Quick Facts
Biography
Charles Phelps Taft (December 21, 1843 – December 31, 1929) was an American lawyer and politician.
Biography
He was born on December 21, 1843 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Alphonso Taft, and his younger brother was William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States and 10th Chief Justice of the United States.
He graduated from Yale University in 1864, 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.
Taft married Anna Sinton in 1873, who was an heiress to a pig iron fortune, left by her father David Sinton. Together with her husband she began an art collection which she opened to the public from their home. Today their former home is the Taft Museum of Art.
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 Philadelphia Phillies baseball team from 1905 to 1913, and then the Chicago Cubs baseball team from 1914 to 1916.
He died on December 31, 1929.
Legacy
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 city of Taft, Texas was named after him in 1904.