Alphonso Taft (November 5, 1810 – May 21, 1891) was the Attorney General and Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant and the founder of an American political dynasty.
Born in Townshend, Vermont, the son of Peter Rawson Taft, he graduated from Yale College in 1833, where he also was a tutor. At Yale, he and his classmate William Huntington Russell cofounded Skull and Bones, the preeminent undergraduate club. He subsequently studied law a...
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Alphonso Taft (November 5, 1810 – May 21, 1891) was the Attorney General and Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant and the founder of an American political dynasty.
Born in Townshend, Vermont, the son of Peter Rawson Taft, he graduated from Yale College in 1833, where he also was a tutor. At Yale, he and his classmate William Huntington Russell cofounded Skull and Bones, the preeminent undergraduate club. He subsequently studied law at the Yale Law School, was admitted to the Connecticut bar in 1838, moved to Cincinnati in 1839 where he was a member of the Cincinnati City Council, and became one of the most influential citizens of Ohio. He was a member of the boards of trustees of the University of Cincinnati and of Yale College.
He made an unsuccessful run for the United States House of Representatives in 1856. He was a judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati from 1866 to 1872. He was the first president of the Cincinnati Bar Association, serving in 1872. At a famous...
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