Yolo-Butte County CA Archives Biographies.....Tadlock, Rilford General 1839 - 
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Author: Tom Gregory (1913)

RILFORD GENERAL TADLOCK

    A native of Kentucky, Rilford G. Tadlock was born near Tompkinsville, Monroe
county, February 7, 1839. Ten years after this date the family moved to
Missouri, and in 1856 the young man started in the great trek for the
westernmost side of the continent. He was in the ox-train of Capt. Joe Campbell,
a long procession winding over the plains, composed of fifteen wagons and about
eight hundred head of cattle. This was a great care and moreover the Indians
were bad along the way. They had to herd vigilantly their stock by day and stand
a sleepless guard at night to keep the savages from stampeding their animals and
leaving them helpless on the road. They did not fear personal violence so much
as they did robbery. In Nevada the train was visited by a big war-party of
Piutes, and it was more of a raid and a capture than of a visit. The visitors
were seeking a white man whom they accused of shooting one of their squaws some
time before, and they were angry through and through. They gave the train-men to
understand that they were determined to find their quarry and they would brook
no interference. Then they searched every wagon, even hunting through the beds
and clothing of the immigrants, fiercely looking here and there. They found the
man in a later train and his fate was a horrible one, for the Indians skinned
him alive. The train company could not save him as their number was too small to
oppose the Piutes, and as he was guilty of a needless piece of savagery himself,
the whites did not feel justified in inviting a conflict that would imperil the
lives of innocent women and children. The Indians finally withdrew from the
neighborhood after trying several times to stampede the train cattle. They
wanted more vengeance, but the rifles of the white men looked too dangerous—and
were always too handy.

    Captain Campbell's wife died at Raft river and was buried in a coffin made
of the boards of a wagon bed. It was a particularly sad and impressive
scene,-that desert funeral; afterward the train passed on, leaving the dear dead
alone by the dreary wayside. But many graves lost and forgotten, are by the
great trail that reaches east to west over the plains.

    The desert winds, they whistle by and sweep
 Above them, browned and russet grasses wave
 Along a thousand leagues that lie one common grave.

    After getting into this state, Mr. Tadlock stopped first at Chico, then came
down to Yolo county, where he leased a farm near Woodland. He also took up one
hundred and sixty acres of government land, and pitched into hard work. He stuck
to this spot for about three years, but the-harvests were not golden to any
great extent. With his brother for an assistant he rigged up a four-horse team
and went freighting over the mountains, conveying supplies to the miners far up
on the slopes of the Nevadas. This move brought a financial improvement to them,
as the lofty prices per pound received for the hauls both ways added to their
savings, every trip. In 1865 Mr. Tadlock "went back to the farm," of one hundred
and sixty acres one-half mile west of Citrona, and from that time he has farmed
with pleasure and profit, managing his own home-ranch, and leasing other tracts
of land. Wherever practical he has planted fruit trees, and having chosen the
best variety, he has sold their yearly output at the best prices. As an instance
of his far-sightedness he planted twelve acres to black figs, exercising great
care in the selection of the plants, and during the last fifteen years his
income from them has averaged $100 an acre annually. His vineyards are in the
same prosperous condition. All of his land is under irrigation.

    Mr. Tadlock was made a Mason in Buckeye Lodge No. 195, F. & A. M., at old
Buckeye, and was a charter member of Landmark Lodge No. 256, at Madison. Both
himself and wife are members of the Christian Church. His political creed is
Socialism. He was married in Yolo county to Miss Alice Collet, a native of
Moniteau county, Mo., who came to California in 1870. Their children are Louis
O., Thomas E., Eva M., Lola A., Elizabeth and Nola. Eva married William L.
Bourland, on the home place; Lola, who married Philip Tutt, died in Yolo county
in 1904; Louis married Norma Harvey, of Esparto. In 1906 Mr. Tadlock located in
Esparto, where he lives retired. As he comes of a race remarkable for longevity-
his mother Margaret (Crawford) Tadlock, a native of Virginia, reaching the age
of ninety-two, and her father, James, dying at almost the century mark—it is
likely Mr. Tadlock has many years before him in his pleasant home at Esparto.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]


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