As we’ve researched the story of Til Taylor, we’ve learned of many people living in Northeastern Oregon today who have a connection to the sheriff and the events that occurred 100 years ago this month. Here are a few:

• Sheriff Tillman D. Taylor had just one son, Sheldon, who was born in 1891. Sheldon married Kittie Gholson and they had three children: Dee Nylene (born 1916), Tillman David (born 1920) and Dolores Gholson Taylor (born 1926). The late sheriff currently has six living great-grandchildren and a number of great-great-grandchildren as well. Some still live in Umatilla County to this day, as do descendants of Sheriff W.R. “Jinks” Taylor, Til’s brother.

[Pending “Spitting image” great-grandson photo: Craig Taylor?]

• Dr. Hillis H. Hattery was the first physician on the scene at the Umatilla County Courthouse to attend to Taylor before he died that July day in 1920. He testified about Taylor’s mortal wound at the trial of Owens and Rathie later that year.

According to the East Oregonian, Dr. Hattery moved to Pendleton to practice medicine in 1914. He was a captain in the Medical Reserve Corps of the U.S. Army during the World War I.

His daughter, Martha Sue Hattery Powers, is alive and well in Pendleton today. However, she was just 5 years old when her father died in 1942, so she never did hear the tale of Til Taylor from him.

[photo of Captain Hillis Hattery, courtesy Martha Sue Hattery Richardson Powers]

• Steven Keeler of La Grande’s great-great-grandfather was J.H. McLachlen, who at the age of 70 was a leader of the Union County posse that caught Sheriff Til Taylor’s killers. He and the posse first took Owens and Hart to jail in La Grande, where Neil Hart confessed to shooting Taylor with his own gun — a .38 revolver on a .41 frame. McLachlen testified at the trial of Owens and Rathie. During his law enforcement career, McLachlen served as a deputy sheriff of Union and as chief of police in La Grande. He died in 1933 at age 83, as the result of a fall from an apple tree.

[photos pending from Steven Keeler via Facebook]