Person:James Boggs (57)

Lake County, California, 1880 census:^[4]

Boggs, J. W. 36 yrs Farmer b. Missouri (parents, b. Missouri/Kentucky)

      Josephine 34 yrs Wife Keeping House b. Missouri (parents, b. Kentucky/Vermont)

MCutcheon, M. R. 43 yrs (wid.) Sis/law b. Indiana (parents, b. Kentucky/Vermont)

      Archie B. 13 yrs Nephew At School b. Missouri (parents, b. Kentucky/Indiana)

Foy, Ab [CHINESE] 22 yrs (marr.) Hired Help Cook b. China (parents, b. China)

Lake County, California, 1900 census:^[5]

Boggs, James W. Head 56 yrs (b. Aug 1843) (marr. 30 yrs) b. Missouri (parents, b. Missouri/Kentucky) Bank President

      Josephine Wife 56 yrs (b. Jan 1844) (0 children) b. Missouri (parents, b. Kentucky/Vermont)

Lake County, California, 1910 census:^[6]

Boggs, J. William Head 66 yrs (marr. 39 yrs) b. Missouri (parents, b. Missouri/Kentucky) Banker

      Josephine Wife 66 yrs (0 children) b. Missouri (parents, b. Kentucky/Indiana)

Lake County, California, 1920 census:^[7]

Boggs, James W. Head 76 yrs b. Missouri (parents, b. Missouri/Kentucky) President (Bank)

      Josephine Wife 75 yrs b. Missouri (parents, b. Kentucky/Vermont)

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Napa, California, United States. 1852 California State Census
   p. 18.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Find A Grave.

   James William Boggs

3. ↑ California State Registrar. California Death Index, 1905-1939.
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Lake, California, United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   ED 51, p. 40A, dwelling/family 49/49.
5. ↑ ^5.0 5.1 Lake, California, United States. 1900 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   ED 46, p. 1B, dwelling/family 18/18.
6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 Lake, California, United States. 1910 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   ED 39, p. 7A, dwelling/family 726/730.
7. ↑ ^7.0 7.1 Lake, California, United States. 1920 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   ED 180, p. 4A, dwelling/family 88/103 (Armstrong St).
8. ↑ California, United States. Wills and Probate Records, 1782-1999
   Probate Case Files, No. 1222-1236, 1919-1934.
9.   Carpenter, Aurelius O., and Percy H. Millberry. History of Mendocino and Lake Counties California: with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the counties .. (Los Angeles: Historic Company, 1914)
   pp. 964-65.

   JAMES WILLIAM BOGGS. --- The president of the Farmers' Savings Bank of Lakeport has the distinction of being a son of the founder of this substantial old institution and a grandson of the honored pioneer and alcalde of the northern district of California, Hon. Lilburn W. Boggs, governor of Missouri during the eventful period of the Mormon hostilities. The eldest living male descendant in California of this one-time governor was born on a farm in Jackson county, Mo., not far from the present site of Kansas City, .August 10. 1843. and in 1850 he came across the plains with his father, Henry Carroll Boggs. Of that momentous journey his recollections are somewhat vague and indistinct, but he vividly recalls the excitement in connection with the arrival of the party at Sutter's Fort in Sacramento county, August 20, 1850. While some of the expedition established a permanent home in the valley of the Sacramento, the Boggs family tarried but for a while, moving on to the village of Sonoma in the fall of the same year, and from there going on to Napa county. A home was established in Lake county in 1864, and the father in 1874 founded the Farmers' Savings Bank, of which he continued to act as president throughout the entire period until his death, September 28, 1898. Individually he did more to develop Lake County than any other citizen of his day, and it was the desire of old friends that his body might be interred there, but the fact that his father and mother were laid to rest in a cemetery in Napa county led to his interment in the family lot at that point. To indicate his remarkable devotion to the county and his willinarness to sacrifice personal considerations fur the public good, it may be stated that the county had authorized the issuing of $26,000 in bonds for the building of the county road, a most vital project to the development of the back country. There seemed difficulty in placing the bonds and, to hasten the consummation of the work, H. C. Boggs personally paid cash for these bonds and thus made possible the building of twenty-six miles of road from Lawley toll road to the town of Kelseyville. While material causes received constant encouragement and aid from him, he never for a moment forgot the claims of religion upon the soul, but endeavored to exemplify in his life the teachings of the Lord and was true to the doctrines of the Christian Church.
   
   From the age of twenty-one years James William Boggs has been a resident of Lake county, and since the death of his father in 1898 he has officiated as president of the Farmers' Savings Bank. In addition he is a stockholder in the Clear Lake Railroad Company, of which his brother, Lilburn H., is president and which proposes to construct a standard gauge road from Lakeport to Hopland on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. During 1880 with his wife (formerly Miss Josephine Boggs) he moved out to the Boggs & Harbine mill, which he had leased from his father and Mr. Harbine. Returning the next year to his farm in Big valley, he remained there until he was elected president of the bank and then established a home in town. With J. D. Stephens of Woodland, the owner of the Highland Springs resort, and a number of farmers in Big valley as well as several business men in Lakeport, he promoted the building of the toll road from Highland Springs to Pieta, a distance of fifteen and one-half miles, and under his oversight as superintendent of construction, with Professor Kelley of Lakeport as civil engineer, the surveys were made and the road located. It is a matter of interest to know that it took from April 30 to September 18, 1891. to construct the road, and the grade work was done mainly by Indians, there being ninety red men out of the one hundred and fifty employed in building the grade. However, the bridge work and the blasting were done wholly by white men. Besides his other interests Mr. Boggs owns three hundred and twenty-two acres known as the Argonaut Stock Farm. This is the place where the first cheese was made in Lake county in 1856 and where he engages in breeding thoroughbred Durham cattle, Poland-China hogs and Shropshire sheep. Throughout Lake county he is well known and universally honored for his work's sake. In the affection of the people he has a permanent place, and this is a tribute, not only to his identification with a prominent pioneer family, hut more especially to his own splendid personal attributes and exemplary character.
   
   Stock and grain were the earliest farm products of this section. Cheese making was among the first industries. The only fruit grown was in family orchards. Prunes were extensively planted in the early '80s. W. G. Young, the owners of the Mills and Hilsabeck ranches, and J. W. Boggs being pioneers in this line.

10.   Carpenter, Aurelius O., and Percy H. Millberry. History of Mendocino and Lake Counties California: with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the counties .. (Los Angeles: Historic Company, 1914)
    p. 146.