Guide to the Leon and Jeannette Rowland collection
Stanley D. Stevens, Joan Gilbert Martin
University of California, Santa Cruz
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz 95064
speccoll@library.ucsc.edu
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Leon and Jeannette Rowland collection
Creator:
Rowland, Jeannette Wheatly,
1891-1977
Creator:
Rowland, Leon,
1884-1952
Identifier/Call Number: MS.051
Physical Description:
12 Linear Feet
19 boxes, 2 packages
Date (inclusive): 1812-1951
Physical Location: Collection stored, in part, off-site at
NRLF. Advance notice is required for access.
Language of Material:
English
This collection guide contains harmful language which was used by either the original
creators or the prior stewards of the materials in this collection. Library staff made the
decision to retain and repurpose this description because it may provide important context
about its creators, custodial history, and/or source. We are committed to describing
materials in a manner that respects those who create, are represented in, and interact with
the collections we steward, as well as preserving the original context of collection
materials. Ethically managing archival description is an ongoing and iterative practice, and
we welcome your feedback and questions at speccoll@library.ucsc.edu.
This collection is partially processed and may contain restricted materials. Please contact
Special Collections and Archives in advance to request access.
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs.
Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair
use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to
determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more
information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.
Leon and Jeannette Rowland Collection. MS 51. Special Collections and Archives, University
Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Jeannette Wheatley Rowland, 1977.
Existence and Location of Copies
A a scrapbook of newspaper clippings collected by Leon Rowland is stored offsite at NRLF. A
bound photocopy of this scrapbook can be located in the UCSC Library catalog under call
number
F868.S3 L46 1900z.
Leon Rowland (1884-1952) was a local historian in Santa Cruz County, and editor of the
Santa Cruz Evening News and the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Rowland's research covered the early exploration of California by Spain from Mexico in the
Sixteenth Century, and by explorers sailing the Pacific Coast, notably Sebastián Vizcaíno
who discovered Monterey Bay in 1602. Rowland documented the establishment of the Villa de
Branciforte (now part of Santa Cruz), and the California Missions, the Santa Cruz Mission in
particular. Because of the relationship among the Missions and because the civil government
was located at Monterey, Rowland's research also touched on San Jose, Santa Clara, San Juan
Bautista, Salinas, and Monterey. Rowland taught himself Spanish, and copied documents from
the archives of many institutions and translated them into English.
By profession, Leon Rowland was a newspaper columnist, an editor, and a newspaper
publisher. His writing was published principally in the Santa Cruz Evening News, in the
Santa Cruz Sentinel-News (when the Santa Cruz Sentinel absorbed the Evening News in January
1942), and finally in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Rowland also was an editor for the Soquel
Weekly Journal (1938) and the San Lorenzo Valley Journal (1939).
See
About the Rowlands for
more information. Source materials and biographies about the Rowlands were compiled by
Stanley D. Stevens and Joan Gilbert Martin in consultation with Jean Rowland Jackson.
This collection primarily comprises collected research documents on the history of people
and places in Santa Cruz County from pre-statehood California to 1951. Included are
scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, articles, writings, notes, notecards, and other research
documents created and collected by Leon Rowland and his wife Jeannette. The collection also
includes a small amount of original pre-statehood documents concerning land ownership in
California.
The Rowland card collection was transcribed and indexed by Joan Gilbert Martin and Stanley
D. Stevens in 2004-2012. A database of the rancho documents was created in 2005 by Special
Collections volunteer Amy Dunning and edited and indexed in 2012 by Stanley D. Stevens.
This finding aid was revised in the Reparative Archival Redescription Project in 2021-2022.
Previous versions of this finding aid are available upon request.
Related materials can be located at the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library in the collection,
Research materials relating to early California residents, under call number
BANC MSS
79/131 c
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Scrapbooks
Santa Cruz County (Calif.)
Box 1-11
Rowland Papers and Rancho Documents
Boxes 1-2 contain a set of 102 documents relating to California ranchos in 1802-1877,
including Buena Vista in Monterey County, La Brea and Las Animas in Santa Clara County,
and Corralitos, San Andrés, Soquel, and Soquel Augmentation in Santa Cruz County. An
inventory and index to these documents are available here.
Boxes 3-11 contain research materials compiled by the Rowlands, including some original
pre-statehood documents. An inventory for this portion of the collection is available
here.
Rowland Card Collection
Through the course of their research, the Rowlands created over nine thousand index
cards that capture their notes on the history prominent figures and locales of Santa
Cruz County.
This set of 9,327 index cards has been transcribed and indexed. See the Rowland Card
Database for transcriptions of the cards. See the Index to Rowland Cards for a
comprehensive index to any person or subject referred to in the cards.
The cards are arranged in alphabetical order, divided according to surnames of people
and subjects. See Card Categories for a complete list of the categories.
Boxes A-1 through A-5 contain 3x5 inch index cards with descriptions of people. Box A-6
contains larger cards that also describe people, mostly late in the alphabet from M
through Z. Many of the entries on these cards have been crossed out in pencil;
presumably, as the information was transferred at a later time to smaller cards in the
red boxes. [The transcribers have included the crossed-out information.] Rowland used a
standard set of abbreviations on his cards. See Rowland Abbreviations for a list of
abbreviations used in his cards.
The cards in boxes B-1, B2, and B-3 describe selected subjects, in categories ranging
from Banks through Taxes, including such diverse categories as Land Grants, County
Roads, Railroads, and Padrónes (a census of people or animals).
Box C includes transcripts of the Pre-Statehood Documents in Spanish. Some have been
translated from the Spanish by Leon Rowland, but many of the cards in Box C have not
been translated. [Researchers may wish to compare Rowland's translations with California
pre-statehood documents relating to Santa Cruz County, 1790-1850; English translation of
Spanish documents by Starr Pait Gurcke. Spec Coll MS105]. See Spanish Terms for
definitions of many Spanish terms on the cards. Box C also contains a set of cards
illustrating California cattle brands. See Cattle Brand Images for a list of these brand
illustrations.