Edward Robeson Taylor

Edward Robeson Taylor (September 24, 1838 – July 5, 1923) was the 28th Mayor of San Francisco, serving from July 16, 1907, to January 7, 1910.

Early life Edward Robeson Taylor was born on September 24, 1838, in Springfield, Illinois, the only son of Henry West Taylor and the former Mary Thaw of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (he was descended on his mother's side from the early colonial merchant, Andrew Robeson, of Philadelphia). He eventually moved to California to escape the Civil War.

Taylor was a lawyer, a doctor, and a poet. He served as dean of Hastings College of the Law, co-founded a medical college, and founded the Book Club of California. The political economist Henry George credits Taylor for influencing his work Progress and Poverty (1879), one of the most popular and influential books in American history. In September 1925, the name of Portola Elementary School in San Francisco was changed to Edward Robeson Taylor Elementary School to honor him. As of 1926, Taylor was distinguished as one of only two politicians in California state history to be both a medical doctor and an attorney-at-law, the other being William J. Gavigan.