Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/613

 TAOTTQH state hospital for the insane occupies a con- spicuous site, with grounds of more than 140 acres, and accommodates over 400 patients. Taunton has from the beginning been noted for its manufacture of brick and iron, the lat- ter being at present the leading business, and employing a capital of about $2,000,000. There are two locomotive works, two tack and nail factories, several f ounderies and machine shops, &c. In copper manufacture a capital of about $900,000 is invested. The Taunton copper company, the oldest and largest in the United States, has been incorporated nearly 50 years. Its products are copper, sheet zinc, and yellow metal sheathing. Among other establishments are two manufactories of silver-plated and britannia ware, four of stove linings and fire brick, two of crucibles, five cotton factories, a flannel factory, a carriage factory, &c. There are three national banks, with an aggregate capital of $1,800,000, and two savings banks, with deposits to the amount of $4,500,000. The coasting trade is important. Taunton and Taunton river are also proverbial for their her- ring fisheries, the privileges of which are still annually sold, though few of the inhabitants now pursue this branch of industry. Large quantities of shad and alewives are taken from the river in April and May. The city is gov- erned by a mayor, eight aldermen (one from each ward), and 24 common councilmen. The taxable value of property in 1874 was $18,326,- 228; city debt, $275,600. The public schools comprise the following grades : high, 1 ; gram- mar, 12 ; intermediate and primary, 31 ; un- graded schools, 15. The number of pupils en- rolled in 1874 was 3,654; average attendance, 2,522 ; total expenditure for support of schools, $42,759 58. There are two private schools, an incorporated academy, a public library of 13,000 volumes, and a daily and two weekly newspapers. The principal charitable institu- tions are the insane asylum, the city almshouse, and a home for aged and infirm women. There are 19 churches, viz. : 2 Baptist, 3 Congre- gational, 2 Episcopal, 1 Free-Will Baptist, 4 Methodist, 2 Koman Catholic, 3 Unitarian, 1 Universalist, and 1 Union. Taunton, of which the Indian name was Cohannet, was settled in 1638 by a company from Taunton in Eng- land, from whom a large proportion of the present natives of the town are descended. It became a city in 1864. One of the chief pro- moters of its settlement was Miss Elizabeth Pool, to whom a monument has been erected in the cemetery. In King Philip's war the town was protected from harm by the king's friendship for Thomas Leonard. Here was Philip's favorite hunting ground. TAUNTON, a town of Somersetshire, Eng- land, on the Tone, 133 m. W. S. W. of Lon- don ; pop. in 1871, 15,466. It has an old castle, several places of worship, including the church of St. Mary Magdalen with a fine renovated tower, and various charitable and educational institutions. Among the latter is TAURUS 585 a college established in 1868. by the Congrega- tionalists at Fair water, outside of the town. The wool manufactories established in the 14th century have long since declined, and gloves are now the staple industry. In 1645 it was held by Blake for the parliament, and sustained a protracted siege by 10,000 royalists. _ TAURIDA, a S. government of European Rus- sia, bordering on the governments of Kherson and Yekaterinoslav, the sea of Azov, and the Black sea ; area, 24,537 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 704,997, a large part Tartars. The govern- ment includes the Crimea (the Tauris of the ancients, whence the name Taurida), which comprises nearly one third of the area and population, and contains the capital Simfero- pol, and the principal port and naval station Sebastopol. (See CRIMEA.) The N. part is a dry elevated country, with a sandy soil im- pregnated with salt, and without trees, but with some rich valleys that produce luxuriant herbage. Agriculture is little attended to, and the country is chiefly devoted to rearing cat- tle. A few small streams flow into the sea of Azov, but the only river of importance is the Dnieper on the N. W. frontier. Numerous tongues of land formed by alluvial deposits project from the S. coast, the most extensive of which lies S. of the estuary of the Dnieper, and was anciently called Achilleos Dromos, or Race Course of Achilles. Salt, saltpetre, and naphtha are abundant, and marble is quarried. TAl ROMEiMUM, an ancient Greek city on the E. coast of Sicily, about half way between Messana and Catana, founded on the hill of Taurus, overlooking the sea, after the destruc- tion of Naxos, 3 m. to the south, by Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse, in 403 B. C. In 394 Dionysius besieged it unsuccessfully for a long time, but it fell into his hands in 392. In 358 Andromachus, the father of the historian Ti- mseus, is said to have collected all the exiled Naxians, and established them at Taurome- nium. In 344 Timoleon landed here, but left Andromachus in possession. Subsequently it fell into the hands of Hiero, king of Syra- cuse. During the servile war in Sicily (184- 132) it was desperately defended by the insur- gent slaves. It was one of the last places taken from the Greek emperors by the Sara- cens (906), who destroyed it. The modern village of Taormina occupies its site. TAURUS, a range of mountains in Asia Minor, forming in the main the watershed between the waters flowing into the Mediterranean and those flowing into the Black sea. It consists of two principal chains, the Taurus proper, in the south of the peninsula, and its northeast- erly continuation, the Anti-Taurus. With its ramifications in the north, which by former geographers were generally designated as the Anti-Taurus, the range forms three sides of the broad plateau of central and eastern Asia Minor. The commencement of the Taurus proper on the west is a disputed point. Its principal divisions are the Lycian and the Ci-