The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 858 
A portrait of James C. Young appears in this publication.

JAMES C. YOUNG.

An excellent ranch property of forty acres five and a half miles west of Yakima
pays tribute to the care and labor bestowed upon it by James C. Young, whose
labors constitute another proof of the productiveness of the soil of the Yakima
valley and the adaptability of the region for fruit raising. Mr. Young is a
native of Michigan. He was born at Chelsea, that state, on the 25th of June,
1861, his parents being Thomas and Elizabeth (Kelly) Young. The father was a
contractor and shipbuilder of Chicago in early manhood but afterward turned his
attention to the occupation of farming in Michigan. He and his wife were natives
of Ireland but came to the United States in childhood and were married on this
side of the Atlantic. Both have now passed away.

In the acquirement of his education James C. Young passed through consecutive
grades in the public schools until he had gained a high school course. In 1884
he went to California and settling at Selma, there engaged in merchandising for
nine years, or until 1893. He afterward returned to his native state, where he
again spent a year, but at the end of that time returned to Selma and occupied
the position of deputy postmaster at that place until 1894. In the spring of
1895 he made his way to Cook's Inlet, Alaska, where he engaged in mining, but
the year 1896 found him again in the vicinity of Selma, California. The
following year he returned to the Klondike, where he remained until 1900, and
was also at Teller and Port Clarence, Alaska, where he was prospecting. At
Council City on Golofnin Bay he was also mining for two years. He was for a time
at Fairbanks, Alaska, remaining until 1907, and spent altogether eight winters
and twelve summers in that country, traveling largely over the district and
prospecting most of the time. He made some money on Esther creek, near
Fairbanks, and he gained valuable experience and picked up much interesting
information concerning the country and its possibilities.

In 1907 Mr. Young arrived in Yakima county, where he purchased forty acres of
land five and a half miles west of Yakima, of which a few acres had already been
planted to fruit. He sold thirty acres of this in 1910 but has throughout the
intervening period cultivated the entire forty-acre tract. He has planted it
all to fruit, having thirty-five acres in fruit. He has erected the buildings
thereon and has a splendidly equipped ranch. He belongs to the Yakima County
Horticultural Union and he assisted in organizing the Yakima Fruit Growers
Exchange, of which he was president during several years of its existence. He
helped to organize and was president of a society formed to get rid of the fruit
blight. In fact he has done very progressive work in connection with fruit
raising in the northwest and has closely studied every phase of the business
until he is thoroughly familiar with the causes of blight and all those things
which destroy the trees or keep the fruit from attaining its normal perfection.
He employs the most modern scientific methods in the care of his trees and in
the gathering, packing and shipping of his fruit and is today a prominent
representative of the horticultural interests of this section of the state.

On the 20th of May, 1915, Mr. Young was married to Miss Minnie Einwalter and
they have become parents of two sons, James William and Howard Frederick. Mr.
Young votes with the democratic party where national questions and issues are
involved, but at local elections casts an independent ballot. He is a member of
the Sour Doughs, an organization of men formerly residents of Alaska. He has
attractive social qualities, which make for personal popularity, as well as
splendid business traits, giving him classification among the representative
and valued residents of the valley.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.