Oakwood Park Stock Farms Collection
Finding aid created by Contra Costa County Historical Society staff using RecordEXPRESS
Contra Costa County Historical Society
2018
724 Escobar Street
Martinez, California 94553
(925) 229-1042
http://www.cocohistory.com/
Title: Oakwood Park Stock Farms Collection
Dates: 1889-1891
Collection Number: 1984.4
Creator/Collector:
Extent: 1 box
Repository:
Contra Costa County Historical Society
Martinez, California 94553
Abstract: The collection includes daily business ledgers from 1889-91 from the Oakwood Park Stock Farm, and account ledgers from the
Cook Farm related to the execution of the will of Seth Cook in 1891 (both farms were owned by the same extended family).
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research.
Contact the Contra Costa County Historical Society for publication permission.
Oakwood Park Stock Farms Collection. Contra Costa County Historical Society
Biography/Administrative History
The Oakwood Park Stock Farm, east of Danville at the foot of Mount Diablo, was one of the most prominent horse breeding farms
in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Earlier the land was owned by the Central Pacific Railroad and was
known as the Railroad Ranch. Inherited by brothers Seth and Dan Cook, it became the Cook Farm in the 1870s. The property
was then inherited by the Cooks’ niece Louise and her husband John Boyd. They transformed the property into the Oakwood Park
Stock Farm to breed thoroughbreds. Boyd sold the property in 1906, and it was sold again in 1912 to developer Robert Burgess,
who transformed the property into the Diablo Country Club.
The Oakwood Park Stock Farm ledgers in this collection may relate to an item listed in Accession 94-48, a photocopy of a map
of the Oakwood Park Stock Farm. The map photocopy is stored separately from these daily business ledgers. The Deed of Gift
for Accession 94-48 does not list these daily business ledgers.
Scope and Content of Collection
Materials are in one box. They are unbound, written on large format paper in large manila folders.
Agriculture, stock farming
Business records
Agriculture, horse breeding
Cook, Seth
Cook, Dan
Boyd, Louise
Boyd, John
Danville
Diablo
ledgers