Negro Leagues Baseball Player, Coach and Manager. He was one of 13 children born to Adeline and Isam Taylor-a freed slave and a Methodist Minister. Unnamed, father Isam took the name of his slave-owner following his release to serve as a reminder of from where he came. 4 brothers from this family left Anderson to play baseball and would change the course of African American baseball played in the first half of the last century. The brothers all attended college, one brother fought in the Spanish-American war. Jonathan attended Biddle University in Charlotte, North Carolina. A Charlotte Observer sportswriter gave him the nickname "Steel Arm" after watching the right-hander in action. This began a career that spanned over 30 years as a player, coach and manager working with over 20 teams. Often the brothers would play alongside each other, or coach with each other-most notable was the Indianapolis ABCs team that older brother Charles owned and managed, and on which his three brothers played. Jonathan's career took him from teams in New York to St Paul and many in between. He pitched the St Paul Gophers to the Western Championship and the unofficial world championship over the Chicago Leland Giants-a year in which he pitched 43 games with a 37-6 win loss record. A year later, he and his brother were playing for the Giants. After suffering arm injuries in 1915 he did more managing and coaching than pitching. He settled in Peoria in 1920 and operated the Peoria Turkish bath and became player-manager of the Peoria Black Devils. In May of 1920 the St Louis Argus labeled it "one of the strongest independent teams in the country." Throughout the 1920s he ventured east to act as a pitching coach for colleges and Negro Leagues teams, as well as a stint in 1929 as manager of the Springfield Illinois Giants. His brother Benjamin was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.
Negro Leagues Baseball Player, Coach and Manager. He was one of 13 children born to Adeline and Isam Taylor-a freed slave and a Methodist Minister. Unnamed, father Isam took the name of his slave-owner following his release to serve as a reminder of from where he came. 4 brothers from this family left Anderson to play baseball and would change the course of African American baseball played in the first half of the last century. The brothers all attended college, one brother fought in the Spanish-American war. Jonathan attended Biddle University in Charlotte, North Carolina. A Charlotte Observer sportswriter gave him the nickname "Steel Arm" after watching the right-hander in action. This began a career that spanned over 30 years as a player, coach and manager working with over 20 teams. Often the brothers would play alongside each other, or coach with each other-most notable was the Indianapolis ABCs team that older brother Charles owned and managed, and on which his three brothers played. Jonathan's career took him from teams in New York to St Paul and many in between. He pitched the St Paul Gophers to the Western Championship and the unofficial world championship over the Chicago Leland Giants-a year in which he pitched 43 games with a 37-6 win loss record. A year later, he and his brother were playing for the Giants. After suffering arm injuries in 1915 he did more managing and coaching than pitching. He settled in Peoria in 1920 and operated the Peoria Turkish bath and became player-manager of the Peoria Black Devils. In May of 1920 the St Louis Argus labeled it "one of the strongest independent teams in the country." Throughout the 1920s he ventured east to act as a pitching coach for colleges and Negro Leagues teams, as well as a stint in 1929 as manager of the Springfield Illinois Giants. His brother Benjamin was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.
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