Elmer Zebley Taylor was a successful businessman and a passenger on Titanic.
Biography[]
Elmer Zebley Taylor originated from Smyrna, Kent, Delaware, USA where he was born on 13 March 1864. His father was a machinist named George Washington Taylor. His wife was Mary Elizabeth Dady. Both grew up in Delaware.
Elmer had an elder brother, Gilbert Beebe, born in 1861 and an elder sister, Evelyn who came into this world in 1862. After Elmer, 7 more siblings were conceived: They were Gove Salisbury, born in 1866, followed by Lucy in 1867. A third brother arrived in 1870 and was named Frank Jefferson. He was followed by George Dady in 1872.
One of the children lived only a year before she passed away. It was Mary, having been born in 1874, they lost her in 1875. Another girl was born in 1877, named Nellie Collins. Cyrus was the Taylor couple’s last child, she arrived in 1883.
Growing up, Elmer was school-taught and left early in 1880. He became an industrialist, finding solutions in all sorts of production processes in the paper container business. He pioneered in several machines that furthered the automation of making moisture-proof paper containers for conserving food. At some point he was a consulting engineer for the Continental Can Company of New York.
Elmer Taylor wed Juliet Cummins Wright, also from Smyrna, in 1886. The wedding was in Kent on March 24. The couple then made their home in their native town.
Together with Fletcher Lambert-Williams, Elmer was co-owner of the Mono Service Company in 1906, a firm in Newark, New Jersey that they started together, to manufactorer plastic cups. They named it Kleen Kup and with that, they were the makers of the first disposable paper containers in the world. In 1910, he was vice-president and general manager of the affiliates in London and Paris. He and his wife lived in England in those years as Mono Containers Ltd. had plants in ten countries.
Taylor made frequent business trips abroad. He and Juliet were in London during the Spring of 1912 and wanted to be back in America before the summer. They aimed to go at East Orange, New Jersey, where they usually enjoyed staying in the warmer periods.
Titanic[]
For their journey, they had to make a Trans-Atlantic crossing. It was the Titanic that they would embark on and Elmer bought tickets for First Class. In London, they took a special boat-train that would deliver them at the harbor close to where the vessel was waiting. Fletcher Lambert-Williams was also going on the ship, he met them on the journey from London to Southampton, where they arrived on April 10, the day that Titanic would commence her Maiden Voyage. Elmer was 48 years old. He and his wife had access to cabin C-126. His business partner was situated right next to them in C-128.
On April 14, late at night it was Titanic’s end of the line as she couldn’t clear an iceberg entirely. A last effort to port her around the strong obstacle resulted in a brush against her starboard side over a good length. The damage was sustained under the waterline and now the seawater could enter the ship very easily. Taylor was awakened by the impact, after which the ship came to a standstill. Moments later, Elmer and Juliet got dressed as quick as they could and went to check things out. Elmer found a piece of ice when they were on deck.
On April 15, the ship’s master had asked designer Thomas Andrews for advice. They had inspected the ship and now Andrews had only one shocking conclusion to give ot the the captain. The ship was going to sink within a few hours. The captain started the evacuation after midnight.
Meanwhile Taylor knocked on the door of his colleague to get him up but he didn’t want to believe it was worth to get out for. He was having a cigar, reading a book and a strong drink. Elmer showed him the piece of ice so he could mix it in his beverage and left with his wife. They would never hear from him again after that.
Elmer and Juliet made it off the ship safely in the second boat to be launched between 12:25 and 12:30 A.M: lifeboat 5. Taylor got in at the last moment when the boat was let down.
The Titanic plunged down and split in two, disappearing at 2:20 A.M. Mr. Taylor and his wife Juliet were now survivors of the Titanic disaster but had to wait a bit longer for rescue came. At 4:00 A.M, an old, lot smaller passengership arrived at the scene were a huge human tragedy had taken place. She picked up the survivors and the boats and brought them to New York, where she was docked on April 18.
Later life[]
The Taylor’s ended up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but some time later they resided in England. In 1914 the pair went back to East Orange in New Jersey.
Elmer survived Juliet, she was 64 when he lost her on April 23, 1927, after which he was a widow for a few years before finding a new spouse in Katherine Elizabeth Guthrie from Cleveland, Ohio.
The sinking of the Titanic didn’t scare off Mr. Taylor from crossing the Atlantic sixty times and he made two world trips, well past his pensioner’s age. He often appeared as an important guest at the London Mayfair Hotel and he had been on a large list of impressive and well-known ocean liners, including Titanic’s sistership, the Mauretania and Queen Elizabeth. His wife had gone along with him on many occasions.
In 1944, he gave an anecdote on paper about his former friend and associate Fletcher Lambert-Williams: The man had no problem to embroil himself with authorities and he selected a table at the Reception Room, where he overheard Captain Smith theorizing how Titanic would still be unsinkable if she had been cut in three parts. This would be a large contributor to the fact that Fletcher had a sacred belief in the strenght of the mighty ship.
Just before World War 2, he traveled to Russia twice for his company. He sold Mono Service Co. in 1945 to Continental Can Co., Inc, and continued to serve as a consultant engineer. That same year, he had a new wife. She was Beatrice Margaret Givens from Charleston, West Virginia. She had been widowed since 1929.
Beatrice had to be left behind alone without husband again, when Elmer Zembley Taylor passed away on May 20, 1949. He had reached a good age, 85. It is unknown but likely that he didn’t have any children from any of his marriages. He had been ill for 3 months before his death. His grave can be found at Saint Peter's Cemetery in Smyrna.
Beatrice Margaret Taylor would live on till 1971.