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Bill Taggart Oral History About Bob Dole

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Bill Taggart Oral History About Bob Dole This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas. http://dolearchives.ku.edu ROBERT J. DOLE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Interview with WILLIAM A. (BILL) TAGGART and JUDY TAGGART July 18, 2007 Interviewers Brien R. Williams and Carol Ruppel Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics 2350 Petefish Drive Lawrence, KS 66045 Phone: (785) 864-4900 Fax: (785) 864-1414 This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas. http://dolearchives.ku.edu Taggart 7-18-07—p. 2 [Judy Taggart edited this transcript. Consequently, it may be at variance at some points with the original audio recording. This is the only interview recorded with the Taggarts for the Robert J. Dole Oral History Project. Reference to a prior interview is misleading and refers to a meeting we had with the Taggarts before this interview.—BW] Williams: This is an oral history interview with Bill Taggart for the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. We’re in the Taggart residence in Arlington, VA. Today is July 18, 2007 and I’m Brien Williams. We’re also joined by Bill’s wife, Judy, who’s at the table, and by my wife who’s working on this project with me, Carol Ruppel. So, Bill, let’s start with just a little about your family roots—where they came from and how they got to Kansas. Taggart: Well, we assume they were part of the Mac Taggart clan out of Scotland. How they came to the United States we don’t know. They seem to have settled however in Iowa in the late 1800s and that’s where my father was the oldest of eight children. After they moved to Kansas, his father died and my father had to run the farm by himself, feeding cattle, selling milk, raising their own food and so forth. The loss of his parents put a big hurdle on him, so they had to hire a housekeeper or someone to cook. They found Dessie, who became Mrs. Logan Taggart, and she’d come from Olpe, Kansas. She was quite capable of keeping house. Her mother didn’t want her to take the job because here was this single man with a bunch of kids… and she said, “Don’t you go out there. You’ll get knocked up before anything happens.” “No, no, no, I won’t. I’m just going to work.” Well, she went to work and they raised their food, they canned the products they raised as far as gardens go. Everybody worked on it but with that many kids you couldn’t count on them. And they were of varying age. Logan was the oldest, and then Ben and Gid and Ruth and on down the line. Williams: Now, Logan was your father? Taggart: Yes. Logan Coyd. This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas. http://dolearchives.ku.edu Taggart 7-18-07—p. 3 Williams: And he married this woman who came… Taggart: He married Dessie Oakley. I think his parents came out in a covered wagon. And we have one box around the house some place that was in the covered wagon and we use it to keep toys in downstairs for the grandchildren. They came to Kansas with that in the back. Well, this now is my Dad’s parents. Some of the boys went into town and worked and maybe went to even Emporia. Giddeon and Ben (Logan’s brothers) would probably have done that. Ruth stayed in Iowa. Ruppel: These were your uncles and aunts? Taggart: Yes. There were two women—two girls--Ruth and Margaret, and that’s it. Ruppel: And then what about your dad? Where did he settle, in Kansas? Taggart: Well, he was raised there on the farm in Olpe, as were the kids. And then some of them…. Ruth stayed with an aunt, and I don’t know who it was, in Iowa. Williams: At what point did your ancestors move from Iowa down to Kansas? When did that happen? Judy Taggart: I think it had to be the early-to-mid- twenties. Because he was born in ’31 and he was the last one born, so it had to be early twenties. Williams: And, your father in Kansas, what was he doing? Taggart: He was farming. And they fed some cattle and they grazed on the hills around there that they had access to, and they raised forage and put up silage. In those days they didn’t have silos. They had rolled-up fence that we see now used to break up snow accumulating into a field. They’d take the rolls of snow fence and make a circle around a bunch of silage and let it set and then they’d put another row around another stack of silage and go up about 15-20 feet, about 20 feet across in diameter, and that’s the way they fed the cattle during the winter. Williams: You grew up on the farm. Taggart: No. We left there. I was born in Manhattan, and at that time, my dad was working for the McPherson Concrete Stave and Silo Company, because they’d started making these silos out of concrete—sections of concrete that you put together like a puzzle, and put a steel rim around it like a pizza pie. A long piece of steel or band of This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas. http://dolearchives.ku.edu Taggart 7-18-07—p. 4 steel fastened together by bolts around those stave silos. And they’d take them up to about 40 feet, I guess, maybe 50 later on. Now we have what’s known as A.O. Smith Harvest Stores, which are like a large thermos jar. And this protects the food that the livestock eat. Williams: So, did your father stay in this business? Taggart: Yes. Out of that he ended up being one of the first ones who took ahold of that silo concept and he started getting silage wherever he could get it, and putting it up and then he did it for some people, but mainly just for himself. It was an existence with all these kids. Ruppel: How did the Depression impact your family? Taggart: Well, Dad was working for the silo company and I think they split up a lot then. Ben and Gid went to Lyons, Kansas and opened a pool hall. They had several children. Ruth was in Iowa, of course. Didn’t spend much time—I don’t think she went to the farm. She married Wilbur Kempenaar and they had several children up there. Ruppel: Do you have memories of the Depression? Taggart: No, not really. Ruppel: What about the Dust Bowl? Taggart: Now, we’re talking about ’30, ’31, right? Ruppel: Yes. Oh, of course you wouldn’t! I’m sorry. Taggart: It was ’29, ’30 and ’31, I mean, it was pretty tight. I was conceived during that. They didn’t have anything to eat. Ruppel: What about the Dust Bowl? Taggart: Didn’t have that in central Kansas as bad as you had it west of there. You’ll find that the Arkansas River keeps things pretty green. That, and a couple of rivers that come down the border along the Missouri line. That’s what Dad was specializing in and he got some information from Kansas State through the county agents. They were on top of things and I think they helped him with his silo projects and things like that, and that kept things going. And they boys all went out on their own, so it all affected them, but This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas. http://dolearchives.ku.edu Taggart 7-18-07—p. 5 they were on their own anyway and they were doing pretty humble stuff that had to be done, so yes, it was rough for them. But I don’t know because I wasn’t there. Ruppel: Did your father stay in that business while you were growing up? Taggart: Very much so. My family didn’t, but my dad did. Nobody went to WWI but they all made it up into the twenties, and my father went to a business college in Emporia just to learn something. I don’t know how he did it. To get some idea of how to borrow money and whatever. And all this time my mother was cooking and raising children. Williams: How big a family was it? How many kids? Taggart: It shrunk as the years went on, but it started out with eight and then two of the girls—Margaret went over to marry Wes Stevenson [phonetic] and then Ruth stayed in Iowa and married Kempenaar. Williams: You were one of eight and you were the youngest? Did I get that right? Taggart: No, my dad was the oldest of eight. They youngest was Paul Taggart, and he was around Manhattan and Wamego and his family still is. Ruppel: But we skipped a generation. Judy Taggart: Your dad’s generation. Ruppel: Right. Now we need to go down to Bill’s generation. Williams: Your generation. How many brothers and sisters did you have? Taggart: I had three. Three brothers. I was born in ’31; there’s five years between me and Dale, so he was born in ’26, and that would have put Dick born in ’24 and Coyd [phonetic] in ’22.
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