The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 251

GEORGE W. TAYLOR.

George W. Taylor owns and occupies a ranch of one hundred and ninety-seven acres
in the Selah valley and the care an development of this property claim his full
time and attention, while his enterprising labors are bringing to him well
merited success. Mr. Taylor is a native son of Yakima county, having been born
at Fort Simcoe, August 17, 1867. His parents, George S. and Nancy Rebecca
(McGlothlen) Taylor, were natives of Indiana and were married in Lucas county,
Iowa. The father served throughout the Civil war as a supporter of the Union
cause, having enlisted as one of the boys in blue of Company G, Thirty-fourth
Iowa Infantry. When the war was won and victory perched on the Union banners he
came across the country from Iowa to the Pacific coast in 1865, making his way
first to Oregon, thence to the Sound and finally to the Selah valley, where he
arrived in August, 1866. He took up a homestead and purchased other land until
he was the owner of a thousand acres and with the agricultural development of
the district he was closely associated. He became extensively engaged in raising
live stock and continued his residence in the Yakima valley until his death,
which occurred April 21, 1900. He built probably the first irrigation ditch in
the valley and used to say that some day the hills would be irrigated. Few,
however, agreed with him, thinking such an undertaking impossible. Mr. Taylor,
however, had the prescience to discern much of what the future held in store for
this great and growing country and to the limit of his power he aided in the
development and improvement of the district and assisted in laying broad and
deep the foundation upon which has been built the present progress and
prosperity of this section of the state. He was always keenly interested in the
west. Born in Indiana on the 8th of March, 1832, he was a young man of twenty
years when he went to Lucas county, Iowa, and was thirty-four years of age when
he arrived in Yakima. From that time until his demise he was deeply concerned in
the welfare and progress of his district and aided largely in the work of
general development. He served as a member of the state legislature and also as
a member of the state senate but refused the nomination for sheriff. He was
killed by an accident while driving cattle in the mountains and his wife, long
surviving him, passed away December 2, 1916. To them were born four children:
H. J., who was born in Iowa in 1857 and is now living with his brother George;
E. W. R., who is a miller at Prosser, Washington; George W., of this review; and
Rosie, the wife of Fred Brooker, living in Vancouver, Washington.

George W. Taylor acquired a public school education and after his course was
completed entered actively into the live stock business as the associate of his
father and is today the owner of the ranch which his father homesteaded more
than a half century ago. He today has one hundred and ninety-seven acres of land
in the Selah valley, which is largely devoted to the raising of alfalfa and to
the pasturing of cattle.

In 1903 George W. Taylor was married to Belle M. Parker, of Yakima, who was born
in Kansas, and they now have three children, Dorothy, Robert and Frederick
Gale. Fraternally Mr. Taylor is connected with the Yakima lodge of Elks, No.
318, and his political allegiance is given to the democratic party. He is one of
the oldest, if not the oldest, of the native sons of the Yakima valley and was
probably the third white child born in the valley. He has witnessed the entire
growth and development of this section and has borne his full share in the work
of general improvement.

********************************
Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.