Harry Symon Taylor (1898-1982)

Harry Symon Taylor was born on April 15, 1898 at 60 Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts. He was the only child of American immigrants Sidney Taylor (1846-1917), a native of Greetland, Halifax Parish, [[Yorkshire, England and Elspet Symon (1857-1924), a native of Charlestown, Aberlour Parish, Banffshire, Scotland.  The family later moved to 56 Henderson Street in Arlington where Harry attended The Crosby School from the first through the fifth grade.  When he was about 10, he and his parents moved to 9 Harvard Street in Winchester also in Middlesex Co. where Harry attended The Prince School for the sixth grade. He attended Wadliegh Grammar School for the seventh and ninth grade, skipping the eighth grade.   Harry attended the Winchester High School and completed two years of business courses, before leaving school in 1913 to work for the General Electric Company in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts necessitated by the illness and later death of his father on May 5, 1917.  Prior to his father's death, the family had moved back to 56 Henderson Street in Arlington.   In 1913, at the age 15, Harry enrolled in an electrical apprentice course, but only worked a few months and was "canned" because of new child labor laws forbidding those under 16 years of age from working around machinery.  He worked the next four years as an office boy and later traveling salesman for a wholesale jewelry company, L. D. Pendleton of Boston, at a salary of 10 cents an hour, fifty-four hours a week grossing a mere $5.40.  He also supplemented his income by working for the Packett Motor Company in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, greasing cars and taking inventory.   At the age of 19 (1917) Harry went to work for the Boston Main Railroad as a locomotive fireman and joined the United States Naval Reserve in July 1918.  He continued to work for the railroad until he was called to active duty in September 1918.  He completed his basic training at Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts before beginning elementary electrical training at the Wentworth Institute in Boston.  He completed his training at the top of his class and was selected to go to Stevens Institute in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey, first completing extended basic training at Pelham Bay, a neighborhood in the borough of the Bronx, in New York City.   At Stevens Institute he completed the Naval Steam Engineer School in June 1919, being quartered in the gymnasium for six months, having to pack his gear when there was a basketball game.  After one of these games he was introduced to Ella Caroline Julie Volmar (1899-1988, a native of Hoboken, by a member of the basketball team.  At first, Ella was not interested in Harry, because he couldn't dance.  At an American Legend Post dance she only danced with Harry about ten feet before she quit.  She didn't she him again for about a month, when by chance she met him on the street returning to the gym from work and asked him home to dinner, the first of many dinners and letters over the next few years.   Returning home after completing his service with the Navy and receiving his commission as an Ensign, he got a job as a packer with S. E. Knott in Cambridge and later in the machine shop of Cropfoot Gear Works in Cambridge; cutting gears as a machinist.  In September 1924 Harry joined F. S. Payne Elevator Co. in Cambridge and then the Boston Elevator Railway as an eclectic controller.  Boston Elevator later became Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority where Harry was as a substation operator, then maintenance electrician and finally General Forman of a substation, retiring after 39 years of service in April 1963.  In June 1922, while visiting Ella in Hoboken, Harry's mother suffered a paralyzing stroke.  He immediately returned to Arlington.  Ella followed to provide what assistance she could.  During the visit Harry proposed and having gotten the waiting period waved, they were married at the Tremont Temple in Boston on June 27, 1922 by Rev. Herbert Handel.  They day of the wedding they visited Harry's mother at the hospital, had lunch, got married and saw the best man off on the boat. They moved to 43 Pierce St. in Arlington on July 10, 1922.  On April 12, 1934, Harry and Ella, acquired land and began to build a cabin at Nabnasset Lake near Westford, Middlesex Co., where their family vacationed until 1952.  They named their summer home "Rolyat Elbon", after the family home in England. Translated it is Royal Taylor spelled backwards.   The family moved to 91 School St. in Arlington in March 1941, where Harry and Ella lived until Setember 28, 1968 when they moved to 30 Davlein Rd. in Wayland also in Middlesex Co.