Stephen Taber of Achusnet and New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Stephen Taber was born on October 23, 1777, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and died there on September 10, 1862. His older brother Elnathan was nine years his senior and had moved North to Roxbury, where he served his clockmaking apprenticeship under Simon Willard. Simon considered Elnathan a highly skilled mechanic and his best apprentice. Elnathan remained in Roxbury after his indenture and continued to build clocks for himself and others in the Roxbury group of Clockmakers. Because of Elnathan's success, it is logical to assume that Stephen was also attracted to the clockmaking community in Roxbury. Stephen was trained in Boston by Aaron Willard, Simon's younger brother. By 1798, Stephen is recorded in the town of Roxbury's Tax Records as a Roxbury resident. This would suggest that he moved to Roxbury to start his apprenticeship sometime in 1791-92 at the age of 14. After serving his apprenticeship, he stayed in Roxbury for one year and returned to New Bedford in 1799. Here he advertised in October of that year that "Stephen Taber, (Late apprentice to Mr. Aaron Willard, Clock-Maker in Boston) Respectfully informs the public That he carries on the Clock Making Business... at his shop in Union Street..." From this time until he died in 1862, it appears that he lived and worked primarily in New Bedford. He is also listed as working in Acushnet for a short time. Over the later part of his life, the extent of his clockmaking trickled off as the years passed. This is assumed because he was more commonly listed as a merchant or trader by 1810. By 1860, his estate was valued at over $100,000. At the time of his death in 1862, his wealth had almost doubled. He married Elizabeth Sprague Pitcher in 1824. After he died in 1862, she became a philanthropist. She was one of the founding members of Tabor Academy in the town of Marion.