Butte County
Biographies
JAMES
HENRY TAYLOR
JAMES HENRRY TAYLOR.--The pioneer almond
grower of Durham, Cal., James Henry Taylor is a splendid example of a self-made
man. He is a native of Washington County, Ill., where he was born on June 18,
1854, the son of Kimber and Isabel Caroline (McElhannon) Taylor. The father was a native of North
Carolina, and the mother was born in Georgia. They were married in Illinois,
and reared a famiily of ten children only four of
whom are now living. The subject of this sketch, James Henry Taylor, and Martha
Watkins, of San Francisco, are the only ones residing in California.
In 1873, when nearly twenty years of age,
James Henry Taylor came to what is now Glenn County, accompanied by his father,
mother, brothers and sisters. The family remained until the centennial year,
1876, when all returned East and located in Jewell
County, Kans., where they farmed until 1879. While living in Kansas, the father
had one of those discouraging experiences that so often befall the life of a
farmer and stock-raiser. This particular season there was a superabundant yield
of corn, in some instances as high as one hundred ten bushels to the acre. The
natural consequences of this large crop was a
correspondingly small price, and Mr. Taylor was offered but eight cents per
bushel for his corn, at Jewell City. Confident that better returns could be
received for his corn crop if it were fed to hogs, he purchased three hundred
head, to fatten for the market; but within three weeks all died from cholera.
After this disheartening experience, the family returned to California, in
1880. The father and mother lived near Durham, where they passed away after a
long and well-spent life, the father having reached ninety-two years of age,
and the mother eighty-six years.
James Henry Taylor, better known as Harry
Taylor, has a well-improved ranch of sixty acres, one mile south of Durham.
Forty-five acres are planted to almonds, fifteen acres of which are four years
old and thirty acres seven years old. Fifteen acres are planted to prunes, and
five acres of these are now bearing. The progressive spirit and wise
conservatism of Mr. Taylor have won for him the high esteem of his neighbors,
and of the almond growers of this section, where he is regarded as a high
authority on almond culture. From 1879 to 1916 Mr. Taylor was successfully
engaged in raising wheat.
At Butte City, in Glenn County, in 1884,
Mr. Taylor was united in marriage with Miss Belle Williams; and of this union
four children were born: Delmer LeRoy,
Raymond DeWard, Vernon James, and Verlie
Alta. Delmer LeRoy married
Ella Popplewell and resides
at Chico. Raymond DeWard married Nona Irene Fritter,
and is a farmer near Durham. Verlie Alta married
Edward C. Sanders, and she and her husband live with father and mother Taylor.
Vernon James has answered his country's call to arms, and has enlisted as a
member of Company A, Second Regiment, Volunteeer Infantry. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have a large and
comfortable modern country residence, one mile south of Durham. The Taylors are held in high esteem in their
community.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages
1031-1032, Historic
Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sande Beach.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies