Dodge Taylor
Born in Jackson, Michigan in 1902 to Annie Dodge and Dr. Edwin Taylor, Dodge Taylor came to Florida in 1923 as a young graduate of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He started as the sales manager for the W. J. Howey Company and eventually managed Howey's extensive citrus interests in Lake County until Mr. Howey died in 1938. Dodge Taylor continued managing the W. J. Howey Company for Grace Howey until she sold the company assets.
Dodge Taylor married Mary Lane Anderson, who had three children, and he had an adopted son. Dodge's father, Dr. Edwin C. Taylor, built the Dodge Taylor House after he followed his son to Howey in 1925 to retire, but he was kept busy as head of the Howey Sanitarium, located in the Floridan Hotel. Fresh, tree-ripened grapefruit and canned juice were used to treat diabetes and hypertension at the sanitarium. In the winter of 1929, more than 300 doctors from all over the United States, Canada and Europe visited the sanitarium to observe methods of treatment and laboratory work, according to the elder Taylor. The younger Taylor family moved into the stucco-sided, red tile roof house after his parents died.
When Dodge Taylor and C. V. Griffin Sr. purchased the assets of the W. J. Howey Company and Town in 1940 from Widow Grace Howey, Dodge became the Executive Vice-President of the firm. Howey-in-the-Hills was one of 150 Florida towns and cities that were in default on their bond obligations. Taylor and Griffin refinanced the bond issue and paid it off in 11 years. By the end of the 1960s, it was reported that the Town had no bonded indebtedness.
Taylor wrote the Citrus Plank for Governor Fuller Warren's campaign platform in 1948 and after Warren's election, conducted hearings which brought about the Florida Citrus Code of 1949. He served as Chairman of the State Improvement Commission and refused to allow crippling changes in the citrus law which he was instrumental in passing. Dodge was active in the formation of the Florida Citrus Mutual, and was Chairman of the Florida Citrus Commission when he died. The influence that Lake and Orange Counties had in the citrus industry was in large measure attributed to Dodge Taylor's expertise. When Dodge Taylor died of a heart attack at home May 13, 1950 at the young age of 48, he was already referred to as "Mr. Citrus.”
Dodge served as Mayor of Howey-in-the-Hills. He is remembered with the Dodge Taylor Memorial Trophy given annually by the Florida Junior Chamber of Commerce. The State Road 19 Memorial Bridge is dedicated to the memory of Dodge Taylor, as is the Taylor Memorial Cemetery in Town.
