WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

William Howard Taft was born on September 15, 1857, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Taft grew up in a Unitarian household with five siblings, including two half-brothers from his father’s first marriage and two brothers and a sister with whom he shared a mother. His father, Alphonso Taft, was the Secretary of War and Attorney General under President Ulysses Grant. Alphonso was later appointed to be the U.S. ambassador to Austria-Hungary and Russia by President Chester Arthur. Alphonso also served as a judge for some time. Taft’s mother, Louisa Maria Torrey Taft, was encouraged by Alphonso to pursue her own independent intellectual activities and organized a statewide kindergarten movement, art association, book clubs, and German and French language clubs.

Taft graduated from Woodward High School in Cincinnati before enrolling at Yale College in 1874. At Yale, he competed as an intramural heavyweight wrestling champion and became a member of Skull and Bones, a secret society co-founded by his father. In 1878, Taft graduated second in his class from Yale. Taft then attended the Cincinnati Law School, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1880. While in law school, he worked for The Cincinnati Commercial newspaper, where he was given the assignment of covering the local courts. Shortly before he graduated from law school, Taft passed the bar exam in Columbus, Ohio.

Taft met his wife, Helen “Nellie” Herron by 1880. After an initial rejection, Nellie agreed to marry Taft in 1885. Together they had three children.