[From newspaper clipping] “Mrs. Goddard Celebrates 80th Birthday Anniversary” by Joteen Sweeney, 17 Aug 1939] Anna Krilla Taylor, born Aug. 16, 1859, in Kaysville, Utah, had many colorful tales of Indians and pioneering to tell her children and grandchildren Wednesday evening at McKelligon Canyon when she was honored with a picnic on her 80th birthday anniversary. The picnic honoring Mrs. Goddard included 30 members of her immediate family, all of whom live in El Paso. Mrs. Goddard is the mother of 11 children, nine living. She has 51 living grandchildren, 36 living great-grandchildren, and two living great-great-grandchildren. The family decided on a picnic to celebrate Mrs. Goddard’s birthday anniversary so that all the group could attend. Mrs. Goddard herself loves picnicking, being in excellent health.
Her love of travel, which caused her to trek two years by wagon train in her early married life, has not diminished, for she travels about on trains regularly. She has already taken four trips this year and is planning to leave Friday for Tucson, where she will join her daughter, Mrs. W.E.Williams, and will then go to San Francisco to see the Fair.
Mrs. Goddard recalls that she and her late husband were married on New Year’s Day, 1876, at Harmony, Utah. In 1850, the couple joined a wagon train of 99 families to move down to New Mexico. They were on the journey for two years, having to blaze their own trails most of the way. The wagon train crossed the Colorado River on improvised rafts made of logs tied together. They had little trouble with Indians, for at that time most of the Indians whose territory they passed through were friendly. They would often go to the wagon camps to beg food and tease and annoy the women, knowing that the women were afraid of them, according to Mrs. Goddard.
The wagon train went to Durango, Colo., where it stopped while the men of the families worked on the D. & R.G. Railroad, which was then under construction. After leaving Durango, they journeyed on to Gallup, N.M., which was nothing more than a blacksmith shop under a tree, she recalls. After going through Winslow, Ariz., the group went to Alma, N.M., arriving there the day after an Indian raid led by the famous chief Victorio. In the raid, the brother of Captain Cooney of the town’s little garrison was killed, and Mrs. Goddard remembers that he was buried in a solid rock tomb, which is still a landmark there. From Alma, the wagon train journeyed on to Pleasanton, N.M., where the Goddards decided to make their home. They built a two-room home of solid concrete with small “portholes” for windows, the house being designed to withstand the many raids of Geronimo and his band of Apaches. The house was built in 1882, the year they arrived. Later, after the colony of Mormons there moved to Mexico, Mr. Goddard bought their land, and then bought the land where the soldiers were garrisoned, so that the Goddards acquired nearly all the property in the district, for ranching and farming.
In 1909, the family moved to Mesilla Park so that the seven younger children could attend college at New Mexico A. & M. Finally, in 1918, Mr. And Mrs. Goddard moved to El Paso and Mr. Goddard invested in real estate here. He died in 1923, and Mrs. Goddard now makes her home with a daughter, Mrs. M.W. Maddox, 3601 Lebanon Street. Mrs. Goddard’s living sons and daughters are Mrs. A.J. Stockbridge of Duncan, Ariz; J.E. Goddard, New Mexico; Mrs. E.H. Cullom, Quinlan, Texas; Mrs. W.E. Williams, Tucson, Ariz; S.C. Goddard of California; A.A. Goddard of Denver, Col.; Mrs. M.W. Maddox, El Paso; G.A. Goddard, El Paso, and Mrs. L.V. Gardiner, El Paso.
