Oxnard Sugar Beets: Ventura County's Lost Cash Crop
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About this ebook
Jeffrey Wayne Maulhardt
Jeffrey Wayne Maulhardt is a fifth-generation native of Oxnard. He graduated from Ventura College and California University Chico with degrees in philosophy and liberal studies. He taught a variety of grade levels in the Oxnard Elementary School District before retiring as an eighth-grade social studies teacher. Jeff has written numerous local history books and has been working on opening a museum, the Oxnard Historic Farm Park, on an acre of land once farmed by his ancestors.
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Oxnard Sugar Beets - Jeffrey Wayne Maulhardt
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INTRODUCTION
The sugar beet was the crop that transformed the agriculture of Ventura County from a break-even venture to a lucrative cash crop for the farmers. Previously, cattle and sheep grazing had failed for many due to reoccurring drought years. Dry farming crops like barley, wheat and alfalfa were a safe investment, but profits were low, and as in the case of livestock, vast acreage was needed in order to turn a profit. Farmers experimented with other crops such as potatoes and lima beans, and while lima beans thrived along the coastal plain, the big cash crop was still elusive to the early farmers. Drilling for water wells was expensive and thus needed a crop that would guarantee a profit. Along came sugar beets, and once it was established that they could thrive in the soils of Ventura County, land values went up and a new population was needed to service the crop.
This is the story of how sugar beets came to the United States and made their way west to Ventura County. Also told is the history of the Oxnard family and how they developed the beet sugar industry as an alternative to cane sugar, thus making sugar one of the county’s leading commodities.
Finally, this is about the many people who had a hand in the creation of a city that was named for the family who brought a factory to Ventura County.
For the city of Oxnard, the introduction of sugar beets created a home for many immigrant groups who have contributed to the agricultural industry. While sugar beets have long since grown in the alluvial soils of the Oxnard plain, their introduction to the community laid the foundation for the largest city in Ventura County. Many cash crops have followed the sugar beet, as farmers continue their search to find a way to make the most of the area’s rich soil.
The American Beet Factory was located near Wooley Road and Oxnard Boulevard and was, for a short time, listed as the largest sugar refinery in the world. Author’s collection.
1
EARLY AGRICULTURE
Commercial agriculture in Ventura County did not begin until the late 1860s. The Chumash provided the backbone during the mission period and into the rancho expansion time. The rancho that became Oxnard, Hueneme and parts of Camarillo was El Rio de Santa Clara o la Colonia, translated as the Colony by the Santa Clara River.
It was forty-four thousand acres that were granted to eight soldiers from the presidio in Santa Barbara after 1837. They included Rafael Gonzalez, his brother Leandro, Valentin Cota, Salvador Valenzuela, Jose Maria Valenzuela, Vicente Pico, Rafael Valdez and Vicente Feliz. Few of the petitioners for the rancho settled on the remote section of land that was cut off by the Santa Clara River to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Santa Monica Mountains to the south. After years of litigation, the Gonzales family ran cattle on their portion near the river bottom. By the 1850s, the sparsely populated ranchos had survived through hospitality, trade and contributions from the native people.
Agriculture was still a personal endeavor in the area. The cattle industry lived and died with the varying levels of precipitation, and the final blow came during the drought years of 1863–64. Thousands of cattle perished due to a lack of grasslands. The Ventura Signal wrote in an 1872 article that sixty thousand head of cattle died, and many more were slaughtered. Many of the original land grantees were forced to sell the lands they had originally retained when California joined the Union in 1850. Squatters began looking for government land to homestead. Thomas Scott purchased many of the ranchos in anticipation of a thriving oil industry after he became aware of some reports from Benjamin Silliman following a visit to Ojai and the Ventura area in 1864, during which he witnessed rivers
of oil. However, reaching the buried reserves proved frustrating to several supervisors, including Thomas Bard, who came to Ventura from Pennsylvania in 1865. After nearly two years of little progress in drilling for the big payday, Bard was ready to return to Pennsylvania and even sent a rider to Los Angeles with a telegram of resignation on December 8, 1866. His resignation would take effect on January 10, 1867. However, Scott did not acknowledge Bard’s letter, and Bard continued with his oil duties through February.
Early map of El Rio de Santa Clara o la Colonia that shows the location of the Gonzalez corral, as well as the seventeen thousand acres of disputed land that were later settled in favor of Thomas Bard. Author’s collection.
This lady with a guitar may be a descendant of the Gonzalez family, the original grantees of the El Rio de Santa Clara o la Colonia. Several of the Gonzalez family members were musicians. Courtesy of Paula Eastwood, descendant of the Gonzalez family.
In March 1867, something occurred that changed the direction of commerce for many years to come. German-born Christian Borchard traveled to the gold fields of Northern California before settling in the San Joaquin Valley to farm and raise stock. After the floods of 1866 wiped out his livelihood, he traveled south and ended up on the south side of the Santa Clara River. He and his son John Edward Borchard planted thirty acres of barley and thirty acres of wheat, only to realize the wheat was susceptible to rust while the barley flourished. His initial crop set the stage for the evolution of the land and the growth of agriculture on what would become the Oxnard Plain.
Meanwhile, Thomas Bard reiterated to Thomas Scott in another letter in April 1867 that he was determined to return home to Pennsylvania. Then he met with Captain W.E. Greenwell of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the two camped out together for a few days. Greenwell pointed out to Bard the desirable qualities of the area that would become Point Hueneme for a wharf site. Soon after, Thomas Bard withdrew his resignation request and began plans to build a wharf near the former Chumash resting ground, near Wynema, to accommodate his next venture of subdividing the large ranchos into smaller ranches.
The only known picture of Christian Borchard, who arrived in the area in 1867 and, along with his son John Edward Borchard, planted the first commercial crop on the Oxnard Plain. Author’s collection.
Christian Borchard sold his Northern California holdings and, on October 28, 1867, paid $3,200 for one thousand acres of the uncultivated land on the south side of the flowing Santa Clara River known as El Rio de Santa Clara o la Colonia. He purchased the land from Jose Lobero, who was married to Maria Clara Cota, daughter of Valentin Cota, one of the original grantees of Rancho Colonia. However, Lobero purchased his Colonia land from another original grantee, Rafael Gonzalez, one of only two of the eight to live in the rancho. (Rafael’s brother, Leandro, also built an adobe and lived on the rancho for a brief period.) Christian Borchard and his family stayed in Rafael’s adobe Viejo
until they could build a wooden structure. The first wood-frame home was built by James Leonard, who bought an adjoining one thousand acres to the west of Borchard and also purchased land from Lobero in the spring of 1868.
Thomas Bard was hired by Thomas Scott to supervise the development of the oil industry on his Ojai and Santa Paula land, but eventually Bard became the real estate broker for the ranches of the Oxnard Plain. Author’s collection.