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Register of the Coats (James L.) Collection, 1852-1907
Mss253
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Table of contents
Title: Coats (James L.) Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1852-1907
Collection number: Mss253
Creator:
Extent: 2 linear ft.
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
Stockton, CA 95211
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Coats (James L.) Collection, Mss253, Holt-Atherton Department
of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
James L. Coats was the second son of Felix G. Coats, who, in 1853, settled in the
Tassajara Valley of Contra Costa County. In 1860, Felix Coats married Levina Doggett.
James Coats was raised on his father's Contra Costa farm. He attended the University of
the Pacific in Santa Clara from 1883 through 1887, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree
in the latter year.
Following graduation from college, Coats farmed for awhile in Contra Costa County, where
he was also active in Populist Party politics. Coats married Fanny Williams in 1895.
Sometime after 1900, James L. Coats became a gauger of alchoholic beverages for the
Internal Revenue Service. He was headquartered at a distillery in Agnews, Santa Clara
County, and later in Stockton, where he acted as gauger for Calaveras, Contra Costa, San
Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tuolumne counties. Coats spent the last years of his working
life in the employ of the California Wine Association. He died in 1934.
The Coats Collection consists of correspondence and other business papers relating to the
alcoholic beverages gauging business, politics and economics, as well as photographs,
memorabilia, and California school texts (1852-1907).