James P. Neal was accorded liberal educational opportunities. After graduating from the high school at Angola, Indiana, as a member of the class of 1901 he entered De Pauw University at Greencastle, that state, and pursued a classical course, winning his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1906. After leaving De Pauw he went east for law study and matriculated as a law student in Harvard University, where he remained until 1908. Having been admitted to practice law in Madison county, Indiana, in 1907, he maintained an office for a time at Alexandria, that state. He was admitted to practice before the supreme court of Indiana in 1908, was admitted to practice in Oregon in the same year and in Washington in 1914. In 1908 he opened an office in Freewater, Oregon, and in 1913 he became connected with the firm of Brooks & Bartlett in Walla Walla, that association being maintained until 1915. Since February of the latter year he has been a partner in the firm of Stafford & Neal and in this connection enjoys a large and lucrative practice which is constantly growing in volume and importance. He has filled various positions of a professional character. In 1907 he was deputy prosecuting attorney of Madison county, Indiana, and from 1909 until 1913 was city attorney of Freewater, Oregon. In 1915 he was made city attorney of Walla Walla, which position he yet fills, and in 1917 he became deputy prosecuting attorney of Walla Walla county and is yet the incumbent in that office.
Mr. Neal was married in Walla Walla, November 6, 1912, to Miss Louise Root, a daughter of F. F. and Margaret Root. In politics Mr. Neal is a republican and an active worker in party ranks, his opinions carrying considerable weight among the leaders of the party. He was a member of the county central committee of Umatilla county, Oregon, from 1910 until 1912 and in 1916 was a member of the county central committee of Walla Walla county. His fraternal relations are with the Masons, the Elks, the Moose, the Woodmen of the World and the Knights and Ladies of Security. He is also identified with Beta Theta Pi, a college fraternity. Mr. and Mrs. Neal are people of genuine worth, occupying an enviable position in social circles, and their many substantial traits of character have won them the respect and high regard of all with whom they have been brought in contact.
JOHN D. TAGGARD.
John D. Taggard is prominently connected with the development of horticultural interests of the northwest. His efforts have demonstrated the possibilities for fruit culture in Walla Walla county and he is now conducting a successful business as an orchardist, having his place on section 12, township 8 north, range 37 east. He was born amid the Ozark mountains of Missouri, near the city of Springfield, June 28, 1863, a son of Aaron and Ruth M. (Holland) Taggard, the former a native of Missouri, while the latter was born in Tennessee. For many years they resided upon a farm in Webster county, Missouri, but in later life the father retired from agricultural pursuits and took up his abode in Conway, where for some years he engaged with a younger brother in a mercantile enterprise, being associated with that business for several years. He died in 1910 and is survived by his widow, who yet resides in Conway.
John D. Taggard was reared under the parental roof and the common schools afforded him his preliminary educational privileges. He afterward attended the seminary at Lebanon, Missouri, and also became a student in the Mountain Dale Seminary, thus being accorded liberal advantages which well qualified him for life's practical and responsible duties. He left home at the age of about eighteen years and came to Washington, where he arrived in September, 1881. He took up his abode in Dayton, Columbia county, where he engaged in teaching at the Alex Baldwin schoolhouse for one year. During the following year he took the advice of friends and for the sake of his health accepted a position on the sheep ranch of Gretman Brothers and lived in the open for two years. He was at that time afflicted with pulmonary trouble and his life in the open completely restored him to health. He then went to Whitman county, where he took up a homestead six miles north of the Snake river, and there he engaged in the cattle business, remaining upon that place for nine years, but his business venture did not prove profitable and he was entirely without means when he left that country. He then removed to Waitsburg, Walla Walla county, where he engaged in gardening and fruit growing. He was a pioneer in the commercial apple business of the Walla Walla valley. From his boyhood days he was a lover and a student of tree life and is today said to be the foremost orchardist of Walla Walla county. He has studied every phase of the question both from a practical and scientific standpoint and there is perhaps no man in this section of the state better informed concerning the possibilities of fruit raising in the northwest. In 1905 Mr. Taggard and his very close friend, Rev. B. Z. Riggs, rented a twenty acre orchard of W. R. Amon and in the following year they purchased that tract together with sixteen acres adjoining, which had formerly been planted to trees, but the trees had been pulled out. Mr. Taggard and Mr. Riggs immediately replanted the sixteen acre tract and in 1907, when Mr. Riggs' health failed, Mr. Taggard took over the interests of his partner and soon afterward admitted Albert Dickinson to a partnership, the latter purchasing a half-interest in the twenty acre orchard. After three years, however, Mr. Taggard became sole owner of the orchard and the business. In 1910, in connection with others, he planted another orchard of fifty acres. He had entire charge of the planting and the care of the orchard, which is now in bearing and is one of the finest to be found in the fruit district of this section. At the present time Mr. Taggard has in course of construction a community packing house one hundred and fifty by forty feet, which will cost in the neighborhood of five thousand dollars and will have a storage capacity of twenty-five carloads of fruit. He expects to pack between fifty and sixty thousand boxes of fruit this year, which means practically one hundred carloads. In this way the association will be independent of the middleman and will allow the owner to hold the fruit until the market is right. Mr. Taggard has thus closely studied everything that has a bearing upon orcharding in the northwest and displays sound judgment, combined with the most progressive methods, in everything that he undertakes.
On the 4th of December, 1887, Mr. Taggard was married to Miss Rilda Boothe, of Dayton, and they have an adopted daughter, Lillian. In politics Mr. Taggard is a stalwart republican. In 1910 he followed the lead of Roosevelt and became a supporter of the progressive party and was nominated on its ticket for representative, but was too busy to give the time to the campaign that would secure an election. His personal popularity, however, carried weight, so that he was defeated by only a small majority. Mr. Taggard is a member of Delta Lodge, No. 5, I. O. O. F. He and his wife hold memberships in the Christian church, guiding their lives by its teachings and conforming their conduct to its principles at all times. He has been an officer of the church for twenty years. While his efforts have brought personal success, his labors have been of even broader reach and importance, for his example has been followed by many others. He has demonstrated what could be accomplished and others have taken up the ideas which he has set forth. Today there is no feature of orcharding in the northwest with which he is not familiar and his opinions are largely accepted as authority by all fruit growers in this section.
EDMOND J. JOHNSON.
Edmond J. Johnson is a self-made man who has gained a substantial position in business circles of Walla Walla as a dealer in wood and coal. He deserves great credit for what he has accomplished, as he started out in life empty-handed and has placed his dependence upon the substantial qualities of industry and perseverance. He was born in England in February, 1861, and was there reared and educated. He had attained the age of twenty-four years when he determined to try his fortune in America, hoping that he might find better business opportunities on this side the Atlantic. He crossed the continent after reaching American shores, making his way to Walla Walla, Washington, where he worked at the butchering trade, which he had previously learned in his native land. He followed that business for seven years and then went to work for the city in the street department, occupying a position of that character for fourteen years. On the expiration of that period he turned his attention to the wood and coal trade, in which he has since been engaged, and through the intervening years he has built up a business of very gratifying and substantial proportions. He also has the contract for street cleaning in the city and is leading a most active life. Energy has ever been one of his most marked characteristics and indefatigable effort has brought him the success which is now his.