San Fernando Homestead Association In 1865, at the age of 29, Van Nuys was the first family member to move to California. He first lived in
Napa and later in
Monticello, where he owned a country store. In 1871, he moved to
Los Angeles, where he bought in with
Isaac Lankershim's corporation, the San Fernando Homestead Association. In 1869, it had bought the southern half of
Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando totaling 60,000 acres (240 km2) and engaged in the raising of stock, principally sheep. In 1873, Van Nuys and his future brother-in-law Isaac Lankershim's son,
James Boon Lankershim, moved to the San Fernando Valley and assumed management of the property. In 1874, they began raising grain, introducing dryland farming. In 1876, they filled two ships with Valley wheat at the
Los Angeles Harbor in
San Pedro. It was both the first grain cargo shipped from the LA Harbor and the first grain shipped to
Europe from California.
Los Angeles Farming and Milling Company In 1880, Van Nuys and James Boon Lankershim formed the Los Angeles Farming and Milling Company from the San Fernando Homestead Association. Isaac Van Nuys was its president and manager. The company had a four-story building for
milling to produce flour, meals, cracked wheat, hominy, and livestock feed. Van Nuys also served as vice-president of the
Farmers and Merchants Bank; a director in the Union Bank of Savings; a director in the Los Angeles Pressed Brick Company; and the owner of the Van Nuys Hotel, erected in 1896 in
Downtown Los Angeles. As the City of Los Angeles authorized building
William Mulholland's
Los Angeles Aqueduct from the
Owens Valley to the city and valley, land speculation plans for the Los Angeles Farming and Milling Company property in the San Fernando Valley were developed. Aqueduct construction began in 1905 and would be completed in 1913. Afterwards, land that was useful only for dryland farming could be turned into residential towns and irrigated crops and orchards.
Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company The Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company, in the "biggest land transaction ever recorded in
Los Angeles County," was a syndicate led by
Harry Chandler, the business manager of the
Los Angeles Times, with Isaac Van Nuys,
Hobart Johnstone Whitley, and James Boone Lankershim and acquired "Tract 1000" in 1909 from the Los Angeles Farming and Milling Company owned by Van Nuys and Lankershim. It encompassed the remaining of the southern half of the former
Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando land grant, everything west of the Lankershim town limits and south of the old furrow (present day Roscoe Boulevard) to the
Simi Hills and
Santa Monica Mountains, excluding
Rancho Los Encinos and
Rancho El Escorpión. The Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company laid out plans for three new towns of
Van Nuys, Marion (present-day
Reseda), and Owensmouth (present-day
Canoga Park and
West Hills); a system of roads and streets; and incorporation into the city of Los Angeles to receive the upcoming aqueduct's water. In the "Sale of the Century" in November 1910, it sold the remaining livestock and non-land assets of the Los Angeles Farming and Milling Company at auction. The
Los Angeles Times called the auction "the beginning of a new empire and a new era in the Southland." On February 22, 1911, lot sales begin for the new town of Van Nuys. The
Janss Investment Company was the initial developer of both it and Owensmouth. The syndicate also built the
San Fernando Line, a new extension of the
Pacific Electric railway system from Lankershim (present-day North Hollywood), through Van Nuys and Marion, to its Owensmouth terminus. ==Personal life==