Patton Family Papers
Finding aid prepared by Katrina Denman.
Manuscripts Department
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2203
Fax: (626) 449-5720
Email: manuscripts@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
© 2012
The Huntington Library. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Patton Family Papers
Dates: 1856-1934
Collection Number: Consult
repository.
Creator:
Patton, George S. (George Smith),
1856-1927
Extent:
356 items
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Manuscripts Department
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2203
Fax: (626) 449-5720
Email: manuscripts@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: 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). 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.
Administration Information
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
In order to quote from, publish, or reproduce any of the manuscripts or visual
materials, researchers must obtain formal permission from the office of the
Library Director. In most instances, permission is given by the Huntington as
owner of the physical property rights only, and researchers must also obtain
permission from the holder of the literary rights. In some instances, the
Huntington owns the literary rights, as well as the physical property rights.
Researchers may contact the appropriate curator for further information.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Patton family papers, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Acquisition Information
Gift of David and Peter W. Patton on August 5, 1971.
Typescript letters gift of Hancock Banning, Jr., on February 20, 1973.
Biography
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.
Scope and Content
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). 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 series of correspondence, speeches and articles,
legal papers and contracts, land and real estate papers, political and business
papers, accounts and receipts, letterbooks, business ledgers, cancelled checks,
and ephemera. Each series is arranged chronologically. The collection originally
formed an addendum to the Benjamin Davis Wilson Collection known as Wilson
Addenda II.
A detailed container list is available through the Manuscripts Department.
Indexing Terms
Personal Names
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.
Corporate Names
Huntington Land and
Improvement Company.
Southern Pacific
Railroad.
Subjects
Domestic
relations--California.
Irrigation--California.
Land use--California.
Political
campaigns--California--History--20th century.
Politicians--California--Los
Angeles.
Geographic Areas
California--History--1850-1950.
Pasadena
(Calif.)--History.
San Marino
(Calif.)--History.
Genre
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.
Collection Contents
Box 1
Correspondence.
1856-1898.
Box 2
Correspondence.
1899-1930.
Box 3
Speeches and articles.
c.1887-1904.
Box 4
Speeches and articles.
c.1911-1924.
Box 5
Legal papers and contracts.
1879-1929.
Box 6
Land and real estate papers.
1857-1893.
Box 7
Land and real estate papers.
1895-1927.
Box 8
Political, business, and miscellaneous papers.
1884-1930.
Box 9
Accounts and receipts.
1881-1899.
Box 10
Accounts and receipts.
1900-1934.
Box 11
Legal documents from safe deposit box of Thomas B.
Brown.
1885-1895.
Box 13
Business ledgers.
1879-1926.
Box 14
Miscellaneous volumes.
1876-1914.
Box 15
Cancelled checks, invoices, etc.
1870s-1897.
Box 16
Cancelled checks, invoices, etc.
1898-1930.
Box 17
Newspaper clippings, miscellaneous, and ephemera.
c.1868-1930s.
