Staggs Family History

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    Azel Dillon Edgar (1830-1873)

    BIRTH: Dec 1830, Concord Township, Washington County, Missouri, USA
    DEATH: 26 Apr 1873, Cherryville, Crawford, Missouri, USA
    FATHER: William Coner Edgar Jr (1804–1880)
    MOTHER: Charlotte F Dillon (1804–1880)
    SPOUSE: Mary Mariah Eaton (1835–1886)

    When Azel Dillon Edgar was born in December 1830 in Concord, Missouri, his father, William, was 26 and his mother, Charlotte, was 26. He had seven sons and two daughters with Mary Mariah Eaton between 1853 and 1869. He died in February 1873 in Cherryville, Missouri, at the age of 42, and was buried there.

    The Life of Azel Dillon Edgar

    Azel Dillon Edgar was born in 1830, the son of William Conner Edgar Jr. and Charlotte F. Dillon, a couple who had come into the Missouri Ozarks when the region was still a patchwork of homesteads, timber stands, and wagon‑cut roads. His middle name, Dillon, carried his mother’s family line—a naming tradition that marked him from birth as part of two long‑standing frontier families.

    He grew up in Crawford County, a place of hickory ridges, rocky fields, and small farms carved out of the forest. The Edgars were not wealthy, but they were established—people who knew how to coax corn from thin soil, how to hunt, how to barter, and how to survive the lean years. Azel learned early the work of a Missouri farm boy: splitting rails, tending stock, clearing brush, and helping his father keep the family’s land productive.

    By the time he reached adulthood, Azel had the quiet steadiness of a man who understood the land and his place on it.

    Marriage and the Making of a Family

    In the early 1850s, Azel married Mary Mariah Eaton, a young woman from another Crawford County family. She was just eighteen when their first child was born, and together they began building a household that would eventually grow into one of the larger Edgar families in the county.

    By the 1860 census, Azel and Mary were living in a modest home in the Cherryville area with four young children: John F. Edgar, 8; Missouri (“Missoura”) Edgar, 6; William Edgar, 4 and Marshall Edgar, 2.

    Azel was listed simply as a farmer, like nearly every man around him. His world was measured in acres cleared, crops planted, and the number of hands—small or large—who could help bring in the harvest.

    Over the next decade, the family continued to grow. Azel and Mary welcomed: Walter Monroe Edgar (born 1861), who would later homestead in Oklahoma; George Edgar (born 1862); Mary S. Edgar (born 1864); Liza Edgar (born 1866); and Fenis Edgar (born 1869).

    Nine children in all—a full household, noisy, busy, and always in motion.

    Life Through War and Hard Times

    The Civil War years were difficult in Missouri, especially in the Ozarks. Crawford County saw bushwhackers, militia patrols, and the constant fear of raids. There is no record that Azel served in the war, but like many men with a young family, he likely stayed close to home, protecting his property and keeping his children fed.

    The war left the region poorer, but the Edgars endured. Azel continued farming, raising his children, and maintaining the family’s place in the community.

    A Short Life, A Lasting Legacy

    In 1873, at only forty‑three years old, Azel Dillon Edgar died, leaving behind a young wife and a large family. The cause of his death went unrecorded—whether illness, accident, or simply the hard wear of rural life—but its impact was immediate. Mary Mariah suddenly found herself a widow with nine children ranging from toddlers to nearly grown.

    In the years that followed, she did what many frontier women in her position had to do: she rebuilt. Mary remarried, becoming the wife of Lamuel Self, a farmer 20 years older than her, in the same Crawford County community. With this second marriage she secured stability for her younger children, keeping the family together and guiding them into adulthood. She remained the steady center of their lives until her own death in 1886.

    Azel was buried in Crawford County soil, the same ground he had worked his entire life.

    Legacy of Azel Dillon Edgar

    Azel’s legacy lived most clearly through his children. Through them, the Edgar line spread across Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and beyond.

    Azel himself left no letters, no diary, no recorded speeches. What remains is the record of a man who lived the life of a 19th‑century Missouri farmer—quiet, steady, and essential. His story is written in the census pages, in the names of his children, and in the generations that followed.

    He was one of the many who built the communities we now study—one plow furrow, one fence line, one season at a time.

    Parents

    FATHER: William Coner Edgar Jr (1804–1880)
    MOTHER: Charlotte F Dillon (1804–1880)

    Married

    Mary Mariah Eaton (1835–1886) on 1 May 1851

    Children

    • John F Edgar (1853-1923) married Addie Cole (1857-1934)
    • Missouri Edgar (1855–?)
    • William Edgar (1857–1920) married Mary T Kreamalmeyer (1865–1889)
    • Marshall Edgar (1858–?)
    • Walter Monroe Edgar (1861–1950) married Darcas Annis Martin (1863–1951)
    • George Edgar (1862–?) married Mary Alice Eaton (1866-1939)
    • Mary S Edgar (1864–1951) married George B Duncan (1859-1930)
    • Liza Edgar (1866–1895)
    • Fenis Edgar (1869–1945) married Olive Louisa (1874–1918)

    Documents

    Relation of Azel Dillon Edgar to Karen Edgar: 2nd great-grandfather

    Page last updated May 13, 2026

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