Unlike many smaller schooners of the period, the Hetty Taylor was the product of an established shipyard, Allen, McClelland and Company (known after their 1874 reorganization as the Milwaukee Shipyard Company). It was an unusual company, formed as a shipbuilding cooperative in response to union-busting actions of Milwaukee's five major shipbuilders during the winter of 1861-62. One of the yard's original partners, Ethel C. Penney, was the Hetty Taylor 's master carpenter. Penny was a shipwright from upstate New York and the only "Yankee" in the largely immigrant concern.

The Myosotis , a schooner built in the same shipyard and year as the Hetty Taylor. The Myosotis was about 50% larger than the Hetty Taylor. (Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Public Library.)

The Hetty Taylor spent most of her career carrying lumber and other wood products from places like Muskegon, Green Bay, Sister Bay, and Egg Harbor to her homeport in Milwaukee, typically carrying 90 thousand board feet of lumber or 80 cords of wood.

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