Among the representatives of old pioneer families who are carrying on, under more promising conditions, the work undertaken by their sires, mention is due James L. Jameson, a young man of energy and resource, and one of the well-known farmers in Merced county. Mr. Jameson lives three miles southwest of Los Banos, where he owns one hundred and sixty-five acres, all under alfalfa, and developed to a dairy ranch, and he also owns three hundred and twenty acres of grain land above the canal.
Mr. Jameson has lived in California since 1869, having moved here with his father, Zachariah, from Lincoln county, Mo. His first six years were spent on the farm in Lincoln county where his birth occurred January 18, 1863. He was third oldest in a family of six, of whom Susan, the wife of D. M. Wood, of Santa Cruz, William, a large stock-farmer of the vicinity of Los Banos, and James survive. Emma, deceased, was the wife of G. R. Wood, of Santa Cruz.
Zachariah Jameson had the courage to free himself from a prosperous stock business in Lincoln county, Mo., establish a similar business on the west side of Merced county, Cal., and develop land which up to that time was in its primeval condition. For years he was one of the extensive sheep-raisers on the plains and mountains, and at one time owned over a thousand acres under alfalfa, raising a large number of cattle also. At present he resides at 50 South Third street, San Jose, but still owns six hundred acres of land under irrigation, as well as other valuable country and city property. Mr. Jameson was united in marriage with Hannah Bayliss, who died on the old place in Merced county.
James L. Jameson had better educational advantages than fall to the lot of the average country-reared boy. He attended the public schools. and finally entered the state normal, at San Jose, which he left at the end of a two years' course. He started out on his own responsibility at an early age, engaging in stock-raising and farming, and finally purchased the nucleus of his present land holdings. Formerly Mr. Jameson was identified with Mountain Brow Lodge No. 82, I. O. O. F., of Los Banos. In national politics he is a Republican.