Historic Documents, 1824 - 1873

This collection consists of two series: Series 1. Historic Documents and Series 2. Santa Barbara Presidio Materials. Series 1 is a set of forty-eight historic documents from the years 1824-1873. The documents in are mostly related to the period of time when traders were sailing up and down the west coast of North America and to the Hawaiian Islands and mainland China, roughly 1822-1846. They are of a commercial nature--invoices and receipts for supplies and provisions for ships such as the Loriot, Bolivar, Rover, and Rasselas, and letters of debts and accounts. Correspondents include many traders such as Henry Fitch, J.C. Jones, and Jacob Leese. The largest group of documents concerns Alpheus B. Thompson, Santa Barbara resident, merchant, and supercargo of various vessels sailing along the coast. Other items relate to interests in Monterey and Sonoma, such as an 1834 census of soldiers residing there and a list of some Sonoma residents in 1878, both of which can be used to supplement lists of early California pioneers. Additional noteworthy correspondents represented in the collection include Hugo Reid, Pablo de la Guerra, Jacob Snyder, and General Mariano Vallejo. A small unusual group of documents deals with inheritance and land deeds to Prince Jenkins of Falmouth, Massachusetts. Jenkins’ son Foster, was a forty-niner who arrived in California in 1850 from Boston on the bark Orion.

Series 2 consists of correspondence, notes, drawings, Price’s historical resources report, and printed matter about the Santa Barbara Presidio. Supplementary materials include copies of documents about the presidio from the Archives of California at the Bancroft library as well as several blueprints of Santa Barbara City blocks and assessor's parcel maps.