Sacramento County
Biographies
THOMAS MOORE
TAVERNER
THOMAS MOORE TAVERNER was born in England, April 5, 1833, his parents being George and Susan (Moore) Taverner. The father lived to the age of eighty-five. Reared on his father’s farm, Thomas received a limited education. In 1856 he emigrated to Canada, and went to work on a farm. In 1859 he came to California, and hired out on a farm near Elk Grove, remaining in that neighborhood until 1865. In the spring of that year he engaged in sheep-raising, in partnership with John Richards. In 1867 they divided the stock, and Mr. Taverner bought 1,100 acres of the Hartnell grant, and took his brother George into partnership in the sheep-raising business. In 1871 he purchased 1,700 acres, also of the Hartnell grant, and in 1874 they divided and traded some lands, leaving Thomas M., about 2,200 acres in one body, with about twelve miles of outside fencing. Early in 1888, in partnership with Edward Lyons, he bought the Cave place of 344 acres, making him owner of about 2,500 acres. This partnership still continues, and he conducts the sheep industry and raises all kinds of grain crops and alfalfa. He could raise fruit, but not to advantage, through lack of railroad facilities to take them to market. Mr. Taverner was married in England in 1854, having by that marriage one son, who afterward came here, but was accidentally killed in 1878, being run over by a loaded truck he was driving. On September 26, 1874, Mr. Tavener was married in Sacramento to Miss Anne Hirst, a native of England, and daughter of Robert Hirst, an engineer. Mrs. Taverner’s maternal great-grandfather, Richard Scholfield, of Burnley, lived to the age of 101 years and nine months. He was at one time a sea-captain, and later in life a book-collector. She has in her possession one of those old treasures from his library, Josiah Burchett’s “Complete History of the Most Remarkable Transactions at Sea.” London, 1720. Mr. and Mrs. Taverner are the parents of four children: John Thomas, born in 1875; George Moore, in 1877; Mary Ellen, in 1879; and Effie May in 1881.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of
Sacramento County, California. Pages 620-621. Lewis
Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.