James Boyd McFarland came to California from Zanesville, Ohio where he taught school. On the way to California he helped open the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma where he operated a drug store. While on his way to California McFarland the founder of the community of McFarland ran a mine and subdivided property. McFarland first settled in Anaheim, California where his interest was in real estate and also farmed a walnut farm.

While visiting northern Kern County in 1907, McFarland liked the way things grew around the area then known as Hunt's Siding. He enlisted William Laird, who was a prominent individual in the real estate business and was involved in the banking business in Bakersfield, later becoming the Bakersfield Police Judge in 1935. Laird later assisted McFarland in the purchase and original town site known today as the City of McFarland, California.

McFarland soon moved to Kern County and was considered one of the first to raise alfalfa utilizing an irrigation system because of the water table being close to the surface at that time in the area. He also had a dairy and raised Percheron horses for sale. This very talented and diversified individual also operated a sawmill near Davis Station on Green Horn Mountain. Meantime he was very active in real estate and subdividing and building houses in McFarland. He worked for years to bring water to the McFarland area, and he helped organize the McFarland Water Company and in 1933 the now famous Friant-Kern Canal one of California's major infrastructures which made it possible to raised precious commodities that today are well know throughout the world.

McFarland served as a member of the Kern County Board of Supervisors and also served on the Grand Jury. He was instrumental in the growth of the county library system, and aided the Kern County General Hospital and worked to establish and maintain Greenhorn National Park.