Manuscripts
Alfred B. Summers papers
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J. W. Stow papers
Manuscripts
The collection consists primarily of letters and some documents related to the examination of quartz mines in Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, and Tuolumne counties, California, as well as several mines in Nevada. Many of the letters are addressed to Stow, but there are also a few addressed to Edward J. Pringle and others. The primary authors of the letters are W.A. Williams and Joseph Lee.
mssHM 64102-64141
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J. W. Stow papers
Manuscripts
The collection consists primarily of letters and some documents related to the examination of quartz mines in Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, and Tuolumne counties, California, as well as several mines in Nevada. Many of the letters are addressed to Stow, but there are also a few addressed to Edward J. Pringle and others. The primary authors of the letters are W. A. Williams and Joseph Lee.
mssHM 64102-64141
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Joseph Pownall papers
Manuscripts
A collection of approximately 1,775 items from 1840 to 1926, it consists of letters, journals, manuscripts, volumes, and maps related to the life and activities of Dr. Joseph Pownall and the Pownall family. The collection contains material concerning the town of Columbia, California, and the Southern mines; business papers of the Tuolumne County Water Company; a narrative of an 1849 overland journey from Louisiana to Mariposa, California; high schools in San Francisco, California, in the 1870s; and information about the University of California in the 1880s. Family members represented in the collection include: Mary C. H. Newell Pownall, Joseph Benjamin Pownall, and Lucy Pownall Senger.
mssPW
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Dunning family papers
Manuscripts
A collection of 51 items which consists of correspondence between members of the Dunning family from 1853 to 1872, with the bulk of the collection falling between 1853-1860. Benjamin P. Dunning is the central figure in this collection; he wrote thirty-three of the letters and received six. There are eleven other authors in the collection, most significantly, his older brother Hiram A. Dunning. The letters describe the conditions of various mining camps in northern California, mainly those in Calaveras and Yuba counties; the letters also comment on the conditions and hardships of mining as well as furnish details on prices for mining supplies and food. They also illustrate several aspects of the California Gold Rush experience including prices of mining claims; the vicissitudes of the postal service; the legend of Joaq̕un Murieta; the struggle with Chinese miners; and descriptions of sea voyages from New York to California via South America and the Isthmus of Panama. Some of Benjamin Dunning's letters discuss the severe illness and death of his beloved sister, Abby, in Maine, while some of Hiram Dunning's letters discuss the death of his wife and baby in childbirth in California. The collection includes a pictorial letter sheet titled "The What Cheer House, San Francisco, Cal," with related autograph letter. Importantly, the pictorial letter sheet is not listed in either Joseph Baird Jr.'s California Pictorial Letter Sheets 1849-1869 (1967), or the Catalogue of the Collection of Henry H. Clifford California Pictorial Letter Sheets (1994). The collection includes six folders of ephemera, including two trade cards (one from The What Cheer House, and the other for The Broadway Wood and Coal Yard in San Francisco), two letter fragments, and various handwritten receipts. The collection also contains a promissory note, a judicial record, and a receipt book of personal accounts. There is a handwritten obituary for Hiram Dunning's wife, Mary Frances, which includes a pressed flower petal.
mssHM 70310-70360
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John B. Tapscott papers, (bulk 1861-1904)
Manuscripts
The collection consists of family correspondence, military records, genealogical materials, and other papers accumulated by John Baker Tapscott and his son and preserved by his granddaughter, Katharine Tapscott Rohrbough. The pre-Civil War portion of the collection includes letters to John Baker Tapscott from his friends and family. Beside the family news, the letters of Tapscott's female relatives discuss religious sentiment, reading, local gossip, and state and national news, including Thomas W. Gilmer's death in the explosion of U.S.S. Princeton; the Presbyterian Church in Virginia, Meriweather Jefferson Thompson (1826-1876); temperance meetings, including a temperance lecture given by John Bartholomew Gough (1817-1886), etc. Tapscott's sister Elizabeth (Lizzie) Gilmer Tapscott described her studies of "philosophy, botany, and astronomy" with a Miss Frary. Also included is the letter from Thomas Walker Gilmer to John's father, Baker Tapscott discussing Gilmer's plan to "depart for Texas in 10 or 12 days." In his letter of January 17, 1861, Samuel Baker Tapscott gives his take on the secession crisis and the fallout from Abraham Lincoln's election. The Civil War papers, assembled in a scrapbook, contain orders, reports, communications with Engineer Bureau, and other military records, a few personal letters, passes, passports, and copies of Robert E. Lee's farewell address to the troops. Also included is an account book entitled "The Confederate States in cash account with Lieutenant John. B. Tapscott." Correspondents include Alfred L. Rives, Charles Henry Dimmock, and others. Also included are designs for the Confederate flag submitted by Tapscott in February 1862. The post-war portion of the collection includes Tapscott's correspondence with his first wife Mary Aurelia Cobb that documents their somewhat tumultuous courtship in the fall of 1865 through the summer of 1868. The letters exchanged between Tapscott and fiancée and then second wife Kate Andrews Pegram Tapscott and her father George Pegram were mostly written during Tapscott's travels to St. Louis, Missouri, New Orleans, Louisiana, Pensacola, Florida, and Waco, Texas. The papers of John Pegram Tapscott includes letters from his sisters Annie and Virginia and his friend Edwin Thomas, Jr. a Clarksville, druggist; his uncle Benjamin Rush Pegram, and Harold Pegram Fabian (1885-1975), a relative and a childhood friend. This group also includes childhood letters of John Pegram Tapscott and Katharine Tapscott Rohrbough, including letters to Santa Claus. The collection also contains a surveyor's field book kept by Tapscott from 1859 to 1860, his public lecture of the history of the crusades, 1875, his poems, contributions to various newspapers, reports on the on the transit of Venus addressed to U.S. Transit of Venus commission, 1882, and genealogical materials related to the Tapscott, Baker, Cobb, Gilmer, and Pegram families.
mssTPS
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James B. Clover and Katherine M. Clover papers
Manuscripts
The collection consists of correspondence, documents, maps, reports, publications, and clippings related to land tenure and water use in and around Mono County (including Mono Basin, Mono Lake, Lee Vining Creek and Rush Creek), Inyo County, and Los Angeles, California. The contents of the collection were assembled by James B. (James Benton) and Katherine M. (Katherine Mary) Clover over a period of more than sixty years. Although the Clovers eventually sold most of their land in Mono County, they maintained a small parcel and ranch. Katherine M. Clover kept a diary from the 1950s-1970s recording her activities with the property including repairs, water and land problems, and meetings with local residents. She also gathered information on land and water issues related to Mono County, the City of Los Angeles, and California in general, and her many pages of handwritten notes on these subjects may be found scattered throughout the collection. There is a small amount of family papers (123 pieces), including census forms, income tax records, and wills, and there are a few materials related to land and natural resources in Colorado, where the Clover family also owned some land. The bulk of the collection consists of materials related to the interests of the City of Los Angeles (Calif.) in acquiring land in and the rights to appropriate water from Mono County for the city's use and consumption. Throughout the collection may be found correspondence and publications related to water use and supply, land tenure and use, applications to appropriate water, public hearings and related legislation. Of note in the collection are copies of federal legislation on the sale and granting of public lands in Mono County to the City of Los Angeles (1921-1981) and an extensive amount of documentation regarding several court cases related to water and land rights in Mono County, including the National Audubon Society…vs. Los Angeles (Calif.) Dept. of Water and Power (1980-1988) and City of Los Angeles vs. Nina B. Aitken, et al. (1927-1942), the latter in which the Clovers were named as defendants. Although the bulk of the collection focuses on land and water rights in Mono County, the documentary materials gathered by the Clovers also illustrate the agricultural history of Mono County, activities of advocacy groups such as the Mono Lake Committee, interests in geothermal resources in the vicinity, and federal legislation establishing the Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area. The Clovers also assembled publications and other materials related to land and water issues in California and in the greater United States, and these items illustrate trends not only at the local level but also within the state and throughout the nation. The collection includes a large amount of material on the governance and operations of the City of Los Angeles including city charters (1923-1972) and city ordinances (1909-1970). Along with pages of handwritten notes by Katherine M. Clover on the history of Los Angeles and its government, there is also material on several city departments including the Office of the City Clerk, the Dept. of Public Works, the Dept. of City Planning, and the Dept. of Water and Power. Of these, the Dept. of Water and Power is most prominently represented, with 15 annual reports (1926-1964) of the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, the Department of Water and Power's newsletter (1933-1943) and magazine, Intake (1936- 1948), promotional literature and various departmental publications. The Dept. of Water and Power also figures prominently in the collection, as it is the administrative body of the City of Los Angeles responsible for overseeing applications to appropriate water from Mono County and construction of the Los Angeles aqueduct. Also in the collection are business records and correspondence of approximately a dozen California-based water and utility companies including the Mono Valley Improvement Company (1915-1921), Rush Creek Mutual Ditch Company (1914-1959), and Sierra Land and Water Company (1920-1955). The papers of these and other corporations indicate the economic interests they had in owning, selling, and irrigating lands in Mono County and the construction of aqueducts, canals, and dams to generate hydroelectric power. 173 maps (101 of which are oversize) of aqueducts, land, reservoirs, and water sources may be found in the collection. The counties of Mono and Inyo are particularly well represented, as is the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County. Of note are 42 township plat maps in Mono County and another 40 topographic maps by the United States Geographical Survey. The collection also contains 4,759 clippings (1914-1990) on subjects such as dams, geothermal power, and water in Inyo, Los Angeles, and Mono Counties. There are also some clippings related to water and land issues in Colorado.
mssClover