing trip. When he died, the epitaph "Gone fishing" was inscribed on his grave at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.

In his later years he spent much time preserving his father's childhood home, which became the William Howard Taft National Historic Site.

Notes

  1. ^ "President William Taft: Health and Medical History".
  2. ^ "CHARLES P.TAFT, 2D TO WED MISS CHASE; Ex-President's Younger Son Engaged to Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Irving Chase. HE IS A JUNIOR AT YALE Football Player and Winner of Gordon Brown Prize Is Enlisted as Artilleryman in U.S. Army". The New York Times. Jul 4, 1917.
  3. ^ "Rosalyn Taft Victim of Infantile Paralysis". The Minneapolis Star. International News Service. September 5, 1941. p. 2. Retrieved June 20, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "A Niece of Senator Taft Kills Herself". Des Moines Sunday Register. Associated Press. October 30, 1955. p. 1. Retrieved June 20, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Treaster, Joseph B. (1983-06-25). "Charles P. Taft, Former Mayor of Cincinnati". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-03-13.

References

  • Degregorio, William A., The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Barricade Books, 1997
  • Wead, Doug, All the President's Children, Atria Books, 2003

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles Phelps Taft II.
Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio
1955-1957 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Republican Party nominee for Governor of Ohio
1952 		Succeeded by
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