31st Taylor Family Reunion 13, 14, 15 Aug 1976
Boiling Springs State Park
Woodward, Okla.Edwin Fussell Taylor and Addie Lee Riggs raised nine children as pioneer farmers in Kansas, Oklahoma Territory, and New Mexico. Edwin and Addie both grew up during the Civil War and the "wild west" period in America that followed. Edwin was born 2 January 1858 in Andersonville, Indiana, to Martha Margarett Laird and Thomas Jonathan Taylor. Edwin once said his father's family was "Pennsylvania Dutch" and his mother's "Flannel Mouth Irish." Addie's family also were Irish. She was born 3 June 1861 in Highland County, Ohio, to Lucinda Foreman and William Losson Riggs. Addie's family has been traced to Maryland in the 1750s.
Edwin and Addie were married on Christmas Eve in 1880. He was 22, she was 19. Their firstborn was Losson, near Ellinwood, Kansas, on 10 August 1881. Seven more children were born in Kansas during the next 13 years -- Floyd (1883), twins Orville and Stanley (1886), Eva (1888), Frank (1890), Oma (1892), and Maggie (1894).
In 1895, the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma Territory was opened for homesteading. Edwin rode a little brown pony in the land run. The pony had belonged to his father-in-law, William Riggs, who took over Edwin's farm in Kansas.
In March 1895, the entire family traveled by covered wagon to their new home in Oklahoma. In 1899, the youngest, Lizzie, was born near Augusta (now Carmen).
Edwin leased out their farm and the whole family moved to Washington in 1906 to take up fruit farming. This photograph [will be placed on this page ASAP --RCM] was taken just before their journey.
Unhappy in Washington, they returned in less than a year and farmed in Oklahoma for nine more years. Due to Addie's ill health, the family moved again by covered wagon in 1915 to New Mexico. Addie died the first winter. Edwin lived with his children until his death in 1929.
Most of the children became school teachers. Only Losson remained a farmer. They settled in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado. Over the years there was a yearning to renew family ties, and after World War II the first Taylor Family Reunion was held at Boiling Springs in 1946. There were 65 present.
The nine branches of Edwin and Addie's family tree have flourished. Today their great-great-
grandchildren attend the Taylor Family Reunion. For many it is the only time they have to get acquainted with their relatives and to discover their family heritage.
This article is taken from the 1976 Taylor family newsletter. | Return to Edwin and Addie Taylor page |