Rare Books
Wells' new descriptive chart : for the use of examiners, giving a delineation of the character of [in ms.: E. P. Lee] as given by [in ms.: J. Eugene Clarke]
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Rare Books
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Manuscripts
The collection primarily consists of incoming correspondence to the Wells, Van Dyke, & Lee law firm from their various clients and legal colleagues. The content of the cases represented is mainly civil, most heavily focused on divorces, estate settlements, and patents, as well as some correspondence on Mission Indian land cases, suits against railroads, water rights, and mining disputes. There are also a variety of advertisements from publishers, typewriter merchants, and other business connections, as well as a very few outgoing letters from Wells, Van Dyke, & Lee and limited personal correspondence. In addition to facts regarding specific cases, the letters provide an overview of general social issues, law fees and practices, property laws, patent laws, the status of women, child custody laws, divorce laws, and prevailing views of divorce in 1880s California. Some notable correspondents include Lucky Baldwin, theologian John Alonzo Fisher, American Bar Association co-founder Henry Hitchcock, California governor Henry Harrison Markham, US Secretary of State James Davis Porter, Coca-Cola Bottling Company founder B.F. Thomas, and Lucky Baldwin's ranch manager Hiram Unruh. The collection also includes the Superior Court Registry of Actions, Vol. 3 (1886-1888).
WVL 269.