When Emma Sollis Meadows was born on 4 August 1870, in Illinois, United States, her father, Richard Dillard Meador, was 24 and her mother, Margaret Jane Sollis, was 24. She married Leander Wesley Tate on 12 December 1886, in Jefferson, Illinois, United States. They were the parents of at least 9 sons and 2 daughters. She lived in Field Township, Jefferson, Illinois, United States in 1900 and Bentley, Atoka, Oklahoma, United States in 1910. She died on 10 May 1927, in Pauls Switch, Craighead, Arkansas, United States, at the age of 56, and was buried in Trinity Cemetery, Bono, Craighead, Arkansas, United States.