| Winfield Taylor Rigdon was the youngest of three
children born to the Thomas Rigdons of Iowa. Born in 1849, he
was only a year old when his family joined a small band of hardy
pioneers for a hazardous trip across Western America to the
Willamette Valley. It was an unusually small wagon train of
some twenty-eight people and eight wagons - actually only six
men plus their wives and children. W.T.’s father had been
seriously weakened by a rattlesnake bite prior to the trip,
so his wife and a fourteen-year old boy from another family
drove the wagon with the father lying ill inside.
The small wagon train left in March and safely arrived in
the Willamette Valley in late fall. The pioneers settled on
Donation Land Claims in an area ranging from Woodburn to Mount
Angel.
W.T. Rigdon’s father died shortly after arriving in
the Willamette Valley. The boy grew up on a farm with limited
opportunities for an education. He did avail himself of a
neighbor’s large library and became self-educated by
reading into the late hours by candlelight. He studied at
Willamette University until lack of money forced him to turn
to full time work, in this instance teaching in the community
of Jefferson, where he soon became the principal. In 1878,
he married a former student, Mattie Jane Smith.
Six children were born to W.T. and Mattie: Ethel, Winifred
Herrick, Ralph, Leila E., Lloyd T., and Harriet Mercer. Ethel
was head of the English Department at Salem High School and
the junior high schools until her death in 1916. Harriet Mercer
was the last surviving child. She spoke on "Memories
of a Pioneer’s Labors and Achievements: W.T. Rigdon,
1849-1946" at the Marion County Courthouse in January,
1972.
A man of considerable talent and perseverance, W.T. Rigdon
also operated a drug store in Jefferson. He moved his family
to Salem where he entered the mortuary business in a partnership.
In 1891, he founded the present W.T. Rigdon Company mortuary,
better known today as Rigdon’s Colonial Mortuary.
Out of grief for Ethel, W.T. began writing poetry and continued
until he published his book of poetry, Truth in Pleasant Rhymes,
followed by a history of the explorers and the Provisional
Government, The Mystic Chain of Discovery.
Compiled by Virginia Green
This profile quotes an article by Harriet Rigdon Mercer published
in Historic Marion, Vol. 9, No. 6, January 1972.
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