| Ventura County Biographies |
| Extracted from |
| "A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of |
| Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura, California" (1891) |
J. B. Palin
J. B. Palin. Among the many active business men with which Ventura County abounds, we find the subject of this sketch the peer of any of them. He is a native of Canada, of French parents, born within twenty miles of the State line of New York, east of the St. Lawrence River, January 6, 1847. He came to California in 1869, and to his present locality in 1873. At that time there was but little farming done in this party of the county, the land being used for stock purposes. Mr. Gries and Mr. Bell had engaged in agricultural pursuits to some extent, but the whole Pleasant Valley, nwo so beautiful with its well-tilled fields, was then a wild-looking place, indeed. Mr. Palin first worked for Mr. Savers about three years, and then engaged in raising sheep. Three years later he sold out his sheep interests, and began farming and raising horses and cattle, continuing at that business four years. aHe then purchased a large tract of land, which he is having farmed. He is also farming 1,700 acres of land in Pleasant Valley, having six men in his employ and using thirty work horses. Last year he harvested 11,000 sacks of barley. This year, 1890, he is planting 170 acres to beans, 120 to corn, and the rest to barley and wheat.
Mr. Palin is a lover of fine horses, and devotes considerable attention to breeding the Hambletonian stock. He is the owner of the valuable horse Dew Drop, which is eight years old, and is the most valuable horse of the kind now in the county. At a horse show in Santa Barbara he received a diploma for this horse, which is framed and hanging in his best room. He is also the owner of John Thompson, a very valuable and fine three-year-old colt of this breed. He owns the thoroughbred mare, Eva P. She is the mother of some fine grade colts.
Mr. Palin is a Republican and takes an active part in political matters. For some time he was a member of the County Central Republican Committee from Pleasant Valley precinct. In 1889 he was a Republican delegate to the State Senatorial Convention, and sided in the nomination of Judge Hickcock for Senator.