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Atascadero Colony archive, 1904-1983.
MANUSCRIPT2983-2984
Collection Overview

Title:

Atascadero Colony archive, 1904-1983
Atascadero Colony

Abstract:

Photos, diaries, and ephemera related to the Atascadero Colony and to the lives of colony residents Azor and Edith Kunkee, and Edith's father William H. Engle.

Date:

1904 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca
Engle, Charles H
Engle, William H
Kinsey, Sarah B
Kunkee, Azor
Kunkee, Edith Engle
Atascadero (Calif.)

Note:

William H. Engle (1856-1930) moved to the Atascadero Colony in 1915 from Sherrard County, Illinois with his wife Emma and daughter Edith. Azor Kunkee (1896-1990) moved to the Atascadero Colony in about 1915 from David City, Nebraska. After serving in World War I he returned to Atascadero and did surveying for E. G. Lewis' Colony Holding Corporation, where Edith Engle (1894-1985) also worked. They married in 1920, both enjoyed baseball games, and Azor played in the Atascadero band. The couple moved to Girard, California in 1923 and moved back to Atascadero about fifteen years later, where they operated the Atascadero Hardware Store into the mid-1960s.
The Atascadero Colony was founded in 1913 in San Luis Obispo County, California by successful East Coast magazine publisher Edward Gardner Lewis. This colony was intended as a utopian community designed along the principles of the City Beautiful Movement, and incorporated cooperative economic endeavors among its residents. An important element of the Atascadero Colony was the American Woman's Republic, founded by Lewis's wife. Even though Lewis went bankrupt in 1924, the colony survived and is today the city of Atascadero.
Atascadero Colony.
Unrestricted. Please credit California State Library.

Type:

biography

Physical Description:

print
2 manuscript boxes; 15 1/4 x 11 3/4 x 3 1/4 in.

Language:

English

Identifier:

Origin:

California

Copyright Note:

Unrestricted. Please credit California State Library.