The collection consists of four leather-bound field books used by Frederick Thomas Perris in the course of surveying lands in San Bernardino County, California, in 1856 and 1857.

Frederick Thomas Perris (1837-1916) was born in England, raised in Australia, trained as a civil engineer, and moved to the Pacific Coast of the United States in 1853. He served as Deputy United States Mineral Surveyor for the U.S. Government and for the State of California. In 1858 he became a U.S. citizen and in 1863 became Territorial Surveyor for Utah Territory’s northeastern portions. A businessman in Salt Lake City, Utah, for many years, he relocated to San Bernardino in 1874 and later served as City Engineer and County Surveyor. He later worked for the California Southern Railway Company as Chief Engineer and Superintendent of Construction and drove the first passenger train into San Bernardino in 1883. The city of Perris, California, and its accompanying Perris Boulevard, were named in his honor.The Jurupa Rancho, located along the Santa Ana River in northwestern Riverside and southwestern San Bernardino Counties, California, was owned by Juan Bandini, who received the property as a land grant from Juan Bautista Alvarado in 1838. Bandini sold a portion of his property to Benjamin Davis Wilson in 1843, and Wilson in turn sold his land to Louis Robidoux in 1847. In 1859, Bandini’s remaining portion of the rancho went to Abel Stearns, and this part of the property was renamed the Stearns Rancho.

4 volumes

Property rights to the physical object belong to the Sherman Library. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The Sherman Library does not hold the copyright.

Collection is open for research.