Robert Love "Bob" Taylor (July 31, 1850March 31, 1912) was an American politician, writer, and lecturer. A member of the Democratic Party, he served three terms as the 24th governor of Tennessee, from 1887 to 1891, and again from 1897 to 1899, and subsequently served as a United States senator from 1907 until his death. He also represented Tennessee's 1st district in the United States House of Representatives from 1879 to 1881, the last Democrat to hold the district's seat. A charismatic speaker, Taylor is remembered for defeating his older brother, Alfred A. "Alf" Taylor, in the 1886 gubernatorial campaign known as "The War of the Roses." The campaign involved storytelling, fiddle-playing, and practical jokes, standing in contrast to the state's previous gubernatorial campaigns, which typically involved fierce rhetoric and personal attacks. Though Robert Taylor won in 1886, Alfred Taylor was elected as governor in the early 1920s. Along with politics, Taylor was a public lecturer and magazine editor. He published several collections of his lectures and short stories in the 1890s and early 1900s, and was co-editor of the Taylor-Trotwood Magazine. Early life and career Taylor was born in Happy Valley, Carter County, Tennessee, the third son of Nathaniel Green Taylor, a Methodist minister, and Emmaline Haynes, an accomplished pianist. His father, a member of the Whig Party, had been defeated by Andrew Johnson in a campaign for Congress in 1849 but would win the seat in the mid-1850s. His mother's family supported the Democratic Party, and her brother, Landon Carter Haynes, was a prominent Democratic politician. Robert Taylor would adopt his mother's political leanings and become a Democrat, and his older brother, Alfred, would follow his father into the Whig (and later Republican) Party. Nathaniel Taylor supported the Union during the Civil War, and the family moved to Philadelphia in 1861 when the Confederate Army occupied East Tennessee. In 1864, the Taylor brothers enrolled in Pennington Seminary in New Jersey. The family moved to Washington in 1867 when Nathaniel Taylor was appointed as Commissioner of Indian Affairs by President Andrew Johnson. Robert Taylor took a position in the Treasury Department. The family returned to Tennessee in 1869, where Robert would attend Buffalo Institute (modern Milligan College) and East Tennessee Wesleyan College. While at the former, he cowrote a play with his brother, Alfred. In the 1870s, Taylor tried several business ventures, including farming, operating a lumber mill, and