Arkansas native Emzy Taylor clerked in his father’s mercantile store on Georgetown square before serving as a Confederate captain in the Red River valley during the Civil War. While on furlough, he married Margaret Henderson in 1864, and after the war he returned to Georgetown and took over the family business. At the forefront of Georgetown’s early development, he led efforts to establish the first college, national bank, regional railroad line, and water utility service, and he took special pride in forming and serving as chief of the city’s volunteer fire department.