Edward Neufville Tailer who was a New York merchant and banker, and a prominent member of New York Society during the Gilded Age.
Early life
Tailer was born on July 20, 1830 in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. He was the son of New York merchant Edward Neufville Tailer and Ann Amelia Tailer. His younger brothers included lawyer Henry Austin Tailer, who was born in 1833, and William Hallett Tailer, who was born in 1842. His father "retired with a fortune in 1837." His grandfather was Edward Neufville Tailer, Sr. and they were all descendants of Sir William Tailer, a colonial governor of Massachusetts. Tailer was educated at the well known "Penquest's French school" located on Bank street.
Career
In December 1848, he began his career with the firm of Little, Alden & Co. on Broad Street. In the early part of his career, he was associated with the firms of W. & S. Phipps & Co. of Boston and New York as well as Fanshaw, Milliken & Townsend, Reimer & Meche, and Sturges, Shaw & Co., as a buyer and salesman. He eventually founded the successful importing and commission house of Winzer & Tailer. The firm was a prominent dry goods merchant, importing cloth company located in New York City. In his travels, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean more than forty times. He was also a director of several banks, including The German-American Bank and The Northern Dispensary. He retired from business in 1893. Beginning in 1848, when he was just 18 years old, Tailer kept a daily diary of social matters and other events. Annually, he bound these diaries and kept them in his library. Upon his death, his son Thomas inherited the diaries.
Tailer was married to Agnes Suffern, the daughter of Thomas Suffern, an Irish immigrant who made a fortune importing Irish linens. They lived in a house at 11 Washington Square North built in 1834 by her father, and traveled extensively around Europe. Together, they were the parents of:
Thomas Suffern Tailer, who married Maude Louise Lorillard, the daughter of Pierre Lorillard IV, in 1893. They divorced, and he married Harriet Stewart Brown, daughter of Baltimore banker Alexander Brown, in 1909. After his death, his widow married C. Ledyard Blair.
Laura Suffern Tailer, who died young.
Frances Bogert "Fannie" Tailer, who married Sydney Johnston Smith, a cotton broker and sportsman, in 1896. They divorced in 1909 and she married C. Whitney Carpenter in 1916. They also divorced.
Through his daughter Mary, he was a grandfather of Assemblyman Robert Reginald Livingston Jr. Through his daughter Frances, he was a grandfather of Earl Edward Tailer Smith, a diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to Cuba as well as the mayor of Palm Beach, Florida.
