John B. Taylor

John B. Taylor, farmer, Brighton Township. Benjamin Taylor, the father of John B., of English descent, married Margaret Brown, of German ancestry; both, however, were natives of Baltimore County, Maryland. In 1844, with five children, they moved to Ohio, settling in Seneca County, of which Tiffin is the county seat. There Mr. Taylor followed farming until his death in 1865. Several years afterward his widow moved to Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri, where she lived with a married daughter until her death in 1873. She was born in 1796, and her husband in 1792. The children are: Edward, in Sun City, Barber County, Kansas; John B., the subject of this sketch; Benjamin Franklin, in Brown County, Nebraska; Mrs. Margaret A. S. Farah, in Audrain County, Missouri, and David W., in this county. Mr. J. B. Taylor was born August 30, 1826, in Baltimore County, Maryland, and was eighteen years old when he removed to Ohio. He worked at the carpenter’s trade until he joined a party of fifteen young men at Tiffin, some of them married, for coming overland with mules teams to California. They went to Cincinnati by rail, thence to Independence, Missouri, by river, where they bought their outfit of teams, wagons and provisions, making a good preparation for a long and tedious journey through plain, mountain, and desert. Leaving Independence May 2, 1849, they crossed the backbone of the continent at South Pass, and went into camp at Fort Hall, in what is now Idaho, 600 miles from Sacramento, being in doubt whether there was any gold in California; and while there a party of Mormons came along on horseback from California. The next fears of the party were that the gold would be all gone before they got here! They took a vote whether they should abandon their wagons and proceed on pack mules, one German persisting in favor of keeping the wagons. On their mules they came, making about forty miles a day, and arrived in Sacramento August 15. This city then consisted of but one frame building and a large number of tents and cloth houses. The party then divided into small companies and went to the mines. One company of ten, including Mr. Taylor, went to Beale’s Bar, on the north fork of the American River, engaged in mining awhile, and then went to Kelsey’s, El Dorado County, and wintered there. In the spring of 1850 Mr. Taylor went to Yuba, in Nevada County, and took some mining claims; but being sick he was not able to attend to them, and in about two months he sold them and came to Sacramento, with the intention of returning East. Here he met John N. Goetschius, a merchant from Cold Springs, El Dorado County, who wanted him for a partner; and he accepted the offer, remaining with him until the fall of 1852; then selling out his interest there he returned to Tiffin, Ohio. The next February he went to Missouri and bought a herd of horses and cattle, returned to Tiffin and married Miss A. E.  Goetschius, March 17, 1853. Shortly afterward, with his wife, he took the train for Cincinnati, a steamer up to St. Joseph, Missouri, completed his outfit with the cattle and horses he had purchased, and May 3 started again across the plains and mountains for the far distant West, arriving in Placerville in 120 days, and settling on the place where he now is, ¯ on the Coloma road and bordering on the American River, fourteen miles from Sacramento, September 20, 1853. There he conducted a hotel until 1858, and since then has followed agriculture. In 1857 - ‘58 he engaged also in mining on his own place, on the border of the river, and found it a paying business. During that time he also was a member of the County Board of Supervisors. His farm is 488 acres in extent; ten acres are in vineyard, and twenty in larger fruit of various kinds. The soil is a sandy loam, rich and productive, and the place is well clothed with fine buildings, etc., all of which are the product of Mr. Taylor’s industry. He is a member of a Pioneer Society, and of the Masonic fraternity. He has three daughters: Alice Amelia, wife of M. L. Wise, of Sacramento; Anna Florence, wife of Charles Studarus, and Margaret Isabelle, residing at home. Postoffice, Routier.