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Patton Family Papers
mssPF 1-350
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Title: Patton Family Papers
Dates: 1856-1934
Collection Number: mssPF 1-350
Creator:
Patton, George S. (George Smith),
1856-1927
Extent:
356 items
Repository: The Huntington Library,
Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Manuscripts
Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: The collection consists of personal and business papers
related to the Patton family, and is particularly focused on the
activities of George Smith Patton (1856-1927), an attorney, businessman, and the first mayor of San Marino, California. Topics
covered include railroads,
Patton’s senate campaign, irrigation, land sales, and the development of the San Marino area.
Language of Material: The records are in English.
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]. Patton Family Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Gift of David and Peter W. Patton on August 5, 1971.
Typescript letters gift of Hancock Banning, Jr., on February 20, 1973.
George Smith Patton (1856-1927) was born in Virginia. His father, George Smith
Patton (1833-1864), served with the Confederate Army during the Civil War and was
killed in the Third Battle of Winchester in 1864. In 1866, his mother Susan Thornton
Glassell Patton (1835-1883) joined her brother Andrew Glassell in California, along
with ten-year-old George, his sisters Ellen (who later married Thomas Brown) and
Susan, and brother Andrew (known to the family as Glassell). In 1870, Susan married
George Hugh Smith (1834-1915), a cousin of her first husband. The couple had two
children, Anne Ophelia Smith (1870-1951), who later married Hancock Banning, and
Ettinge Hugh (1876-1887). In 1880 George Patton joined the law firm run by his uncle
Andrew Glassell and stepfather George Smith, and the firm was subsequently known as
Glassell, Smith, and Patton. Susan died of breast cancer in 1883. In 1884 George
Patton married Ruth Wilson (1861-1928), the daughter of Benjamin Davis Wilson and
Margaret Hereford Wilson. The Pattons and Ruth’s sister Annie lived in San Marino,
where their children George Smith Patton (1885-1945) and Anne Wilson Patton
(1887-1971), called “Nita,” were born. In 1903 the Shorb estate in San Marino was
purchased by Henry E. Huntington, who appointed Patton as general manager of the
ranch. George Smith Patton (1885-1945) married Beatrice Banning Ayer (1886-1953),
known as Bea, in 1910. Their daughter Beatrice Smith Patton was born in 1911,
followed by Ruth Ellen Patton (Totten) in 1915 and George Patton III in 1923. Patton
was killed in a car accident in Heidelberg in 1945.
The collection consists of personal and business correspondence, political papers,
account books, legal documents, and land papers related to the Patton family, and is
particularly focused on the activities of George Smith Patton (1856-1927).
Note: this collection originally
formed an addendum to the Benjamin Davis Wilson Collection known as Wilson
Addenda II.
Topics
covered include railroads, Patton’s senate campaign, irrigation, land sales, and the
development of the San Marino area. Some notable items include a letter from George
Smith Patton (1833-1864) to his father John Mercer Patton (1797-1858) announcing the
birth of George Smith Patton (1856-1927); typescripts of letters from Susan Glassell
Patton and her children to Sally Taylor Patton and Margaret Williams Patton
describing their early life in the California; letters from Ruth Wilson to Patton
(1856-1927) written shortly before their wedding in 1884; letters from a family
friend named Rose Gray regarding the birth of George Smith Patton (1885-1945);
letters from Patton (1856-1927) to Annie Wilson regarding their potential financial
difficulties and the childhoods of Patton (1885-1945) and Anne Wilson Patton;
multiple verbose letters from Patton (1856-1927) regarding topics such as World War
I (letter to Kerchoff, June 1, 1915) and the political campaign in California
(1916); correspondence and legal records related to, among other things, the Pacific
Electric Railroad and Collis Huntington’s plans to construct a harbor at Santa
Monica (1894); and a telegram from Patton (1885-1945) to his father advising him to
prevent General John Pershing’s brother James from giving a speech in London
“compromising the general politically” (Dec.10, 1917).
Notable businesses
represented in the collection include the Wilmington Transportation Company, Porter
Brothers Co., San Gabriel Wine Company, Alhambra Addition Water Company, the Lindsay
Water Development Company, Garvey Water Company, Huntington Land and Improvement
Company, Banning Company, Pasadena Electric Light and Water Company, and the Santa
Catalina Island Company.
Notable individuals represented in the collection include
Ruth Wilson, Annie Wilson, Anne Wilson Patton, James DeBarth Shorb, George Hugh
Smith, Collis P. Huntington, Henry E. Huntington, Arthur J. Hutchinson, William
Banning, William Reeves Banning, James P. Donahue, Maria de Jesus Wilson Shorb,
William Howard Taft, Frank Putnam Flint, Ellen Banning Ayer, Robert W. Patton, Arvin
Harrington Brown, and Benjamin Davis Wilson.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into the following series:
- Correspondence (Boxes 1-2)
- Speeches and articles (Boxes 3-4)
- Legal papers and contracts. (Boxes 5 and 11)
- Land and real estate papers (Boxes 6-7)
- Political, business, and miscellaneous papers (Box 8)
- Financial documents and volumes; letterbooks (Boxes 9-10, 12-13, and 15-16)
- Miscellaneous volumes and ephemera (Boxes 14 and 17)
Related Materials in the Huntington Library
- Benjamin Davis Wilson Collection (Call number: mssWN 1-2419)
- James De Barth Shorb papers (mssShorb papers)
- Patton Family collection of negatives and photographs (photCL 282)
- Banning Family Collection of Photographs, Part I (photCL 180)
- Banning Family Collection of Photographs, Part II (photCL 451)
Flint, Frank P. (Frank
Putnam), 1862-1929.
Huntington, Collis
Potter, 1821-1900.
Huntington, Henry
Edwards, 1850-1927.
Patton, George S.
(George Smith), 1856-1927.
Patton, George S.
(George Smith), 1885-1945.
Smith, George H.
(George Hugh)
Taft, William H.
(William Howard), 1857-1930.
Wilson, Benjamin Davis,
1811-1878.
Huntington Land and
Improvement Company.
Southern Pacific
Railroad.
Domestic
relations--California.
Irrigation--California.
Land use--California.
Political
campaigns--California--History--20th century.
Politicians--California--Los
Angeles.
California--History--1850-1950.
Pasadena
(Calif.)--History.
San Marino
(Calif.)--History.
Account books -- California -- 19th
century.
Ephemera -- California -- 19th century.
Letters (correspondence) -- California
-- 19th century.
Letters (correspondence) -- California
-- 20th century.
Receipts -- California -- 19th century.
Receipts -- California -- 20th century.
Speeches--California--19th
century.