Edwin is a son of Norman Benjamin Taylor and Lydia Forbush. His parents were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from their youth. They left Nauvoo, Illinois under persecution with the rest of the Saints going to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah. There they married on November 22, 1850. They were asked to help colonize in California and so went to San Bernardino where they started started their family and stayed until the Utah War in 1857 when Brigham Young asked the Saints to return to Utah. The family settled in the Santaquin area.
Edwin is the second born in his mother's family of eight children. Edwin's siblings are: Ernest Leander, Charles Wesley, Hiram Martin, Adelbert Thaddeus, Sanford Alfonzo, Elmer Franklin, and finally, a sister, Lydia Lurana. His father practiced polygamy so there are other half-siblings.
Edwin married his first cousin, Alice Ann Taylor, on December 19, 1876 at Levan in Juab County, Utah. The couple lived at Salt Creek and started their family which would eventually number eleven children: Edwin Adolphin, Melvina, Pearly Dean, Alphonso Elias, Charles Franklin, Jesse Martin, Hattie, Bessie, Norman H., Irene (Irean), and Lucy. When the family enterprise at Salt Creek largely moved to Moab, Edwin and Alice decided to move to east central Arizona to Round Valley. They eventually had sizeable holdings in Springerville. They had a home and farm in town as well as a summer house in Mulligan Valley where they herded the livestock and made butter and cheese.
Edwin's older brother, Ernest, who he had always been close to, moved to the Mormon Colonies in Mexico and asked that Edwin come too. Edwin and Alice moved there by wagon in late 1896 and lived in Colonia Juarez. They streets were in need of repair. Edwin was called as superintendent of streets and greatly improved their condition. He also repaired the footbridge over the Piedras Verde River.
About 1902 Edwin became gravely ill with a stomach disorder. He deteriorated in health and vitality over the next few years and spent his last years in bed. He eventually lost so much weight that his wife could lift him easily and carry him from room to room. Edwin died in his home on January 21, 1906. He was buried in the Colonia Juarez Cemetery.