Edd and Mary Tuggle, Texas, 1890's

The inscription on the back reads:
"Aunt Mary + Uncle
Edd Tuggle
To my dear Aunty-
Mrs. Lizzie Cooper"

Edward Hamilton Tuggle was born in Comanche, Texas in 1866 to parents Alex and Lucy Tuggle. His father was a stock raiser and farmer. Ed, as Edward was known, was one of 8 children. Like his siblings, he began working on the family farm as soon as he was old enough.

On June 15th, 1890, 24-year-old Ed married 16-year-old Mary Cass. Mary was from Tennessee, the daughter of farmer William B. Cass and his wife Cordelia. Ed and Mary had five children: Ella, Elena, Cordia, Carroll and Mary Elizabeth. In 1900, Ed was working as a traveling salesman while the family lived in Temple, Texas. Around 1905, the family relocated to Chickasha, Oklahoma, where Ed started a grocery. Sadly, Carroll died in 1907 at only 18 months. That same year, Ed became ill with typhoid fever and was forced to sell his grocery while he recovered. The Tuggles, meanwhile, were active in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mary was a Sunday school teacher and a member of the Woman's Home Mission Society, often hosting meetings at the Tuggle home. Ed was a member of the church's temperance committee.

In 1913, Ella Tuggle married John Aloysius Ryndak, a bookkeeper. Ed opened E.H. Tuggle Grocery, where he employed his second oldest daughter, Elena, as a clerk. During the First World War, the entire Tuggle family became very involved in buying War Savings Stamps, even 8-year-old Mary Elizabeth. Ed was noted in the paper as being the first in Chickasha to purchase them.

On Jan 24, 1922, a fire destroyed the Tuggle grocery. According to the Chickasha Daily Express, the loss was "estimated at several thousand dollars." Good news came the next year when Elena married Elliot Doggett. When Elena and Elliot moved to Oklahoma City, Mary Elizabeth joined them and found work as a stenographer there.

Ed and Mary remained in Chickasha for the rest of their lives. Mary passed away in 1948 at age 74, and Ed followed in 1957. He was 89.

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