Peter D. Taylor was born around 1842 in New York to Robert John Taylor and Mary Smith. His father was a Scottish-born farmer who owned $4,530 of real estate and $1,850 of personal property in 1860. The family moved to Spring Valley, Wisconsin, around 1844, and by 1860, he was working as a laborer on his father’s farm. He remained in his parents’ household until at least 1880. He married Catherine Teneyck in Lennox, Canada, on March 14, 1881, and they had at least three children: Magdalena, born around 1882; Robert, born around 1885; and Peter, born around 1890. By 1900, they were living in Brodhead, Wisconsin. They returned to Spring Valley sometime in the 1910s, and he died there on January 16, 1922.