Nobles County MN Archives Biographies.....Naylon, James 1836 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 21, 2006, 8:25 pm

Author: Arthur P. Rose (1908)

  JAMES NAYLON, a farmer of Grand Prairie township, living a few miles south of

Adrian, is one of the early settlers of western Nobles county, having made his

permanent home there for thirty years.



  Mr. Naylon is a native of County Clare, Ireland, where he first saw the light

of day on June 12, 1836. His father, James Naylon, died in Pennsylvania in 1872,

and his mother, Nora (Maloney). Naylon, died in Minnesota in 1881. The parents

had come to America about 1840 and located in Canada, but later moved to

Springwater Valley, in New York state. At that place our subject joined them in

1854, having arrived in New York city in June of that year.



  During the first two years of his residence in the new world James Naylon

lived at Springwater Valley, where he spent most of his time attending school.

The family home was then made at Elmira, N. Y., and there Mr. Naylon did his

first manual labor. His father and brothers were engaged in railroad

construction work, and that was the nature of his first work. They assisted in

the building of a railroad south from Elmira to Williamsport, Pa., and there the

family located. Mr. Naylon made his permanent home in that city until 1874,

working in saw- mills and at railroad work.



  The subject of this biography came west in 1873 and purchased a farm near

Rochester, Minn., and the following year moved out with his family. There he

engaged in farming until the spring of 1878. In the fall of 1877 he came to

Nobles county and contracted to buy the farm upon which he now resides—the

northwest quarter of section 1, Grand Prairie township. He then returned to his

home in Olmstead county, and in May of the following % year returned to Nobles

county with his family and erected the buildings and made. other improvements on

his farm. Owing to the operations of the grasshoppers he did not at once begin

farming, but for the first three years ran a boarding house in the new town of

Adrian. At the end of that time he moved onto the farm, and that has been his

home ever since. Mr. Naylon was married in Williamsport, Pa., April 11, 1868, to

Margaret Naegle, who was also a native of Ireland. To them have been born the

following children: John, Michael, Joseph, Ellen and Grace. All the children

reside at home except Joseph, who lives in Vancouver, B. C. Mr. and Mrs. Naylon

are members of the Catholic church of Adrian.



  Mr. Naylon has taken an active part in the affairs of the community in which

he has resided and has held many offices of trust within the gift of his

neighbors. While living in Adrian, before the incorporation of that village, he

served as supervisor of 01-uey township and as clerk of the Adrian school board.

When the village was incorporated in 1881 Mr. Naylon was elected one of the

first trustees. After moving to Grand Prairie he served as clerk of the township

for eleven or twelve years and for many years was a member of the school board

of the district in which he resided.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:



AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NOBLES COUNTY

MINNESOTA

BY

ARTHUR P. ROSE



NORTHERN HISTORY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

WORTHINGTON, MINNESOTA 

PUBLISHERS

1908



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