Marshall and Bryan County, OK - Varina Davis Taliaferro Wiggs (1879-1939) http://files.usgwarchives.net/ok/marshall/biography/w2000001.txt http://files.usgwarchives.net/ok/bryan/bios/w2000001.txt --------------------------------- Copyright © 2000 by Ella Brown ellabbrown@email.msn.com This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives. --------------------------------- USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Source: Notes from LoRene Taliaferro Reirdon Submitted by Ella Byrd Reirdon Brown ------------------------------------------------------------------ Varina Davis Taliaferro Wiggs (1879-1939) Varina Davis Taliaferro was born Sept. 1, 1879, near Gainesville, Texas, the daughter of Col. Thomas Dorsey Taliaferro and Eliza Lewis (Madison) Taliaferro. Her paternal grandparents from Virginia, Dr. and Mrs. William Thomas Warren Taliaferro moved to Texas to live near their son, his wife and large family. They died in 1883 and 1884. Her mother, Eliza Madison Taliaferro, died in 1886, leaving four of her eleven children under age eighteen. Her two youngest daughters, Eddie Madison, age 10, and Varina, age 6 1/2, made their home with their brothers Dorsey, age 20, and Henry Beauford, age 14 and their father, age 55, in Gainesville, Texas. They lived there for seven years before moving to the D.B. Taliaferro ranch, south of Madill (1893) Henry Beauford, her youngest brother, age 22, died in Sherman, Texas, at the home of their sister, Janie Madison Vaden. Janie was 33 years old and quite ill herself at that time, and she died one month later, July 2, 1894. The day of Beauford‘s death, June 5, 1894, was the day that their sister, Eddie Madison Taliaferro, was to graduate from Kidd Key College in Sherman. She married T.W. Erwin. Varina’s father, “the Colonel,” was partially blind when his family moved to the Chickasaw Nation where his oldest son, W.N. Taliaferro had already settled. The Colonel’s son and namesake, Dorsey, provided a home for him and his two youngest daughters, Eddie and Varina, and his youngest son, Henry Beauford. Varina was a devoted and dedicated companion to her blind father and read to him. She took care of all his correspondence, especially with his family, his relatives and loved ones in Virginia. She spent many months in genealogical research for the Taliaferro Family History from 1635 until the present generation. When her brother, (my father) brought his young bride, Miss Bird Whiting, of Bells, Texas, to their ranch home, she was warmly welcomed by his little sister who was also nineteen years old. Our Aunt Varina taught her the ways of ranch life, and some of the joys and hardships of the early pioneer days in Indian Territory. It was told that Varina could ride horseback and shoot a gun as well as any man on the ranch but at the dances she was a very popular partner and danced as light as a feather! After the turn of the 19th century and the beginning of the new one, very busy times occurred. Varina’s two brothers, W.N. and D.B. Taliaferro, were busy acquiring land, ranching and raising cattle. They held conferences in their homes with Judge George Madill of St. Louis, the attorney for the Frisco Railroad and others in 1900. The Frisco Railroad site was chosen at that time which led to the founding of the new town, Madill, Indian Territory. A little over one thousand acres of the Taliaferro ranch were surveyed. After several years of loving family devotion, especially to her blind father, she was married to Mr. Hugh B. Wiggs. His father was Capt. Richard C. Wiggs of Oakland and a pioneer of the county since 1874. She was quite interested in art and left some of her work in the field of watercolor, crayon and china painting to members of her family. Her death occurred (1939) in Madill, Oklahoma. Soon, thereafter, her husband donated a pipe organ to the First Methodist Church in Madill, as a memorial to his wife. Bishop Moore of Dallas, Texas, presided at the dedication service in her honor.