Ventura County Republican Project: History

"The History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo & Ventura Counties"
C.M. Gidney of Santa Barbara, Benjamin Brooks of San Luis Obispo & Edwin M. Sheridan of Ventura
The Lewis Publishing Company, of Chicago, Illinois
1917, pages 816-817

JOHN B. MCNAB

The Town of Fillmore, in Ventura County, is largely built up on land formerly owned by the McNab family. The McNabs have been prominently identified with the ranching, fruit growing, business affairs of this section of Southern Calfornia for the past thirty years.

The first of the family to be mentioned was the late Joseph Derby McNab, who was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, March 4, 1838. His career was one of singular variety and not without strenuous adventure. In the course of his long life he went from the rock-bound coasts of Nova Scotia over all the paths of the sea as a mariner, afterwards established himself in business in Chicago, and from there extended his interests to the Far West and the sunny climate of California.

He was reared and educated at Halifax, but at an early age followed his inclination for the sea and began sailing before the mast. He rose in that service until he became captain and owner of his own vessels, and navigated them to all the ports of the civilized world.

When he gave up the sea, in order to get away from its fascination and attractions, like many other old sailors, he sold his vessels and in 1870 located at Chicago, where he became engaged in the wholesale fish and provision business under the name of McNab & Johnson. The great fire of 1871 destroyed their place of business, but he rebuilt and started again under the name of McNab & Company, and in time had a prosperous establishment and a very large trade.

In 1886 he came to Riverside, California, and bought an orange grove. He sold that in 1900, and spent his last years at Fillmore. As early as 1888 Joseph D. McNab had bought an interest in the Sespe Land and Water Company of Ventura County and subsequently he acquired the controlling interest. This company owned 3,300 acres of the Santa Clara Valley known as the Sespe Rancho Tract No. 2, and the company also furnished water. After it came under his ownership Mr. McNabb subdivided the land, a part of which is now the townsite of Fillmore, while outside that city the land was subdivided into small tracts for lemon and orange groves. From 1892 until his death in 1904 Joseph D. McNab was president of the company. In 1888 he also formed the Fillmore Irrigation Company, of which he was president.

Besides his enterprise in assisting the development of one of the finest bodies of land to be now found in the Santa Clara Valley, another distinction is associated with the name of Joseph D. McNab. He was the pioneer in Ventura County in drying apricots. In 1890 he had a large plant and drying house ready for operation, and that year he bought nearly all the apricots grown in Ventura County and was able to control the market.

After he came to the United States and became an American citizen he voted the republican ticket. Religiously he was a Unitarian. At Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1870, he married Lily Robinson. They were the parents of five children: Joseph Robinson, who is now employed in establishing- agencies for the Fox Film Company; Mrs. Grace Elizabeth Rhodes of Chino, California; Miss Anna Vera of Los Angeles, John Boak and Dr. Thomas R. of Los Angeles. John B. McNab, who, with his brother Dr. Thos. R. McNab, have assumed many of the business responsibilities left by his father, was born in Chicago, August 31, 1875. He lived in Chicago until 1886, had attended the common schools there, and afterward completed his education in the grammar and high schools of Riverside, California, where he was graduated in 1896. His higher education was acquired in the University of California, where he graduated in 1900.

On leaving college Mr. McNab returned to Fillmore and became secretary of the Sespe Land and Water Company, and at the death of his father four years later was made president and manager. He has also served as president of the Fillmore Irrigation Company since 1904. Besides the management of these extensive corporate interests he owns individually a seven-acre orange grove near Fillmore. He was one of the organizers and a director in the Ventura County Cooperative Association, and was also an organizer and is a director of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Fillmore.

Mr. McNab is a Scottish Rite and York Rite Mason and Shriner. is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Woodmen of the World, and is well known socially both in Ventura County and m Los Angeles. He is a "member of the California Club of Los Angeles, of the Los Angeles Country Club, the Fillmore Club, was one of the organizers of the Bachelors Club of Los Angeles, and a charter member of the Benedicts Club of Los Angeles, and from college days he retains membership in the Sigma Nu fraternity, the Skull and Keys fraternity, and in university was noted in athletics, winning distinction both on the track and with the football team. He has had much to do with local republican politics and is a member of the county central committee. In Coalinga, California, January 1 1910, he married Miss Blanche Deborah Guiberson, a native of Ventura County. Her father, S. A. Guiberson, was one of the pioneer settlers in Ventura County.