In the summer of 1920, the Taylors joined an annual mix of some 100,000 immigrants and Mid-Western U.S. migrants who resettled in Los Angeles, every year between 1920 and 1924. Not all, but many, like the Taylors, would follow the silhouette of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges through the Cajon Pass and drop down into the Los Angeles basin. From the summit she looked like a crazy quilt (that had been so popular in the 19th Century), held together by a variety of techniques and stitches, framed by an ocean, mountains, and desert—crazy and uniquely beautiful.
“Alice, this is the last god-forsaken winter we are going to spend here! I want no discussion of fears or complainte (laments). This summer we’re following the Cyrs to California,” half demanded and half begged Joseph Taylor.
The master carpenter, raised in a French-speaking enclave of Penobscot County, Maine, had had enough. That winter of 1919 had been particularly brutal. And since in those days, “carpenters” poured foundations, framed walls, installed plumbing, electricity, and heating devices, his exposure could no longer be warmed simply by the love of Alice Martin his wife of 19 years and their four children. His resolve was so complete it was as if part of him had already left for California.
Alice had seen that look in Joseph Frank Taylor’s eyes before. They met when she was a teenager working as a maid in a boarding house in Bangor. Joseph had taken up residence there after leaving his parents’ home in Old Town for steady work. He was young, handsome, soft spoken and seemed so much older and wiser than she. Likely it was his out-of-town experience, his lovely French accent, and his ability to provide so well for himself that drew her to him. Not long after their first meeting, Joseph explained to young Alice Martin that they would marry in the spring. Just as he did that morning in 1919, he looked so confident and at the same time so tranquil. And they did marry at St. Benedict Catholic Church in Old Town, Maine, on April 17, 1900. Joseph was 23 and Alice was 17.