Manuscripts

Section I: PERSONAL PAPERS

Description: Contains personal papers--real estate holdings throughout California, personal and family correspondence, trust papers, certificates, and photographs.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1827-1966.
Call number: mssKellerh
Creator: Keller, Henry Workman (1869-1958)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Gift of Estate of Mrs. Ruth Keller FitzGerald, October 22, 1981.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Miscellaneous Personal Papers

Manuscripts

The collection consists of the personal and business papers of Los Angeles businessman Henry Workman Keller (1869-1958) and is comprised of approximately 7985 pieces. Many of the papers are bound together in files so that one item may contain up to 500 or more letters.It includes papers related to land in California and Mexico, agriculture (including materials on the prune and rice industries, irrigation and flood control) in Colusa County, California, and mining (including copper, lead and zinc mines) in Mexico. There are also materials related to the citrus fruit industry, the Automobile Club of Southern California, and the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). Correspondents represented in the collection include: Harry Chandler, John Page Crutcher, Edward Fletcher, Llewellyn A. Luce, John G. Mott, Epes Randolph, Ygnacio Sepúlveda, Henry H. Timken, and William L. Valentine. Businesses with which Henry Workman Keller (1869-1958) was association which are represented in the collection include: the San Isidro Ranch Company, the Thousand Acre Ranch Company, and the San Manuel Mines Company and its subsidiaries.

mssKellerh

Image not available

Section II: COLUSA COUNTY - THOUSAND ACRE RANCH PAPERS

Manuscripts

Contains the working papers for the Thousand Acre Ranch in Colusa County, California, which was managed by his son Kenneth A. Keller until his death in 1951 and then by his son Kenneth A. Keller, Jr., thereafter. The ranch specialized in growing prunes and the collection also contains information about irrigation, flood control and rice production.

mssKellerh

Image not available

Section III: SAN ISIDRO RANCH COMPANY PAPERS

Manuscripts

Contains the records of the San Isidro Ranch Company, which was located in Lower California east of Tijuana. The company was organized in 1911 as the Mexican Land and Colonization Company; the next year the name was changed. The property was made up of a group of ranches (San Isidro Ajolojol, El Moro, Poza del Encino, El Carrizo, El Refugio, and Jesús María) which by 1914 contained 37,000 acres that had been purchased for hunting and for future agricultural development. In 1914, during the Mexican Revolution, Esteban Cantú, military governor of Lower California, took over the lands for a remount station. From 1917 to 1919 the National Government began colonization there, but after the Revolution was over, ordered the colonists removed and the land returned. The San Isidro Ranch Company filed claims with the American Mexican Claims Commission and litigation followed until settlement was finally made with the stockholders. The collection contains the chain of land titles (the earliest being 1827 with an original diseño map), letters re the operation of the ranch, and correspondence about the company's claims against the Mexican government.

mssKellerh

Image not available

Henry Workman Keller papers

Manuscripts

The collection consists of the personal and business papers of Los Angeles businessman Henry Workman Keller (1869-1958) and is comprised of approximately 7985 pieces. Many of the papers are bound together in files so that one item may contain up to 500 or more letters. It includes papers related to land in California and Mexico, agriculture (including materials on the prune and rice industries, irrigation and flood control) in Colusa County, California, and mining (including copper, lead and zinc mines) in Mexico. There are also materials related to the citrus fruit industry, the Automobile Club of Southern California, and the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920).Correspondents represented in the collection include: Harry Chandler, John Page Crutcher, Edward Fletcher, Llewellyn A. Luce, John G. Mott, Epes Randolph, Ygnacio Sepúlveda, Henry H. Timken, and William L. Valentine.Businesses with which Henry Workman Keller (1869-1958) was association which are represented in the collection include: the San Isidro Ranch Company, the Thousand Acre Ranch Company, and the San Manuel Mines Company and its subsidiaries.

mssKellerh

Image not available

Section V: OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Manuscripts

Contains papers pertaining to Keller's interests in several citrus processing companies and a volume on the First International Pacific Highway Conference sponsored by the Automobile Club of Southern California. This and the beautifully bound eulogy to Henry W. Keller after his death on November 9, 1958, are among the few items in the collection relating to the work of the Automobile Club.

mssKellerh

Image not available

Pakai, I

Manuscripts

mssKellerh

Section I: PERSONAL PAPERS

Opening Hours

Admission Info and Tickets

You might also be interested in

Miscellaneous Personal Papers

Section II: COLUSA COUNTY - THOUSAND ACRE RANCH PAPERS

Section III: SAN ISIDRO RANCH COMPANY PAPERS

Henry Workman Keller papers

Section V: OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Pakai, I