Biography of Cyprian Tayrien

Fifty years or more have been added to the cycle of the centuries since Cyprian Tayrien took up his abode on the farm which is still his home and through all these years he has contributed to the agricultural development of the region, thus utilizing the natural resources of the state and adding to the general prosperity of the community, as well as to his individual fortunes. Mr. Tayrien is a native of Missouri. He was born in Clay County, in 1836, his parents being Enoch and Mary Louise (Borboney) Tayrien. The father was a French-Canadian, while the mother was born in Missouri and was one-half French and one-half Osage Indian. Enoch Tayrien was employed by the American Fur Company and spent the winter months in Missouri, while during the summer seasons he traveled through the Rocky Mountains in the interests of the business which he represented. He built boats in which to ship buffalo hides down the Rivers and streams in the days when great herds of bison roamed over the western plains. On one of his trips to Missouri he formed the acquaintance of Mary Louise Borboney, whose hand he sought in marriage. She passed away in Clay County, Missouri, in 1837, when her son, Cyprian, was but a year old. The father died at St. Joseph, Missouri, then known as Black Snake Hills. They were parents of three children: Louise, who was married in Kansas City to A. B. Canville, a Frenchman, and afterward removed to the Osage Nation, where she died about 1907; another sister, of whom all trace was lost after she went to live with an aunt following the mother’s death; and Cyprian.

The last named was reared by an aunt, Loraine Trubley, in Kansas City to the time of the marriage of his sister, Louise, when he went to live with her. In 1850 he was sent to school at the Osage mission, in what was then the Osage Nation but is now Neosho County, Oklahoma. He was eighteen years of age when he started out in the business world as a clerk in the store of his brother-in-law, A. B. Canville, and during the ten years in which he was employed in that connection he acquired an excellent knowledge of the Osage Indian language. In 1860 he was married and began farming. Following the outbreak of the Civil war, in 1861, he served as a scout for the Home Guards. When his military service was over he again took up the work of the fields and he was also employed at different times in various stores that traded with the Osage Indians, his knowledge of the language proving of great benefit to him in such mercantile endeavor. In 1870 he settled on his present farm, which is situated three and a half miles west of Bartlesville on Sand creek and there he accumulated five hundred acres of excellent land, of which he has placed two hundred acres under cultivation. After the granting of the allotment Mr. Tayrien was left with one hundred and sixty acres, with some surplus and allotted land and now has about fifty acres under cultivation, while his children own as their allotments the land which was formerly included in their father’s homestead. On locating on this property Mr. Tayrien built a small log cabin, but as the years passed he replaced the more primitive buildings by modern dwellings and good buildings for the shelter of grain and stock. He has worked persistently and energetically in the development and improvement of his farm and has made it a source of gratifying profit.

It was in 1860 that Mr. Tayrien was united in marriage to Miss Mary Louise Revard, who was one-quarter Osage, a sister of Joseph Revard, who was of mixed French and Osage, as was also his wife. Mrs. Tayrien passed away in Neosho County five years after her marriage, leaving two children: Thomas, now a resident of Pawhuska, Oklahoma ; and Mrs. Leona Young, living three miles northwest of Bartlesville. About 1870 Mr. Tayrien wedded Miss Susan Captain, who was one-fourth Osage and three-fourths French. She passed away leaving five children: Andrew, who follows farming near Bartlesville; Charles, a resident of Bartlesville, Jennie, the deceased wife of Alexander Beggs ; Ellen, who became the wife of John Himer and has passed away; and Rena, the wife of John Michaels of Bartlesville. In 1880 Mr. Tayrien married Miss Emma Higbie, a native of Indiana, who was born in 1861 and was fifteen years of age when brought to Oklahoma by her father, the mother having previously passed away. There are four children of this marriage: John, who is engaged in farming near the old home place; Mary, the wife of Ben Haney of Pawhuska, Oklahoma; Lilly, the wife of James McCoy, a farmer, living near Sand creek; and William, who carries on the operations of the old homestead.

Mr. Tayrien has long been an interested witness of the changes which have occurred in this section of the state. He has seen the entire growth and development, of the County and his labors have been an element in agricultural progress here. He is widely known and he and his family have long been a contributing factor to the growth and up building of this section of the state.