Finding aid to the Faxon Dean Atherton family papers, , MS No online items

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1 No online items Finding aid prepared by Marie Silva California Historical Society 678 Mission Street San Francisco, CA, (415) MS

2 Title: Faxon Dean Atherton family papers Date: Collection Identifier: MS 4129 Creator: Atherton, Faxon Dean, Extent: 2 boxes, 1 volume (1.5 linear feet) Contributing Institution: California Historical Society 678 Mission Street San Francisco, CA, (415) reference@calhist.org URL: Location of Materials: Collection is stored onsite. Language of Materials: Collections materials are mostly in English, with some papers in Spanish. Abstract: Dated between 1852 and 1910, the bulk of the collection consists of personal and business correspondence addressed to Faxon Dean Atherton; business records generated by Atherton, his agents, and associates in Valparaiso and California; and real estate records for land owned by Atherton in Alameda, Contra Costa, Monterey, and Santa Cruz counties. The collection also includes personalia and ephemera collected by Atherton family members; court documents and probate records; income, state, and county tax documents; and other papers. Access Collection is open for research. Publication Rights All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Library and Archives, North Baker Research Library, California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA Consent is given on behalf of the California Historical Society as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Faxon Dean MS 4129, California Historical Society. Related Collections Related materials may be found in the Faxon Dean Atherton papers, Vault MS 5. System of Arrangement The collection is arranged in seven series: 1) Correspondence; 2) Personalia and ephemera; 3) Business records; 4) Legal records; 5) Real estate records; 6) Income, state, and county tax records; and 7) James Lick Trust records. Papers are arranged in rough chronological order within series. Processing Information Processed by Marie Silva in Biographical Information Faxon Dean Atherton was born in Dedham, Massachusetts, in He began his commercial career in 1830 as an apprentice to his brother-in-law, Boston merchant Charles T. Ward, and started his own hauling business in Boston in Atherton first came to the Pacific Coast in 1833, securing a position with Loring & Co. at their ship chandlery firm in Valparaiso, Chile, the following year. Around 1835, he met George Henry Bowen, who would become his business partner and lifelong friend. From 1836 to 1838, Atherton worked as a clerk for Alpheus B. Thompson, a merchant engaged in the hides and tallow trade on the California coast. During this period, Atherton penned his California diary and formed friendships with many prominent Californians, including Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and Thomas O. Larkin (with whom he was to be associated in several real estate and commercial ventures). Atherton settled in Valparaiso around 1840 and became a successful merchant dealing in hides and tallow, foodstuffs, and other commodities. In 1850, Atherton and Bowen joined Loring & Co. as partners. Eventually, Atherton became one of the wealthiest men on the Pacific Coast, making extensive investments in California commerce and real estate. In 1853, he hired San Francisco agent Alexander B. Grogan to represent his interests in California. After Atherton s death, Grogan MS

3 served as the executor of his estate. Around 1860, Atherton returned to California to settle permanently, liquidating his assets in Valparaiso and reinvesting his money in the new state. Atherton's real estate purchases included Valparaiso Park in San Mateo County; the land now forms much of present-day Atherton. Other significant purchases in the 1850s and 1860s included: San Cayetano, Corralitos, and Sal Si Puedes ranches in Santa Cruz County; San Lorenzo Ranch and Hayward lots in Alameda County; and Milpitas Ranch in Monterey County. Atherton also served on the Board of Trustees of the Lick Trust and played an instrumental role in the construction of a railroad to Hayward. Atherton married Dominga Goñi, daughter of a prominent Chileno family. They had seven surviving children: Eulogia Isabel (wife of Enrique Edwards); Elena or Helena (wife of Captain Fred Macondray and Percival W. Selby); María Alejandra (wife of Lawrence Rathbone); Florence (wife of Ed Eyre); Faxon Dean Atherton, Jr. (husband of Jenny Selby); George H. B. Atherton (husband of California author Gertrude Atherton); and Francisco Atherton. Faxon Dean Atherton died at Valparaiso Park in Dated between 1852 and 1910, the bulk of the collection consists of personal and business correspondence addressed to Faxon Dean Atherton; business records generated by Atherton, his agents, and associates in Valparaiso and California; and real estate records for land owned by Atherton in Alameda, Contra Costa, Monterey, and Santa Cruz counties. The collection also includes personalia and ephemera collected by Atherton family members; court documents and probate records; income, state, and county tax documents; and other papers. Correspondence ( ) documents Faxon Dean Atherton s family life, as well as his commercial and real estate ventures in Chile and California. Family correspondence includes letters written to Faxon Dean Atherton by his sister and brother-in-law, Amanda and Charles T. Ward; wife Dominga Goñi de Atherton (in Spanish); children, George Atherton, Faxon Dean Atherton, Jr., Florence Atherton, and Isabel Edwards; and son-in-law Enrique Edwards. Letters written by Atherton s friends and business associates document Atherton s business activities in Valparaiso in the 1850s; the business activities and disputes of other New England merchants in Chile, including Loring & Co. and Samuel Crane & Co.; and Atherton s commercial and real estate investments in California in the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s, especially as recorded by his attorney James W. Thrift. Business records ( ) include accounts, receipts, invoices, and other documents created or collected by Faxon Dean Atherton, his San Francisco agent Alexander B. Grogan, and Dominga Goñi de Atherton, in Valparaiso and California. These include billheads for a variety of mid-nineteenth-century Valparaiso and California businesses, including Loring & Co. Other business records include records for Dry Creek Tunnel & Fluming Co. in Shasta County and Fair Oaks Farm Dairy, owned and operated by Atherton s son-in-law Percival W. Selby. Real estate records ( ) include surveys, deeds, indentures, accounts, and leases for California lands purchased by Faxon Dean Atherton, including San Cayetano, Corralitos, and Sal Si Puedes ranches in Santa Cruz County; San Lorenzo Ranch and Hayward lots in Alameda County; and Milpitas Ranch in Monterey County. Other papers include report cards for Atherton s children, including Florence Atherton s Mills Seminary records; Faxon D. Atherton vs. Fortoul et als. court papers, documenting a land dispute between Atherton and members of the Vallejo family; estate records for New England merchant John Gorham Coffin, who died in Valparaiso; and two documents pertaining to the James Lick Trust, for which Atherton served on the board of trustees. Subjects and Indexing Terms Atherton family. Billheads. Businessmen--California. Deeds. Letters. Merchants--California. Merchants--Chile--Valparaiśo. Real estate investment--california. Real property--california--alameda County. Real property--california--contra Costa County. Real property--california--monterey County. Real property--california--santa Cruz County. Receipts (financial records). MS

4 Box 1, Folder 1 Atherton family papers 2011 Correspondence Physical Description: 34.0 folders Letters to and from Atherton family members Physical Description: 7.0 folders Box 1, Folder 2 Box 1, Folder 3 Letters from Charles T. Ward and Amanda Ward (brother-in-law and sister of Faxon Dean Atherton) to Faxon Dean Atherton 1857, Letters to and from Dominga Goñi de Atherton (wife of Faxon Dean Atherton) Language of Materials: Letters are in Spanish. Box 1, Folder 4 Box 1, Folder 5 Letters from George Atherton (son of Faxon Dean Atherton) to Faxon Dean Atherton Letters to and from Florence Atherton (daughter of Faxon Dean Atherton) Consists of letters written to and by Florence Atherton while she was a student at Mills Seminary in Oakland, California. Box 1, Folder 6 Letters from Isabel Edwards (daughter of Faxon Dean Atherton) to Faxon Dean Atherton 1864, Box 1, Folder 7 Letters from Faxon Dean Atherton, Jr., to Faxon Dean Atherton 1874 Box 1, Folder 8 Letters form Enrique Edwards (son-in-law of Faxon Dean Atherton) to Faxon Dean Atherton Letters to and from Faxon Dean Atherton's friends and business associates Physical Description: 27.0 folders Box 1, Folder 9 Letters to and from Samuel Crane regarding his dispute with Elisha T. Loring of Loring & Co Box 1, Folder 10 Letters from James Hall to Loring & Co Box 1, Folder 11 Letters from Thomas K. Sanders to Faxon Dean Atherton 1854 Box 1, Folder 12 Letter from Joseph P. Thompson to Faxon Dean Atherton 1857 Box 1, Folder 13 Letters from W. W. Evans and Charles H. Hill to Faxon Dean Atherton regarding the Valparaiso railroad 1857 Box 1, Letters from James W. Thrift to Faxon Dean Atherton Folders Letters from Atherton's attorney James W. Thrift document Atherton's real estate investments in California in the 1860s and 1870s. Box 1, Folder 22 Letters to and from Alex B. Grogan (Faxon Dean Atherton's San Francisco business agent) 1863, Box 1, Folder 23 Letter from Loring & Co. to Faxon Dean Atherton 1866 Box 1, Folder 24 Letter from Antonio Agacio to Faxon Dean Atherton 1873 Box 1, Folder 25 Letters from Samuel D. Crane to Faxon Dean Atherton Box 1, Folder 26 Letters from William Blain to Faxon Dean Atherton Box 1, Folder 27 Letters from Edgar Briggs to Faxon Dean Atherton MS

5 Correspondence Letters to and from Faxon Dean Atherton's friends and business associates Box 1, Folder 28 Letters from James W. Sturgis to Faxon Dean Atherton Box 1, Folder 29 Letter from James T. Watkins to Faxon Dean Atherton regarding a tobacco venture in Lake County, California 1874 Box 1, Folder 30 Letters from John Brown to Faxon Dean Atherton Box 1, Folder 31 Letters from Pelham W. Ames to Faxon Dean Atherton Box 1, Folder 32 Letters from Edmund White to Faxon Dean Atherton Box 1, Folder 33 Letters from Gustave Schulte to Faxon Dean Atherton Box 1, Folder 34 Miscellaneous letters to Faxon Dean Atherton Box 1, Folder 35 Miscellaneous letters to Faxon Dean Atherton , undated Personalia and ephemera , undated Physical Description: 3.0 folders, 1 volume Box 1, Folder 36 Business and calling cards undated Box 1, Folder 37 Report cards 1868, Box 1, Folder 38 Miscellaneous ephemera Volume 1 Harper's Statistical Gazetteer of the World, by J. Calvin Smith (signed by W. L. Atherton?) 1855 Business records Physical Description: 13.0 folders Accounts Physical Description: 4.0 folders Box 1, Folder 39 Faxon Dean Atherton accounts Includes accounts with Alex B. Grogan and Samuel D. Crane & Co. Box 2, Folder 1 Faxon Dean Atherton accounts Includes accounts with Alex B. Grogan and Patterson and Stow. Box 2, Folder 2 Faxon Dean Atherton accounts Box 2, Folder 3 Accounts 1880, undated Receipts and invoices Physical Description: 7.0 folders Box 2, Folder 4 Dominga Goñi de Atherton receipts, Valparaiso, Chile 1855 Box 2, Folder 5 Faxon Dean Atherton receipts, Valparaiso, Chile Includes the billhead of Compro de Loring (Loring & Co.). Box 2, Folder 6 Faxon Dean Atherton invoices and receipts, California Box 2, Folder 7 Faxon Dean Atherton invoices and receipts, California and Valparaiso Box 2, Folder 8 Alex B. Grogan invoices and receipts, California , undated Box 2, Folder 9 Expense bills to the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads Box 2, Folder 10 Invoices and receipts 1879-circa 1910, undated Box 2, Folder 11 Dry Creek Tunnel & Fluming Co. (Shasta County) records Box 2, Folder 12 Fair Oaks Farm Diary records (Percival W. Selby, proprietor) MS

6 Legal records Legal records Physical Description: 3.0 folders Box 2, Folder 13 John Gorham Coffin estate records Language of Materials: Documents are in English and Spanish. Consists of records of the Valparaiso estate of John Gorham Coffin, of which Faxon Dean Atherton was executor. Box 2, Folder 14 Probate notices and other legal documents Language of Materials: Documents are in English and Spanish. Box 2, Folder 15 Faxon D. Atherton vs. Fortoul et als. complaints and memorandum 1864, undated Consists of a copy of a complaint and memorandum documenting the land dispute between Faxon D. Atherton and Maria de Jesus Vallejo de Fortoul et als. (including Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo) over Rancho Bolsa de San Cayetano in Monterey County. Real estate records Physical Description: 9.0 folders Box 2, Folder 16 Corralitos Ranch records Box 2, Folder 17 Sal Si Puedes Ranch records Box 2, Folder 18 Milpitas Ranch records Box 2, Folder 19 Hayward real estate records Box 2, San Lorenzo Ranch records Folders Box 2, Folder 22 Bolsa de San Cayetano Ranch records Box 2, Folder 23 Contra Costa Water Company deed 1878 Box 2, Folder 24 Miscellaneous real estate records , undated Box 2, Folder 25 Income, state, and county tax records Physical Description: 1.0 folder Box 2, Folder 26 James Lick Trust records Physical Description: 1.0 folder MS