MRS. SARAH T. INGALL
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: HAWKES, TAYLOR,
whose two orchards, one of twelve acres, on Cherry Avenue, and one of four and one-half acres, on Hicks Avenue, are considered monuments of a woman's success in fruit-growing, deserves more than a passing notice. She has fully proven that in no field of action can a woman of refinement, possessing the necessary capital and executive ability, reap a more satisfactory reward than in that of fruit-growing in the Santa Clara Valley. Purchasing the home place on Cherry Avenue, in 1875, and that on Hicks Avenue at a later date, she has so developed them that the result is a beautiful home, a liberal income, and an independent existence. The places are planted in prunes, cherries, and apricots. In 1887 from these two places the apricots and cherries sold for about $5,000, including the prunes still on hand. She has had lately erected a large drying-house with a capacity of four and a half tons per day. Mrs. Ingall had originally purchased and used a steam boiler and pump for irrigating the orchard when required, which she learned to manage with the aid of a Chinaman, and found invaluable, as it increased largely the volume of the fruit crop. She now purchases water from the large irrigating works of her neighbor, Mr. Geiger.
Born in New York city, she passed most of her early youth at the family home at Charlestown, Massachusetts, attending school for some years later at the Convent of the Visitation at Washington, D. C. Her parents were Capt. Geo. W. and Rebecca (Hawkes) Taylor, the former a native of New Jersey and the latter of Lynn, Massachusetts. Mrs. Ingall is a widow with one son, George Taylor Ingall, now in his thirteenth year, attending school in the Willows. She is the only daughter of her parents. Her father, Captain Taylor, was a man of wonderful inventive genius, improving the diving-bell of his day by several valuable inventions, and later invented the Taylor Submarine Armor, the first submarine apparatus after the diving-bell that was practically successful. He was an intimate friend of Professor Morse, inventor of the telegraph, and of Goodyear, whose inventions have made India rubber and its combinations so valuable. These three were mutual confidantes in their various inventions, all equally struggling to accomplish great results with limited means. Finally, Captain Taylor took Goodyear along on a submarine diving expedition on the coast of Florida, which gave both a financial start. After devoting himself for years to the use and improvement of diving apparatus, he engaged in raising sunken ships containing valuable cargoes. Mrs. Ingall has now in her possession a small wooden toy horse taken by Captain Taylor from the cabin of the British frigate Hussar, which was sunk in Long Island Sound after striking on the rocks at Hellgate during the Revolutionary War, and which contained treasure intended to be paid to the troops then stationed in the neighborhood of New York. Captain Taylor was a practical business man as well as an inventor. He took contracts for raising sunken ships and their cargoes, or such parts as were considered valuable, and had amassed a fortune of $100,000 at the time of his death. His last contract was to raise a large American ship, the Mississippi, sunk in the Straits of Gibraltar. The United States Government paid him $5,000 to make the trip and see what could be done. On making an exploration he agreed to do the work for $25,000, pending the accomplishment of which work he died, in April, 1851. Among Captain Taylor's inventions might be mentioned a floating bomb-proof battery with means of revolving heavy guns, practically an iron-clad Monitor except that it did not contain motive power. Also, a submarine boat for attacking an enemy's ship, very similar to our torpedo-boats. Doubtless, had Captain Taylor lived during the late Civil War, his inventions and his capacity for their practical application would have immediately revolutionized the methods of naval warfare then existing.
Mrs. Taylor, who
resides with Mrs. Ingall, dates her American ancestry back to the days of the
Pilgrim Fathers. Her brothers, Louis P., Samuel, and Abijah, and her sister,
Tracy Hawkes, are now living on the old farm, one mile square, granted to her
ancester, Adam Hawkes, by the British Government in 1630, on which he settled on
his arrival in New England, ten years after the first arrival of the Mayflower,
258 years ago, and where the family had a reunion in 1880. The fortune left by
Captain Taylor was largely lost to his widow and daughter by the executors of
the estate, the home in the Willows being purchased by the residue then
remaining to them. To say only that this has been successfully managed and
increased in value would be paying but a poor tribute to this capable and
charming woman.
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. 585-586
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT