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 59° TAFT. TAFT. written the following : " Chisholm's White- Mountain Guide" (18.S0), "Picturesque Maine " (1880), " Pocket Guide to Europe " (1SS2), " King's Handbook of Boston Har- bor" (1882), "Summer Days Down East" (1883), the American sections of Cassell's " Great Cities of the World " (1884), " How to Know New York" (1S86), "Chisholm's Mount-Desert Guide" (1S88), "King's Handbook of Newton " (1889), " Here and There in New England" (1889), and a score of others, besides magazine articles, stories, etc. Another standard work of this author was the fifteen-volume series of "Artist Biographies" (1S77— '78), devoted to Raphael, Angelo, Leonardo, Claude, Titian, Guido, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Durer, Reynolds, Turner, Landseer, Murillo, Angelico, and Allston. .Mr. Sweetser's pleasant little rural estate of " Sunset Rock " is in Dorchester, near Boston, and looks out across the Neponset Valley to the "Blue Hills" of Milton. October 17, 1S77, he was married, at Trin- ity church, Boston, to Edith Ashton, daugh- ter of William Charles and Elizabeth Ann (Hamilton) Balch. Their children are: Harold and Arthur Sweetser. TAFT, EDGAR SIDNEY, son of Bezaleel and Lucy M. (Bragg) Taft, was born at Keene, Cheshire county, New Hampshire, June 30, 1S53. His early education was obtained at the public schools in Keene, Swanzey, Acworth, and Alstead. He worked in the summer, attending school in the winter, while pre- paring for a liberal education. During this time he met with a serious accident which prevented his going to college, and after recovering he learned telegraphy and found employment with the Eastern Railroad, as operator at Greenland, where he remained until he moved to Portsmouth. During the latter part of this employment he began reading law with the Hon. Albert R. Hatch, of Portsmouth, anil was admitted to the New Hampshire bar on the 1st of September, 1S82, to the United States circuit court on the 9th of October, and to the supreme judicial court of Massa- chusetts on the 30th of October of the same year. After practicing law in Boston for a short time, he was obliged to give up on account of ill health, and went into the employ of the Pullman Car Company, where he re- mained for about two years ; then, moving to Gloucester, he opened a law office, June 1, 1885, where he still practices and resides. Mr. Taft is a popular and prominent Mason, having received the lower degrees ill St. Paul's Lodge, No. 30, of Alstead, N. H.; was demitted and became a charter member of Winnicut Lodge, No. 92, of Greenland, N. H., being the 1st senior warden and 2d master of the same ; he was the youngest past master in the state of New Hampshire, having served one year as senior warden, and two years as master of a lodge before he was twenty-five years of age ; in 1881 he was demitted from Winnicut Lodge, and joined St. Andrew's EDGAR S TAFT Lodge, of Portsmouth, of which he is now a member, and is also a member of Wash- ington Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of Portsmouth, and of Winslow Lewis Com- mandery of Knights Templar, at Salem, Mass. He is a charter member of Win- gaersheek Tribe, No. 12, Improved Order of Red Men, having held various offices in that order, and now being one of the great