US Congressman. He was born one of four children (he also had one brother, Silas Birdsell Taber was born in 1881 and two sisters, Mary Taber was born in 1884 and Emily S. Taber was born in 1889) in Auburn, New York, to the attorney and businessman Franklin Pierce Taber and his wife Mary Catherine "Kitty" Parker Taber, and he was educated in local public schools before entering and graduating from the Auburn High School in Auburn, New York, in 1898. He then attended the prestigious Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he graduated from in 1902, and the New York Law School where he studied law and graduated from in 1904. He was then admitted to the New York state bar on November 15, 1904, and he commenced to practicing law in his birthplace of Auburn, New York. He then represented the second ward of Auburn, New York, as the Supervisor of Cayuga County, New York in 1905 and again in 1906. He also served as Special Judge of the County Court in New York from 1910 to 1918, Chairman of the Cayuga County, New York, Republican Committee from 1920 to 1925, and as President of the Auburn, New York, Chamber of Commerce in 1922, and Delegate to the Republican National Conventions from New York in 1920, 1924, and again in 1936. On April 13, 1929, he married Gertrude Johnson in Auburn, New York, and the couple had a son named Charles out of wedlock in 1920. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected. A Republican, he then served New York's 36th and 38th Districts (Sixty-Eighth and to the nineteen succeeding Congresses) in the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1923 to 1963. While serving in the United States Congress he was Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations representing the Eightieth Congress and the Eighty-Third Congress. He was also Chairman of the Joint Budget Committee of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate which was created under the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946. He was not a candidate for renomination to the Eighty-Eighth Congress in 1962. Known by the nickname of "Watchdog of the Treasury," and "Meatax John," he had served a total of 39 years in the United States Congress. After his term in the United States Congress expired on January 3, 1963, he was succeeded by United States Representative Frank Jefferson Horton. After leaving the United States Congress he resumed his practice of law until his death. He passed away in Auburn, New York, on November 22, 1965, at the age of 85. His funeral was held at the St. Peters Episcopal Church in Auburn, New York, and he was buried in the Fort Hill Cemetery in that city. His wife Gertrude passed away on January 26, 1964, at the age of 71, in Auburn, New York, and is buried beside her husband.