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



JAMES SHIELLS, of Fillmore, is a Scotchman, and that fact accounts somewhat for the 
phenomenal energy and ability with which he has handled his business affairs. He is also one of 
the pioneer residents of Ventura County and the family is well known over a large part of 
Southern California on account of the extensive lands and other properties which are under the 
Shiells ownership.
Born in Haddingtonshire, Scotland, June 10, 1850, a son of Francis and Helen Shiells, he worked 
on a farm in Scotland until 1869, and in that year came to California, making the trip by way of 
the Isthmus of Panama and settling in the Carpinteria Valley of Santa Barbara County. After 
three years of work on a farm he went to Goleta in the same county, worked on a farm there a 
year, and on returning to Carpinteria rented some land with his brother William. James and 
William Shiells for a great many years have been associated in practically all their business 
transactions.
After farming until 1884 James Shiells went to Ventura County and bought 160 acres in the 
Santa Clara-Valley near Fillmore. Not long afterwards his mother and brother William arrived 
and joined him, and each of the three then filed on a homestead claim of 160 acres, that giving 
them 640 acres in one body. In 1886 the brothers bought 160 acres more and in 1911 a tract of 
112 acres, later purchasing other lands until their holdings were 1,200 acres.
At first the Shiells brothers used their land for stock raising and general farming purposes, but 
in recent years they have developed it more and more for horticulture, having planted fifty 
acres in lemons, twenty acres in oranges and ten acres in walnuts. One of their most recent 
purchases was 526 acres near Newman, California. The brothers own an immense amount of 
valuable property in different sections of Southern and Central California.
In 1910 they leased 880 acres of land in Ventura County to the Montabello Oil Company. That 
company started operations in December, 1910, and this has since proved one of the richest oil 
fields in the state. Naturally an immense revenue goes to the Shiells. brothers in the form of 
royalties.
Mr. James Shiells is a stockholder in the Fillmore State Bank. He is a Mason, a Shriner, Knight of 
Pythias and republican. Having long since attained financial independence, he has used his 
means -to enjoy his principal diversion, travel. He has made one trip entirely around the world, 
and has been abroad many times. During the last three years he has traveled more than 65,000 
miles. Mr. Shiells has never married.