Nehemiah Blackstock (1846-1928) was born in Asheville, North Carolina. A veteran Confederate Civil War soldier and captain, he became a lawyer in 1868 in Tennessee before settling in Ventura in 1875/1876. In Ventura, he partnered with other prominent lawyers, dealt in real estate development, and was a Justice of the Peace. He built a family home at Poli and California Streets, which was moved to build a Ventura County Courthouse in 1911. The house still stands today at 835 E. Main Street and is known as the Blackstock House. Blackstock spent his later years living in Los Angeles, leaving Ventura circa 1902. Notable positions held by Blackstock include President of the International Indemnity Company, Railroad Commissioner of California from 1900-1904, and State Bank Examiner from 1906-1910.

Spencer Roane Thorpe (1842-1905) was a Kentucky native and Confederate Civil War cavalry officer who moved to Louisiana after the war, where he became a successful attorney. He and his family briefly moved to Ventura in 1877, but it wasn't until 1883 that he moved back to California for good, this time to San Francisco. From there, he purchased hundreds of acres in East Ventura and Saticoy, and in 1887 with several partners purchased 19,000 acres between Ventura and Santa Paula as the newly incorporated Ventura Land and Water Co. Thorpe settled in Ventura in 1886, but moved three years later to Los Angeles, where he developed real estate. He remained active in Ventura, farming apricots, lima beans and walnuts, buying and selling real estate, serving at various times as a director of the Ventura County Bank, Ventura Water Co., and Ventura and Ojai Street Railroad. He visited Ventura County on a regular basis, particularly at harvest time; he died of natural causes while visiting one of his ranches in Moorpark.