Annie Edson Taylor did not go over Niagara Falls for the thrill. She went for the money.
Taylor was a 63-year-old widowed schoolteacher from Auburn, New York, out of work and out of prospects in an era with no pensions and no Social Security. In 1901 she calculated that being first over the falls would make her famous enough to live on autographs and speaking fees.
On October 24, 1901 — her birthday — friends sealed her into an oak barrel with a lucky heart-shaped pillow and an anvil for ballast, pumped in extra air with a bicycle pump, and set her adrift above the Horseshoe Falls. Rescuers cut her out on the Canadian shore with a gash on her head and little else. "Nobody ought ever do that again," she told them.
The fame lasted about a season. Her manager disappeared with the barrel, and Taylor burned through her savings hiring private detectives to chase it down. She died penniless in 1921, at 82, in the Niagara County poorhouse.
Admirers paid for her headstone. It stands in the section of Oakwood Cemetery known as Stunter's Rest.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
