John M. Jacobs came to Arizona when the American Depression was at its height. He was over $40,000 in debt when he arrived, but over the next 40 years, he not only paid back all his IOUs but also established one of the most successful farming and ranching operations in the central Arizona area.

Jacobs was born near Franklin, Indiana, on July 30, 1897. In his teens, he worked on his father’s truck garden, driving a spring wagon piled high with fruit and vegetables and selling to the local community. He attended Franklin College and was a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity (he later received an honorary law degree from the college). He joined the Army during World War I, and after his service, went to Canon City, Colorado, to start working for a local truck farm and greenhouse operation with his brother. In 1920, he purchased his first piece of land (2 and a half acres) and entered truck farming on his own.

On February 2, 1921, Jacobs married Helen Shufflebarger. That same year, they attended a convention of the United Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association in Arizona and liked what they saw. By 1932, Jacobs owned more than 800 acres of land, was shipping produce across the United States and maintained 13 packinghouses throughout Colorado. The next year a devastating hailstorm destroyed many of the area’s agricultural crops including all of Jacobs’s farm crops. With $46,000 in debt and the prospect of a poor economy due to the American Depression, Jacobs looked to new areas for a fresh start. He found one in Arizona.

Jacobs arrived in Arizona in 1933. While trying to reestablish his credit, he worked in the produce brokerage business distributing other farm’s crops to both eastern and western markets. The following year, he was able to restore his farming operations in Arizona and within three years cleared his debt. Unfortunately, he still held more than $28,000 in IOUs from individuals and organizations in Colorado (on which he never collected).

With the financial assistance of banker Walter Bimson and support from other area developers, by 1940 Jacobs was farming again, buying land that would eventually become John Jacobs Farm in the Deer Valley area. His holdings ultimately included more than 3,000 acres; The Arizona Republic called it a Super Farm.

Jacobs proved to be an innovative farmer in both the production and distribution of vegetables. His farm area was divided into three rotational units of vegetable crops, feed crops and cattle. The vegetable crops included broccoli, sweet potatoes, cantaloupes, watermelons, carrots, romaine and Boston lettuce, onions, rappini and red potatoes.

Water for the operation was supplied by area wells and irrigation ditches. Feed crops for his cattle included alfalfa, hegari, Sudan grass, barley, and milos; many of the waste vegetables were mixed and fed to livestock. In addition, Jacobs planted fruit, grapes and citrus, maintained 500 sheep and marketed between 1,200 and 1,500 pen-fed cattle.

In addition to the farm and ranch at Deer Valley, Jacobs also purchased land in northern Arizona (Thunderbird Ranch) and northern New Mexico (Red Lake Ranch) to establish cattle ranches. He continued to buy land in New Mexico, and owned more than 114,022 acres at the time of his death. Each year cattle were moved from the northern Arizona and New Mexico operations to the Deer Valley facility for final feeding and slaughter.

Jacobs was an innovator in crop management and in labor management as well. He employed more than 400 workers at peak season periods and approximately 150 workers year-round. During World War II, Jacobs arranged for Navajos to come from the northern Arizona reservations to work on his farm. Almost all the workers maintained family units and established camps on the Jacobs’s property. Fred Blue Eyes, a Navajo, was the farm’s foreman for many years providing supervision of the camp’s workers, their families and activities. Typical Indian villages were constructed on the farm, including traditional Navajo homes and ceremonial lodges. Separate camps were also established for Mexican families and other workers employed as irrigators.

As the years passed, residential and commercial developments began to encroach on the farm, and construction of Black Canyon Highway cut it in two. Meanwhile, Jacobs began to turn over most of the actual farm management to a select group of long-term managers, many of whom had followed him from Colorado to Arizona in the 1930s. Jacobs spent more time on community activities and travel, representing Arizona agricultural interests.

In 1955 Jacobs was selected to be a member of a 12-man agricultural delegation to the Soviet Union for a 30-day tour of the country’s agricultural areas. He traveled more than 10,000 miles and visited local farmers, business and government officials. He also visited Haiti, Spain and South America as a representative of Arizona and the agricultural industry. In 1956 the State Future Farmers of America named him Arizona’s Man of the Year in Agriculture. He also was one of the original organizers of the Central Arizona Project.

When he died on February 22, 1966, the Arizona Legislature passed a resolution honoring Jacobs for his long public service to the state and his successful agricultural activities. Many well-known and respected Arizona leaders attended, including Frank Snell, Wayne Akin, Ray Cowden, Ted Jablonski, Howard Pyle, Barry Goldwater and John Rhodes. Navajos from Deer Valley provided a song for Jacobs’s passing and drafted a poem to the man they had worked for and with for many years.

—Dave Tackenberg. Photo courtesy Arizona Historical Society.