Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Whittier family history
Andrews and Crane family history
Company history
Scope and Content
Arrangement
Existence and Location of Copies
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Whittier family collection
Identifier/Call Number: mssWhittier
Physical Description:
42 Linear Feet
(79 boxes, 1 oversize folder)
Date (inclusive): 1831-2015
Date (bulk): 1890-1980
Abstract: This collection consists of company
records, correspondence, ephemera, photographs, and audio/visual material related to the
Whittier family and company.
Language of Material: The records are in
English.
Access
Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader
Services Department. For more information, please go to following
web site .
Publication Rights
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
Preferred Citation
Whittier family collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Acquisition Information
Gift of the Whitter Family Council, a California unincorporated association, 2016.
Whittier family history
Mericos H. Whittier (1867-1928) was an American real estate developer and a pioneer in the
early California petroleum industry. Whittier was born on March 11, 1867 in Caribou, Maine.
He was the son of Charles Green Whittier (1841-1912) and Ruth Emmons Keech (1841-1930).
Whittier married Joanna E. Williams (1872-1923) in 1899. The couple had four children:
Donald Williams Whittier (1901-1983) who married Violet Andrews (1901-1970) in 1926 and
later, Helen Rohne (1900-1973); Leland Keech Whittier (1903-1984) who married Laura Pike
(1902-1979) in 1925; Nelson Paul Whittier (1904-1991) who married Olive Elizabeth Hasbrouck
in 1930 and later, Lucy Thorne in 1977; and Helen Louise Whittier (1907-1984) who married
Hoke Lawrence Woodward (1900-1994) in 1928.
Andrews and Crane family history
George Gregg Crane (1835-1919) was married to Adeline Huntley Crane (1836-1914). The couple
had two children: Amy and Abbie (1868-1943). George Gregg Crane was considered a pioneer in
horticulture. Adeline Huntley Crane was a charter member of the Universalist church in Santa
Paula, California.
Abbie Crane married Lewis Whiting Andrews (1889-1955) in 1892. Lewis Whiting Andrews was a
Los Angeles attorney, real estate developer, and community activist. He was a member of the
law firm Andrews, Toland, and Andrews in Ventura, California. He was also an early real
estate developer in the Wilshire district. Abbie was a member of the Los Angeles Ebell Club,
Los Angeles Country, California, and Bel-Air Bay Club. The couple had four children: Ellen
Andrews (1892-1983) who married Charles Lovel Wright; Horace Crane Andrews (1896-1962);
Violet Andrews (1901-1970) who married Donald W. Whittier; and Lewis W. Andrews, Jr.
(1904-1942).
Ellen Andrews was first engaged to Leclaire D. Schulze, a pilot in the United States Army,
who was tragically killed when his parachute failed to deploy. She later married Wright, who
was president and chairman of the board of the Union National Bank in Pasadena,
California.
Violet and Donald W. Whittier filed for divorce in 1939. The couple had four children:
Joanne, Mary Ellen, Patricia, and Donald A.
Company history
"Max" Whittier and Burton Greene, along with four other families, were instrumental in
starting Belridge Oil Company in 1911. The obscure oilfield in Kern County, California was
the largest independent oil producer in the state. Leland K. Whittier would later sell the
company to Shell Oil Company. The purchase price was nearly $3.7 billion, the largest
corporate acquisition in United States history at the time. "Max" Whittier was also the
co-founder of Beverly Hills, California.
After the sale of Belridge Oil Company, the Whittier family created several entities to
support oil production and financial services. There were three entities created: 1. The
Whittier Trust Company; 2. Whittier Energy Corporation; 3. M.H. Corporation. For a more
detailed description of these companies, please see Box 10 (5). The Whittier family also
established numerous foundations including: L.K. Whittier Foundation, Confidence Foundation,
I have a Dream Foundation – Los Angeles, and the Helen Woodward Animal Care Center.
Scope and Content
The collection is roughly divided into three series: 1.
Company; 2. Family; and 3. Audiovisual, photographs, and oversize.
Series
1: Company.
This series consists of correspondence, documents, business records,
photographs, and ephemera related to "Max" Whittier's early business ventures in real estate
and the oil industry. Items of interest from Whittier's early career in oil include: Inca Oil
Company daily drilling reports from 1906 through 1910 and Coalinga Star Oil Company reports
from 1918 through 1920. There are a few early letters from oil companies such as Eagle Oil
Company, Uncle Sam Oil Company, and Virginia Oil Company to Whittier from 1900 through 1902.
In a letter from Virginia Oil Company, the company rejects Whittier's offer to sale portions
of Kern oil land for $1,500 an acre: "This is a little beyond our limit at the present time.
We do not care to take ahold of any land at that figure" (Box 6, 8). Whittier's letter books
may also prove to be interesting as they capture the years 1906 through 1911, right before the
founding of Belridge. There are also many documents and printed matter related to the sale of
Belridge Oil Company to Shell Oil Company in 1979. These items include: clippings, proxy
statements, prospectus, documents, and filing forms submitted to the United States Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC). There is also some material related to the Whittier's numerous
foundations and philanthropic efforts. The photographs spans from early snapshots in the oil
fields to more recent Whittier functions in the 1960s.
Series 2:
Family.
This series consists primarily of correspondence, genealogies, printed
matter, and photographs related to the Whittier and Andrews family. The earliest letter in
this collection is from Lewis Whiting Andrews' grandfather, Samuel Andrews, written in 1854.
The letter has strong religious undertones as he writes to his sister about his love for
brother, William P. Andrews. There is also a great deal of correspondence from the Crane and
Andrews family. Abbie L. Crane and Lewis W. Andrews' life together is documented in these
letters that span from the late 1800s through early 1900s. There are also letters from
Leclaire D. Schulze to Ellen L. Andrews, who she was engaged to prior to his sudden death in
1927. Although there are very few early Whittier family correspondence, there are some letters
to and from Donald W. Whittier and his daughter, Joanne Whittier Blokker. Additional
correspondence is found in Box 27. These letters are primarily related to Ellen Andrews'
family research. Note: There is a lot of overlap in this portion of the collection. The
photographs in this series consist of portraits and snapshots related to both the Andrews and
Whittier family.
Series 3: Audio/visual, photographs, and oversize.
The material found in this series is a combination of the both company and family related
matter. The Whittier Family Oral History Project compact discs are found in Boxes 53-54 and
the paper transcripts are found in Boxes 74-75. An electronic version of the paper transcripts
is available on the
Huntington Digital Library (HDL).
The VHS tapes include Whittier family
movies, philanthropy, and miscellaneous television programs. There are also some fragile
ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, glass plate negatives, and/or tintypes in Box 66. Note: Many of
photograph albums and scrapbooks are fragile and contain loose items. In addition, most of the
oversize photographs are duplicates of those found in Series 2.
Note: Most of the scrapbooks were originally housed in 3-ring binders that have been
discarded. The contents of these scrapbooks are housed in plastic document sleeves and have
not been relocated to other parts of the collection. Original correspondence, photographs, and
printed matter may be found in these scrapbooks, along with duplicates.
Arrangement
The Whittier family collection is roughly arranged by genre.
Arrangement
The Whittier family collection is roughly arranged by genre.
Existence and Location of Copies
Several audiovisual items in the collection were digitized in 2018. Links are available in
the container list.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Nonprofit organizations
Petroleum industry and trade -- California
Real property -- California
Beverly Hills (Calif.)
Kern County (Calif.)
Business records
Clippings (information artifacts)
Documents
Genealogies (histories)
Letters (correspondence)
Motion pictures (visual works)
Photographs
Scrapbooks