Yolo County
Biographies
James A. CRANE
Agricultural enterprises occupied the attention of James A. Crane from early maturity until recent years, when, retiring from the manifold activities associated with ranch life, he came to Woodland and here owns and occupies a comfortable home at No.815 Court street. It is said that few men are better posted than he concerning farm values and crop possibilities in Yolo county and certainly his long experience has given him a fund of information neither insignificant nor unimportant. Deeply interested in the department of the state, of which he has been a life-long resident, he also keeps well posted concerning its progress in agriculture and horticulture, its upbuilding in commerce and its growth in population and in wealth. To a large extent his interest centers in Yolo county, where he successfully prosecuted agricultural labors and where he has spent much of his active life.
The Crane family is of southern lineage. Robert Crane was born in Mercer county, Ky., December 8, 1822, but at an early age accompanied his parent to Washington county, the same state, where he lived on a plantation. At the age of seventeen he removed with the family to Missouri and settled in Marion county, where he undertook the task of transforming a tract of raw land into a productive farm. As soon as he heard of the discovery of gold in California he determined to come to the west and early in 1849 he started across the plains with a party of thirty gold-seekers. At the end of six months the prairie schooners, with their load of human freight, landed at Cold Springs, Eldorado county. There Mr. Crane remained for two and one-half years, engaged in mining and in mercantile pursuits. July 31, 1852, he arrived in Sonoma county, practically penniless, but with a willing heart and capable hands to aid him. Soon he took up four hundred and eighty-six acres seven miles from Santa Rosa and with the development of that farm his own prosperity was associated.
For many years, and indeed until his death, which occurred October 31, 1900, Robert Crane ranked as a prosperous farmer of Sonoma county and as a public-spirited citizen. In 1856 and 1858 he served as a constable and from the latter year until 1860 he served as a justice of the peace. About 1878 he was chosen a member of the board of county supervisors and continued in that capacity for two terms. For years he officiated as a deacon in the Baptist Church, and his wife is also a faithful member of that denomination, having her membership at present with the congregation at Santa Rosa, where she has resided since the death of her husband. Their marriage was solemnized November 3, 1853, three years after she had crossed the plains from Missouri. Susan C. Davidson (such was her maiden name) was born in Kentucky March 24, 1833, and accompanied her parents to Missouri, whence she crossed the plains and settled near Santa Rosa, Cal. Twelve children were born of her marriage, of whom James A. was fifth in order of birth, and he was born November 5, 1860, at the family home seven miles south of Santa Rosa in Sonoma county. In boyhood he attended a country school and an academy taught by Prof. G. W. Jones. At the age of twenty-two years he left home and started out to earn his own way in the world, coming direct to Yolo county, where he worked as a ranch hand for three years.
The period from the fall of 1886 to the spring of 1888, spent in Tulare county as a renter of a quarter-section farm, proved an unfruitful season, and the young man returned to Yolo county poorer in pocket by the venture. For two years he worked by the month. Next for ten years he rented a ranch of two hundred and eighty acres in this county. While there he devoted the land chiefly to the raising of grain and also engaged in dairying to a small extent. In the fall of 1899 he bought two hundred acres four miles west of Knights Landing and for a considerable period he remained actively engaged in ranching on this place, which under his supervision became very productive. Recently he retired from ranching and removed to Woodland, where he and his wife, formerly Miss Addie Leathers, a native daughter, have a large circle of warm personal friends. His first wife, whom he married August 20, 1885, was Lena Leathers, an older sister of the present Mrs. Crane, and who at her death in 1891 left an only child, Nellie, the wife of W. D. Cole, of Knights Landing. Politically Mr. Crane votes with the Democratic party, while fraternally he holds membership in the Woodland Camp, Woodmen of the World.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County, California” by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 725 – 727.
Thomas BAIRD
Forty years have wrought their marvelous transformations in city and on farms since time ceased and eternity began for Thomas Baird, an Englishman by birth and lineage, but an American in his keen desire to grasp opportunity and in his pre-eminent characteristics of enterprise and optimism. Comparatively brief, as we count time, was the period of his sojourn near the western coast of our country and brief also was the duration of his residence in America, nevertheless he was able to lay the foundation of a permanent prosperity which, although death prevented his own consummation thereof, aided his children in their personal efforts to accumulate a competency. When he crossed the ocean to the new world he was young and strong, but without means or friends, and the early years of his association with our country represented a constant endeavor on is part to earn a livelihood. For some time he made his home in Richmond, Mo., and followed the trade of a millwright, in which he was not only experienced, but also unusually capable. Early in manhood he had married Miss Mary A. Hutchinson and they cross the plains in 1859, making the tedious journey with wagons and oxen after the fashion of the day. During the spring of 1862 he settled on a ranch one mile east of Woodland and here he died in 1871, his wife having died two years before.
The family of Thomas Baird consisted of five children, but the daughters, Annie and Elizabeth, died at an early age. The sons survive, Thomas L., James D. and Joseph E., who under the firm title of Baird Bros., carry on extensive operations as grain-raisers. They own and cultivate the old homestead, which now comprises four hundred acres. In addition they own and manage seven hundred acres in the vicinity of Knights Landing. Through their large undertakings they have risen to a place among the leading grain-raisers of Yolo county and in their specialties of barley and wheat they have few rivals. Their annual sales aggregate from ten thousand to twelve thousand sacks of grain and they are also extensive raisers of alfalfa, having one hundred acres from which they cut four crops each season.
A noteworthy fact in relation to their cultivation of the old homestead is that, although it has been under the plow constantly for the past forty years, ever since the father established his home there in 1871, the crops are still large and the soil apparently is as rich as when its first furrow was turned, which is accounted for by rotation of crops. The brothers own a traction engine and a combined harvester and are thus amply qualified to manage their grain from the time of seeding until the last load has gone to the market. Modern machinery greatly facilitates the work and lessens the number of hired hands needed, so that large areas are cultivated with comparatively little assistance from other men. Horses, mules and hogs are raised at the old homestead and some fine specimens of equine perfection have been sold to buyers who will accept only the best. While less interested in stock-raising than in grain and alfalfa farming, the brothers have been equally successful in both and they have accumulated large holdings through their exercise of sagacious judgment and intelligent industry. The eldest of the brothers has long been a stockholder in the Bank of Yolo at Woodland and for some years he has officiated as a member of its board of directors, besides being identified with other movements for the civic prosperity. On East Main street he has a pleasant home, surrounded by evidences of refinement and culture, and representing his own accumulations during the period of his business activity.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County, California” by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 727 – 728.