Unrestricted. Please credit California State Library.
Description
In August 1870 Civil War veteran Aaron Bayliss and his five brothers arrived in Sacramento. They moved north and began farming wheat in Glenn County, California, eventually expanding to 20,000 acres. In the 1880s, due to torrential rains and flooding, the Bayliss family moved to Butte County and switched from wheat to rice on a plot of land near the town of Biggs. One of Aaron's sons, Daniel, became involved in the family ranch but left briefly to purchase a general store in McCloud. The brothers also began road, bridge, and dam building. They were the major contractors for the Western Canal Company, leveling tens of thousands of acres in the Central Valley between Marysville and Chico. Today's Western Canal District, whose head-gate releases water to 58,000 acres of agriculture and wild life habitat, is one of their projects. Daniel continued this line of work even after returning to the Bayliss Ranch, were his sons Daniel Jr. and Worth introduced one of the first vertical rice dryers in Northern California. In the 1980s, Daniel Jr's wife Donna took over the farm and replaced an exhausted walnut orchard with a successful organic botanicals operation. Ledgers and documents relating to the Bayliss Family businesses in Biggs, CA., dealing primarily with road, dam, and irrigation projects, including detailed payroll accounts, work camp locations, and the men, horses, mules, and supplies necessary to accomplish these substantial early 19th century agricultural developments. Bayliss. Donna Bayliss; Unrestricted. Please credit California State Library. California State Library, California History Room
Type
text
Extent
1 archive box ; 16 1/4 x 12 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. 1 manuscript box ; 15 x 11 1/2 x 3 in.
Identifier
(C)001545275CSL01-Aleph (OCoLC)911048809
Language
English
Subject
Bayless family Bayliss Ranch Canals--California Construction Agriculture Account books Ranching--California
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