Manuscripts
Collection of items related to Juan Murrieta and the Houghton and Donner families, predominantly covering the years from 1848 to 1934. Includes seven diaries and record books (most in Spanish) kept by Juan Murrieta between 1858 and 1934, and which include references to his bank accounts at California Bank, First National Bank, and Security Trust and Savings Bank, as well as listings of accounts kept for his children Henry (1931), Lita (1931), and A.J. (1922-1926). Other personal items belonging to Murrieta include his 1868 United States citizenship certificate, his 1868 renouncement of allegiance to the Queen of Spain, and his 1926 United States passport, as well as a 1983 letter from Sherman Block to Mrs. William R. Smith regarding Murrieta's time with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (including 2 photographs). Also included are a variety of items related to Sherman Otis Houghton and Eliza Poor Donner Houghton, the parents of Murrieta's daughter Lita's husband Sherman Jr. Sherman Houghton items include two letters from Henry Wagner Halleck (1861, regarding land in San Jose and the Donner Grant), a printed argument with map regarding the acquisition of land in California by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company (1876), miscellaneous notes on court cases, and a list of Houghton's military, judicial, and military appointments. Eliza Donner Houghton items include a letter from Eliza to Major Edwin A. Sherman (1910, regarding James Reed, the Donner Party, land in San Jose, and Eliza's friendships with William T. Sherman, John A. Sutter, and Jessie Benton Fremont), a letter from Robert A. Poppe (1912, including photographs of the "Sonoma House"), and a copy of the certificate of her marriage to Houghton. Other items include a general letter to stockholders of the Union Oil Company of California (1932), a letter from Richard Barnes Mason to Roger Jones (typescript, 1848, regarding the successes of the Tenth Military Department), a letter from Jonathan Drake Stevenson to Mason (typescript, 1848, regarding his shock at the disbanding of the First Regiment of New York Volunteers and complaints against Mormons and Indians), a photograph of the Murrieta Rancho (c.1885), a photograph of a Southern Pacific Railroad car decorated for the arrival of President Benjamin Harrison (1891), a plat map of the Pauba Rancho (1858-1859), and a Donner Party scrapbook which includes items on the Pioneer Monument at Donner Lake, Georgia A. Donner (Mrs. Babcock), C.T. Stanton, W.C. and Mary Graves, the Breen family, and various newspaper clippings on the Donner Party.
