Santa Clara County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm



W. F. TAAFFE
 
            One of the most extensive farmers in Santa Clara County is the young 
gentleman whose name heads this sketch, and who manages 3,000 acres of the 
Taaffe Ranch, three  miles from Mountain View.  To cultivate this amount is a 
large undertaking for one individual, but everything about the place indicates 
good management and commendable care and attention.  In 1888 he cut about 1,000 
acres for hay, averaging two tons to the acre.  Five hundred acres of wheat 
averaged between twelve and fifteen sacks to the acre.  The land is very 
productive, and in particularly favorable years this average is largely 
increased.  The ranch, which occupies a beautiful location, is watered by the 
San Antonio or �Adobe� Creek, and by a number of large and never-failing 
springs.  About sixty head of horses are usually kept on the place, mostly 
Norman stock.
            Mr. William Taaffe, who has given his personal attention to this 
place since the spring of 1887, is a native of San Francisco, born July 16, 
1864.  He was reared at the Bay View Farm, in Santa Clara County, and received 
his education at St. Mary�s, and at Santa Clara College, at which he graduated 
in 1884.  After completing his education he superintended the Bay View Farm 
until he came to his present home place.  Mr. Taaffe is a son of William P. and 
Elizabeth Yuba (Murphy) Taaffe, mentioned elsewhere in this volume.  He is a 
grandson of Martin Murphy, Sr., that grand pioneer who left as a heritage to his 
descendants a name which will always be revered in the history of the Golden 
State.  In its proper place in this book his life history is given, with the 
account of the party he led to this coast, and to whom Santa Clara County owes 
so much of gratitude.  Mr. Taaffe was married, in San Francisco, in April, 1887, 
to Miss M. J. Dunne, a native of that city, and daughter of Peter F. Dunne, of 
San Francisco.  She also comes of one of the historic families of this county.  
In politics Mr. Taaffe is a Democrat.
 
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, 
Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 
1888.
Pg. 356
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
Proofread by Betty Vickroy