Los Gatos Weekly-Times Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph The former home of Magnus and Antoinette Tait is now the residence of Gwen Watkins and Tally, her Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Tait Avenue's namesake kept busy in Civil War and in town John S. Baggerly Back in August of 1988, this space told of the horrors that Magnus Tait suffered as a prisoner of war in the infamous Andersonville prison camp in Georgia, where the Confederacy held Union prisoners during the Civil War. The details came from Tait's My Rebel Prison Life, loaned by the late Bob Thomson, a Campbell bookbinder and Civil War book collector. When Tait arrived in Los Gatos, he was promptly labeled a "businessman." He served on various local committees, including one to build an in-town streetcar system. This never came about, but a streetcar system linking San Jose, Saratoga, Los Gatos and Campbell did start up about 1904. It closed down in 1934. There was an empty chapter in Tait's life until a biography on him was published by H.S. Foote, an editor with Lewis Publishing Co. of Chicago. The company subsisted by--for a price to the individual--publishing people's biographies. The book tells that Tait's parent, natives of the Shetland Islands off the northern coast of Scotland, came to Illinois with son Magnus and settled in Joliet, Ill., where other children were born. At age 20, Tait married Antoinette Cooley, a native of Amber, N.Y. On Aug. 4, 1862, Tait enlisted in Company M, 1st Illinois Light Artillery; his company was attached to the 4th Army Corps most of the time while in the service. At the time of his enlistment, Tait was promoted to sergeant in charge of gun No. 6 and was in all engagements in which his unit participated. He was in 22 battles and skirmishes in all, among the heaviest being Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Resaca, Dalton and Atlanta. For about l00 days, his guns hardly grew cold, being kept almost in continuous action in the seige of Atlanta. On the night of Aug. 26, 1864, the day before Atlanta fell, Tait was taken prisoner by the Confederates near that city. He was then taken to a series of prisons, and with 4,000 troops was moved to Andersonville. When President Lincoln was assassinated, news of the event reached them at 2 a.m. the following morning. The Confederate major in charge became alarmed at the preparations that were at once made to hang him. He escaped and was never heard from again. After the war, Tait returned to his home in Illinois, and in August 1865 moved to Lawrence, Kan., where he lived until 1885. He then came to California. He first lived in Oceanside in San Diego County and remained there until July 1885, when he moved to Los Gatos. Tait was a member of the Scottish Rite Knight Templar Degree, having taken the 32nd degree in 1885. He was also a charter member of Los Gatos Blue Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons. He was a member of the Oriental Order of the Palm and Shell; a member and junior vice commander of E. O. C. Ord Post, No. 82, G.A.R., and a charter member of the Andersonville Survivors' Association, organized Sept. 22, 1879. Tait and wife Antoinette had four children: Florence, born April 16, 1859; Walter, July 7, 1860; Thomas, Aug. 24 1861; and Magnus, born Nov. 16, 1862. Tait was a board member for Los Gatos Building and Loan Association, which backed local enterprise from 1889 to the late 1920s. When the Commercial Bank of Los Gatos formed, J. R. Ryland was named president and Tait became vice president. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 6, 1999. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.