Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Manuscripts
Wells, Van Dyke, & Lee Papers
- Description
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 interesting or notable items include:
Correspondence from Frederic Hall, James Johnston, John McCallum, H.H. Markham, and J.D.C. Atkins regarding Mission Indians land rights. Letters from Henry M. Burr (WVL 218) and D.H. Wittemore and W.H. Sears (WVL 1369) on the moral implications of divorce. A letter from Van Ness and Roche (WVL 1392) regarding E.J. Baldwin's claims against the Southern Pacific Railroad for negligence.Some notable correspondents represented in the collection include:
Baldwin, Elias J. "Lucky," 1828-1909. Prominent California businessman. Owned much of the land surrounding the present cities of Arcadia and Monrovia, California. Founded the Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia. Bull, Alpheus, 1816-1890. Co-founder of the Bank of California, the Pacific Insurance Company, and the Firemans Fund Insurance Company. Cobb, Moses G, b.1820. Organized the Boston Light Artillery (1853-1858) and led Cobb's Battery during the Civil War. Prominent attorney in San Francisco. Coney, A.K. (Alejandro K.), b. 1847. Consul General of Mexico at San Francisco. Fisher, John Alonzo. Noted theologian and author of A Select Bibliography of Ecclesiastical History (1885). Hitchcock, Henry, 1829-1902. Co-founder of the American Bar Association. Partner in law firm of Hitchcock, Madill, and Finkelnburg. Markham, Henry Harrison, 1840-1923. U.S. Representative from California, 1885-1887; Governor of California, 1891-1895. McIntire, William Cranch, 1841-? Prominent patent lawyer in Washington, D.C. Porter, James David, 1828-1912. United States Assistant Secretary of State under President Grover Cleveland and Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard, 1885-1887. Governor of Tennessee, 1875-1879. Sickels and Hickcox. Law firm. Consisted of D.K. Sickels, a prominent land attorney, and J.H. Hickcox, who went into the practice law after leaving his position at the General Land Office. Thomas, B.F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1860-1914. Tennessee lawyer who purchased bottling rights to Coca-Cola in 1899. Known as a "Cole pioneer;" founded the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Unruh, Hiram A. Nephew of E.J. Baldwin's first wife Sarah Ann Unruh (Baldwin and Sarah divorced in 1862). Baldwin's ranch manager and business agent; executor of Baldwin's estate. Served on Arcadia City Council from 1904-1912. Van Dyke, William M. Son of Walter Van Dyke. Attended the University of California, Berkeley. Served as Clerk of the U.S. Circuit Court, Southern District of California, in the 1880s.
