Taylor, Alexander

Alexander Taylor was born in Nova Scotia on February 15, 1839, to parents John Taylor and Sophia McCoy. Raised in Nova Scotia, he completed a four-year blacksmith apprenticeship at South River, Antigonish, before immigrating to California in May 1862. He initially worked at teaming and sawmilling in Marin County, then moved to Stockton and rented farm land at Plainsburg in Merced County for three years. In 1876, he pioneered in Kings County near Hanford, where he farmed before the town was established and eventually moved to Fresno County to continue his extensive agricultural operations.

In Fresno County, Alexander became a highly successful pioneer grain grower, farming a 160-acre home property, 320 acres on the plains, and two sections of rented land near Lanare and Wheatville. He married Fannie Smith, a native of Missouri, and together they had four children: John Ernest, Arthur, Chalmers Alexander, and Orvie Ruskin. Following the death of his wife in 1912, he operated his farms with advanced mechanical equipment alongside his sons. An active member and former Sunday School superintendent of the Presbyterian Church in Hanford, he remained a respected and prosperous citizen of the San Joaquin Valley into his eighties.