California Biographies 

Source:
History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California
by: C M Gidney - Santa Barbara. Benjamin Brooks - San Luis Obispo. 
Edwin M Sheridan - Ventura
Volumes II - Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL., 1917

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


MAJ. J. A. DRIFFILL. A history of Oxnard, which boasts the distinction of being the "biggest little 
city on the Pacific Coast," naturally begins with the establishment there of the great plant of the 
American Beet Sugar Company. This was seventeen years ago. The town and factory have been 
in many ways synonymous. The one has grown with the other, and their prosperity has mutually 
reacted, and while the population of this city of 4,000 cannot all be employed at or derive their 
living from the sugar factory that factory is in a vital sense the center of the town's prosperity 
and greatness.
Connected with practically every phase of both the town and the factory since its beginning has 
been Maj. J. A. Driffill. He came there with the construction engineers, and a vast amount of 
work, planning, and civic influence have flowed out of his capacious mind and character and 
entered into the essential groundwork of this city.
Major Driffill was born at Rochester in Monroe County, New York, September 24, 1859, a son of 
William Lewis and Eliza Driffill. His early life was spent in attending the grammar and high 
schools and free academy of his native city until he was twenty, and after that for four years he 
worked in the L. P. Ross establishment, a boot and shoe manufacturing and jobbing house.
That was his equipment of training and experience which he brought with him to California. At 
Pomona, his first location, he was identified with the fruit growing and nursery business until 
1893. Selling out he moved to Chino, where he was employed as general utility man by the 
Chino Valley Beet Sugar Company until November, 1897. Thus Major Driffill has had an 
intimate part in the development of California's resources as a beet sugar state for many years.
From Chino he came to Ventura County in the interests of the American Beet Sugar Company. 
He had charge of the construction of the plant and also of the laying out and planning of the 
town around the plant which was named in honor of the father of the beet sugar industry in the 
United States, Henry T. Oxnard. Since then the town has reached a population of 4,000.
It is not intended here to tell the story of Oxnard either as a factory center or as a civic 
community. Only a few of the things which Major Driffill has accomplished can be suggested in 
outline. He secured the rights-of-way for the railroad from Montalvo to Oxnard, which he 
turned over to the Southern Pacific Company, which corporation built the line. The factory of 
the American Beet Sugar Company was put in operation on August 16, 1899. Its original 
capacity was 2,000 tons of beets every twenty-four working hours. Since then the capacity has 
been increased to 3,000 tons daily, and the plant covers many acres of ground and fully 1,000 
people are employed in its various departments. The pay roll is said to be approximately 
$1,000,000 a year and about $1,500,000 annually are paid out to the farmers of Ventura County 
for beets. It was this factory that stimulated the beet growing in Ventura County, and that is 
now one of the leading agricultural crops of this section. Many thousands of acres are devoted 
to sugar beets, and besides the primary product, sugar, a large market has recently been 
established for dried beet pulp. In earlier years the beet pulp went in the wet state to 
neighboring farmers for stock feed, but an improved process of drying and reducing the bulk 
has made it possible to sack and ship this product all over the country and it is worth in the 
neighborhood of $20 a ton.
In June, 1911, the company bought the Ventura 'County Railway, which operates thirty-two 
miles of track from Oxnard to Hueneme, Round Mountain and McGrath, and this railroad is 
operated chiefly for the convenience of the beet growers in shipping their products to the local 
factory. Major Driffill is vice president and general manager of this company.
The plant at Oxnard is now regarded as the second largest in the world, and at one time 
claimed to be the first in size for the manufacture of beet sugar. The United States Government 
has designated it as the model beet sugar refinery of this country.
From 1898 to 1902 Major Driffill was president of the Colonial Improvement Company. It was 
this company which laid out the Town of Oxnard, and sold the original townsite. The purpose of 
the organization having been affected, the company was discontinued in 1902.
The present officers of the American Beet Sugar Company are: H. Reiman Duval, president, 
New York ; Henry T. Oxnard, vice president, New York ; Robert Oxnard, San Francisco, vice 
president ; J. E. Tucker, of New York, secretary and treasurer; E. C. Horn, of Denver, general 
manager, and J. A. Driffill, manager of the Oxnard factory.
Major Driffill is a director of the First National Bank of Oxnard, was one of its organizers and 
for many years its vice president. He is president of the Dunn Manufacturing Company, a plant 
for the manufacture of tools at Oxnard. From 1902 to 1912 he was president, and since then 
has been vice president of the Ventura County Power Company.
His military title is derived from a long and active service in the National Guards both of 
California and of his home state. He was a member of the New York National Guard, being 
second lieutenant of his company when he left that state in 1884. In 1898 he entered the 
California National Guard as first lieutenant of Company D of the Seventh Regiment. After six 
months he was elected captain of his company, and filling that post four years was then 
advanced to brigade inspector on the staff of Brigader [sic] General E. J. Johnson. After four 
years he requested retirement, but was on the retired list only six mouths when he returned to 
the service as lieutenant colonel and assistant adjutant general on the staff of Brigadier 
General C. F. A. Last. Since then he has again retired and is on the retired list of the National 
Guard of California. Major Driffill is active in Masonry and also the Elks and Knights of Pythias. 
He is past master of Oxnard Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, past high priest of 
Oxnard Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and a member of the various Scottish Rite bodies and of 
the Mystic Shrine of Los Angeles. He is a republican in politics, a member of the Jonathan Club 
of Los Angeles, and of the army and navy branch of the Union League Club of San Francisco.
Major Driffill was married in Los Angeles, February 28, 1884, to Miss Emma Gordon, a native of 
New York State and a daughter of Alexander and Mary Gordon, pioneers of Rochester, New 
York and from a very old Connecticut family of Scotch descent. The family moved from 
Massachusetts when the only method of transportation was by means of oxen.
Major and Mrs. Driffill's two children are Mary Edith, Mrs. Alvin Wieman of North Yakima, 
Washington; and Emma Mabel, at home.