Charles Phelps Taft

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Charles Phelps Taft

Charles Phelps Taft (December 21, 1843 - December 31, 1929) was an American lawyer and politician. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the powerful Taft family, whose members had been in politics since at least 1815, he graduated from Yale University in 1864, where in 1883 he supported the founding of Wolf's Head Society, and from Columbia University's law department in 1866. In 1867 he received another degree from the University of Heidelberg. In 1869 he resumed his law practice and then in 1879 he became editor of the Cincinnati Times-Star, which would later be bought by the Cincinnati Post. This began the Taft media empire which was his main claim to fame. In 1895 he went to Congress, but served only two years. He returned to the newspaper business after that and for a time owned the Chicago Cubs baseball team from 1914-1916.

He was the uncle, or half-uncle, of Charles Phelps Taft II, as President William Howard Taft was his half-brother. He married Anna Sinton in 1873, who was an heiress to a pig iron fortune, left by her father David Sinton.

Following his death, Annie (Anna) Sinton Taft donated $5 million to the University of Cincinnati in 1930 and established a memorial fund after his name. This fund was transformed in 2005 into the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center at the University of Cincinnati. The town of Taft, Texas was named after him in 1904.^[1]