Nidiffer, James Murray

James Murray Nidiffer was born on May 13, 1857, in Carter County, Tennessee, to John and Margaret Jenkins Nidiffer. Following his father’s death in 1863, he moved during his youth to Council Grove, Kansas, where he worked as a cowboy driving long-horn cattle for Simcox-Terwilliger and Company. He arrived in Visalia, California, on April 16, 1875, and eventually secured employment with Poley Heilbron and Company on the Laguna de Tache Grant, managing their cattle department for fifteen years.

Expanding his operations in the early 1890s, Nidiffer partnered with S. C. Lillis to lease 18,000 acres and control 42,000 acres of range land, running thousands of cattle and becoming major industry leaders on the Pacific Coast. After buying out Lillis, he suffered a severe financial setback when an anthrax outbreak decimated his herd, but he subsequently worked as a buyer for Miller and Lux and the J. G. James Company across the Southwest and Mexico. On June 4, 1883, he married Elizabeth Canaday, and he eventually settled four miles west of Laton, where he farmed his own acreage and operated leased range land in Fresno County.