Lulabelle was the daughter of Joseph Blair (Blais) and Marguerite Bodwain. She was born on October 30, 1894 in Kilkenny, Minn. the youngest of 11 children. Her parents were French Canadians, who spoke French until the children learned English in school. The only French Lulu learned was her prayers. They were poor farmers. When Lulu was young, she had only 2 dresses one for school and one for church.
Elmer Carl Taylor was born in Algona, Iowa, on July 3, 1885. He married Lulu Blair Taylor in March 1915. Before Elmer and Lulu were married, Lulu and her sister Mina were homesteading near Havre, Montana. Lulu was 17 years old at the time, and Mina was 19. On the homestead, they lived in a tar paper shack. During the winter, they worked as nurse's aides in the Winifred, Montana hospital.
After Lulu married Elmer, they continued to homestead for three more years. While homesteading, Elmer broke wild horses and sold them. He also grew wheat on the homestead. During that time, they had three sons, Vernon, Orville, and Doran. After years of drought and poor wheat, they harvested a large crop. The threshing machine ignited the harvested wheat, and burned up the entire crop. After that set back, Elmer and Lulu left the homestead in Montana. They moved to Amery, Wisconsin, because Elmer had many relatives in that area. In Amery, Elmer learned the trade of leather and canvas work.
He bought a leather business that specialized in shoe and harness repair. Here they're fourth son Jim was born. But the winters were very harsh in Wisconsin and hard to bear year after year. Finally, in the summer of 1933, Elmer and Lulu decided to move. They wanted to live in a town with a milder climate, and a town that had a Catholic school for their boys. Wherever they decided to move, Elmer would need a job. Since he knew the leather trade well, they wanted to find a town that also had a harness and shoe repair shop that Elmer could buy. They decided to head for the West Coast. They knew the winters were milder there than on the East Coast, since Lulu's parents had lived in Newport, Oregon, for a short time.
Soon after Elmer and Lulu made their decision to leave Amery, Elmer sold his shoe and harness repair shop. Elmer went to the bank and drew out all of his savings. He then went to a local blacksmith and had a small utility trailer built to haul all their belongings to the West Coast. Finally, they packed all they could into both their 1928 Chevrolet and utility trailer, and they took off on the long journey from Wisconsin to the West Coast.
Along the way they camped out almost every night, although they did stay in hotels occasionally. Vernon and Orville, the older boys helped Elmer set up camp each night. Doran who was eleven years old at the time helped Lulu prepare the meals. Jim who was only nine, helped where he was needed. On one occasion they were near Fargo, North Dakota, there was a funny, blackish cloud covering the road. As they came closer they realized it was grasshoppers covering the road. The grasshoppers swarmed the car, filling every hole in the entire automobile. Shortly after that, they took the car to a dealership, and traded it in for a 1932 model. Elmer had become concerned about weather the car had enough power to make it over the Rocky Mountains while pulling such a heavy load, and he also wanted better brakes. They received a trade-in amount of $3.00 for their old car.
The family traveled up and down the West Coast three times, looking for a town they liked, and that fit their requirements. The first time they traveled from Portland, Oregon to Sacramento, California. After that they mainly concentrated on Oregon, because California was too hot in the summers. They continued traveling, from Ashland to Portland.
They never did find a town that fit all three of their requirements. If there was a leather shop for sale there was no Catholic school, and if there was a Catholic school then there was no leather shop for sale. Finally they settled in Grants Pass even though there was no Catholic school. They chose Grants Pass mainly because they all liked the town, and party because of the "It's the Climate" sign across Sixth Street.
In 1933, Elmer bought the Nobby Top Shop from Rusty Pierce. The business was located at 406 SW Sixth Street in Grants Pass. The Nobby Top Shop as named for the canvas car tops that Elmer repaired. These cars, called Nobby top cars, had high steel sides with a canvas top. The canvas tops were not convertible tops, but a solid canvas top. From time to time, these canvas tops wore out and would need to be replaced. The business also included shoe and harness repairs, canvas awnings, canvas irrigation dams, and a few specially made large tents.
The harnesses that Elmer repaired were for horses that pulled farmers' wagons to town, full of their crops and then took supplies back to the farms. The canvas awnings he made were for downtown storefronts such as JCpenny and other large businesses. Many of the homes also had canvas awnings over their windows to help keep them cooler in the summer. One of the more unusual items requested was the canvas irrigation dam. The dams were used by farmers in their irrigation ditches to divert the water from one canal to another. When a canvas dam was in place, that canal would be closed off and the water would be diverted through another canal to a different field. The dams were a very important part of the local farmer's summer irrigation program.
Elmer had a very simple bookkeeping system for the Nobby Top Shop, two cigar boxes. In the first box, he put the cash and checks that people paid him for his work. Because it was during the depression people couldn't always pay him immediately. In the second box he put the IOU's that his customers gave him. Occasionally people would exchange goods, such as a chicken or vegetables, for the work that Elmer did.
During the depression, money was scarce, but Elmer was still able to make a living in Grants Pass. For the first few years, the family lived in an old farmhouse at 1039 NE Ninth Street. They had nearly an acre of ground where they had a vegetable garden and a cow. Vernon and Orville had the job of milking the cow, while Doran and Jim churned the cream into butter. The family later bought a house at 215 NW B Street. The boys all attended and graduated from Grants Pass High School; they never were able to attend a Catholic School, as Lulu had wanted them to, because there wasn't one in Grants Pass. After the boys were grown up and had moved away, Elmer and Lulu had built a smaller house next door to the one they lived in for so many years, because they didn't need as much room anymore.
Elmer was an enthusiastic member of the Grants Pass Cavemen, a local business in the booster club. They had a friendly feud with a rival group, the Brookings Pirates. On one occasion, they stole a pinball machine from the Pirates, in retribution for an earlier prank. The Cavemen brought the pinball machine back to Grants Pass, and stored it in the back room of the Nobby Top Shop until the Pirates ransomed it.
In 1957, Elmer decided to retire. None of his sons wanted to work in the business, so he sold the shop. After serving in World War II, Elmer and Lulu's four boys all went in their own directions
Vernon became a truck driver, and worked later as a car salesman for the Chrysler dealership in Grants Pass. Orville was a plumber, and also calibrated milk storage tanks to dairy farmers. Doran became a building contractor. He and his wife Irene Widmayer Taylor (my grandparents) developed several subdivisions and built many houses around the Grants Pass area. Their company, Coldwell Banker Doran Taylor Inc., still continues as a family business in Grants Pass today. Jim was a Navy Corsair fighter pilot, who later flew helicopters in California, Ecuador, and Alaska. A few years later, the Nobby Top Shop, and all other buildings on that block of Sixth Street, were torn down to make way for the Wheeler car lot, which is still in that location today.