Alphonso Taft (1884-1885)

1884-85

Alphonso Taft

Born in Townshend, Vermont, Alphonso Taft graduated from Yale University and taught as a tutor there before studying law and beginning a practice in Cincinnati, Ohio. He later became a superior court judge. Late in the second term of President Ulysses S. Grant he served as Secretary of War, then Attorney General. He was appointed Minister to Russia by President Chester A. Arthur. Taft's son, William Howard Taft, became the President of the United States in 1909.