Yolo
County
Biographies
GEORGE EDWARD TANDY
George
E. Tandy, whose well improved and productive ranch is near Madison, Yolo
County, is numbered among the progressive and enterprising farmers of this
section of the state and has met with well earned prosperity. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, on the 20th
of March, 1872, and was reared there to the age of thirteen years. In 1885 his parents brought their nine
children to the United States, locating near Madison, Yolo County. At the end of two years the
parents and seven of their children returned to their native land, leaving here
two sons, George E. and Michael.
After
completing his education in the district schools, George E. Tandy went to work
on the Seaboldt ranch, where he remained for a time and then went to San
Francisco where he learned the carpenter trade.
For seventeen years he was in the employ of the Southern Pacific
Railroad and for five years was with the firm of Miller & Lux. He then engaged in building operation for
himself in San Francisco, where he remained until about seventeen years ago,
when he returned to Madison, and gave his attention to developing and farming
two hundred and sixty-five acres of the Seaboldt ranch. This tract of land, which in early days was a
barren field, covered with thistles and brush, is now one of the best developed
farms in the entire district, all the trees and shrubs on the place having been
planted by the owners, a good residence and commodious barns erected and the
ranch otherwise improved in accordance with modern ideas. The principal products of the ranch are
grapes, prunes, alfalfa and grain, and there is a splendid dairy herd of twenty
Jersey cows and many Poland China hogs.
The most improved modern machinery and milking machines are used, and
scientific methods are followed in the management of the place. The cattle, which are four-fifths pure blood
Jerseys, comprise one of the finest Jersey herds in Yolo County. Mr. and Mrs. Tandy are greatly interested in
raising good horses and are the owners of a fine bay stallion saddle horse,
which she trained and now rides. This
horse, “True Ansel,” is nine years old and some of his colts are on the
farm. One of his granddaughters, a
five-gaited horse, has been exhibited at the state fair in Sacramento, and one
of his sons won first prize at the Oakland show as a road hack, being trained
but one month. It is now the property of
Barbara Worth of Sacramento, a lover of fine horses.
Mr.
Tandy was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth J. Seaboldt, who was born and
reared in this state and is a daughter of Elias Seaboldt, a native of Germany,
who crossed the plains with ox team to California in 1850 and was numbered
among the real pioneers of this state.
He mined for gold and did teaming to the mines and as he prospered he
bought land near Madison. He farmed to
advantage, invested his profits and became one of the largest landowners in the
district. He died at the age of
eighty-one years. The first
Congregational Church built in Yolo County was erected in 1865 on the Seaboldt
home ranch. Mr. and Mrs. Tandy are the
parents of three sons: Albert Elias,
twenty-seven years of age, Carlton S., aged twenty-two, and William Francis,
aged eighteen years. Albert E. graduated
from the Esparto high school, studied five years at the University of
California in Berkeley, and was graduated from the State Agricultural College
at Davis in 1930 and is now the teacher of agriculture in the Woodland high
school. Carlton is the tennis champion
of northern California. Mrs. Tandy is a
splendid business woman, with sound judgment in practical matters, and has been
an able assistant to her husband and sons in the operation of the ranch. Theirs is one of the best farm properties in
this section of the valley and they are regarded as among Yolo county’s best
citizens.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 2 Pages 234-235. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Yolo County
Biographies