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Mary A. Forman Papers: Finding Aid
mssHM 68517-68598
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Title: Mary A. Forman Papers
Dates (inclusive): 1853-1908
Bulk dates: 1904-1908
Collection Number: mssHM 68517-68598
Creator:
Forman, Mary A. Gray (Mary Agnes Gray), 1843-1918.
Extent: 158 pieces in 2 boxes
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection consists mainly of letters and questionnaires written between
1904-1908 related to the inquiries of Mary Forman (1843-1918) about specific details of the history of mid 19th-century Los
Angeles, California.
General topics include Los Angeles history, California state and local
government, crime, medicine, architecture, education, land allotment, churches,
agriculture, Indians, the Mexican War, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.
Language: English. Some correspondence is in Spanish.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
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.
[Identification of item]. Mary A. Forman Papers, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Gift of Ellen Ellis, January 16, 2004.
Related Materials in the Huntington Library
- Mary A. Forman Papers Addenda (Call number: mssHM 81435-81469
Mary Agnes Gray Forman (1843-1918) came to the Los Angeles, California, area as a child in 1851
from Covington, Kentucky, via El Paso, Texas. Her father was killed by Indians during the
journey from Texas to California; her mother, Charlotte, married John Rowland in
1852. In 1862, Mary Agnes Gray married Charles Forman (1835-1919), a California and
Nevada pioneer who was, among other things, the owner of a successful coal mine, a
Major General of the Nevada Volunteers, a Knight Templar, a Deputy Secretary of
State (of California), and a surveyor (in Los Angeles). After moving to Los Angeles
from Nevada, Charles Forman founded the Kern River Company, which provided Los
Angeles with electricity from the Kern River, and which later merged with the
Pacific Light and Power Company, of which Forman became secretary. He was also a
prominent member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
The Formans began their married life in Virginia City, Nevada, but in 1887 they had
their house, to which Charles Forman was quite attached, taken apart, shipped to Los
Angeles, and then reassembled on a new site near Pico and Figueroa streets (the
Forman house, one of the city’s show pieces, was razed in 1913, to make way for the
Los Angeles Railway). Largely through the efforts of Mary A. Forman, who became
known as a benefactor and an accomplished hostess, the Forman house became one of
the most prominent centers of social life in the city: the New Year Watch at the
house was one of the main social events in the city. Mary Forman was also a highly
active member of local social and other groups. She belonged to a social and
historical society of former Los Angeles schoolchildren, the Auld Lang Syne Club,
which was formed for the purpose of verifying the members’ memories of early Los
Angeles through the membership and through historical inquiry. She was instrumental
in reactivating the club in the first decade of the 20th century. The Formans had
two children, Eloise and Charles, Jr.
The collection consists mainly of letters and questionnaires written between
1904-1908 on the topic of mid-19th-century Los Angeles. Most of the questionnaires,
composed by Mary A. Forman, include a correspondent’s answers, and most of the
letters were written to Forman in response to her questionnaires or other inquiries.
Forman presumably conducted the correspondence as a result of her involvement in the
Auld Lang Syne Club. There are also a few other documents that she probably acquired
as part of her research, including a small number of letters written by Southerners
(possibly relatives of A. J. King) during the Civil War and a few 19th-century
California letters, most of them written in Spanish.
The purpose of most of Mary Forman's inquiries was to obtain very specific details
or confirmation of details of Los Angeles history, from what kind of roof a certain
house had to which band of Apaches killed a certain man. Because of this, the
responses cover a markedly wide range of topics, and the number of authors and other
people involved is unusually large for a collection of this size. General topics
addressed in the documents include Los Angeles history, California state and local
government, crime, medicine, architecture, education, land allotment, churches,
agriculture, Indians, the Mexican War, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.
Photocopies of photographs and
a brief biography of Mary A. and Charles Forman, compiled by John Steven McGroaty in
Los Angeles: From the Mountains to the Sea,
published in 1921, can be requested with the paper versin of this finding aid.
Some correspondence is in Spanish.
Documents organized alphabetically by author, followed by ephemera.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Foster, Stephen Clark,
1820-1898.
Frémont, John Charles,
1813-1890.
Forman, Charles,
1835-1919 -- Family.
Forman, Mary A. Gray
(Mary Agnes Gray), 1843-1918 -- Archives.
Foster, Thomas, d.
1863.
Hazard, George
Washington, 1842-1914.
Kearny, Stephen Watts,
1794-1848.
King, Andrew Jackson,
1833-1923.
Sánchez, Tomás A.,
1826-1882.
Stevenson, J. D.
(Jonathan Drake), 1800-1894.
Stockton, Robert
Field, 1795-1866.
Auld Lang Syne
Club.
Architecture -- California -- Los
Angeles -- History -- 19th century.
Dwellings -- California.
Education -- California, Southern --
History.
Frontier and pioneer life --
California, Southern -- History -- Sources.
Indians of North America -- Wars --
West (U.S.)
Indians of North America -- Wars --
1815-1875.
Land subdivision -- California -- Los
Angeles.
Local history -- Education --
California -- Los Angeles.
Mexican War, 1846-1848 --
Anecdotes.
Pioneers -- California,
Southern.
Reconstruction (U.S. history,
1865-1877)
Vineyards -- California.
Women -- California.
Los Angeles (Calif.) --
History -- Societies, etc.
Los Angeles (Calif.) --
History -- Sources.
United States --
History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives.
Letters (correspondence) -- United
States -- 20th century.
Questionnaires.
Caballería y Collell, Juan.
Davis, William Heath, 1822-1909.
Johnston, Mary Alice Eaton, b. 1850.
Foster, Thomas, d. 1863.
Guirado, R. C., fl. 1905.
Hansen, George, 1824-1897.
Hazard, George Washington, 1842-1914.
Houghton, Eliza Poor Donner.
Ingersoll, Luther A., b. 1851.
King, Andrew Jackson, 1833-1923.
King, Laura Evertson, d. 1925.
Kuhrts, J.
Macy, Oscar, fl. 1905.
Rowland, William R., b. 1846.
Sánchez, Tomás A., 1826-1882.