Samuel F. B. (Samuel Finley Brown) Morse Papers, 1911-1969, 1982

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Summary

Creators:
Morse, Samuel F. B. (Samuel Finley Brown)
Abstract:
Contains personal correspondence of Samuel Morse, correspondence of the Pacific Improvement Company relating to liquidation of the company, and a report (12 v.) prepared for the Pacific Improvement Company in 1916, titled, "Iron, Steel, Coal & Coke on the Pacific Coast." Also includes annual reports of the Pacific Improvement Company.
Extent:
33.1 Linear Feet (22 cartons and 14 manuscript boxes)
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Samuel F. B. (Samuel Finley Brown) Morse Papers. JL016. Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection (JL 16) itself consists of four large boxes of correspondence and twelve bound volumes of a report that Morse had made for the Pacific Improvement Company just after his appointment (1915-1916). The report is entitled: "Iron, Steel, Coal and Coke on the Pacific Coast." The first two boxes of correspondence are Morse's own personal files for the years 1923 (Box #1) and 1927 (Box #2). The last box contains Morse's copies of Pacific Improvement Company correspondence (1930-1969) relating to the final liquidation of the Company, of which Stanford University became a quarter-owner by inheritance. Other owners were the University of California at Berkeley (50%) and the Crocker Estate (25%).

Biographical / historical:
Chronology
Date Event
1885 July 18
Born in Newton, Mass.
1903
Graduated from Phillips Andover Academy.
1907
Graduated from Yale University.
1907 - 1910
Manager of a land developnent project for John Nays Haanonci in California.
1910 - 1915
Manager of Crocker-Huffman Land & Water Co., Merced, Ca.
1915 - 1919
Secretory and General. Manager of Pacific Improvement Company, liquidation proceedings dragged on and S.F.B. Morse retained this position until 1967.
1919 - 1969
Organizer, President, part owner (with Herbert Fleishacker) and later Cflairman of the Board of Del Monte Properties Co.
1916 - 1956
Senior Director of Crocker 1st National Bank.
1916 - 1956
Other Positions : Advisory Council of Crocker-Anglo National Bank, U. S. Loaning Corp., As5ociate Fellow of Morse College, Yale University.
1916 - 1966
Clubs : Links, Racquet and Tennis (New York), Pacific-Union, Burlingame Country, Cypress Point (Calif.).
1966
Awarded LL.D by University of California.
1969, May 11
Died in Pebble Beach, Calif.

S.F.B. Morse (1886-1969) was the great grandson and namesake of the inventor of the telegraph. Though his family was from Boston, he moved out to San Francisco, almost immediately after his graduation from Yale (where he was captain of the football team) in 1907. He became associated with the Crockers and after making a success of the Crocker-Hoffman Land and Water Company, which he managed, he was subsequently offered a position managing the Pacific Improvement Company in 1915. Since the heirs of the original owners of Southern Pacific (Stanford, Crocker, Hopkins, Huntington) had sold out the Railroad they were also interested in liquidating the Pacific Improvement Co., which had originally been the construction company for the railroad and had since become a holding company for many various concerns. The liquidation became Morse's job and he expedited about 90 percent of that task in his first five years on the job. However, the remainder of the job dragged on until 1967, almost fifty years later. Morse's most triumphant personal deal was buying Pacific Improvement Co. land on the Monterey Peninsula himself. The company that he formed of it in 1919, Del Monte Properties, became his pet and very profitable project because he developed that land into tremendously valuable resort and private real estate (i.e. Pebble Beach, Cypress Point, etc.).

Acquisition information:
Gift of Crocker Estate to the Jackson Library of Business in 1970. Transferred to the Department of Special Collections in 1979, accession 1979-081. Accession 1999-019 is a gift of Mary Morse Shaw, 1999.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use.

Terms of access:

While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.

Preferred citation:

Samuel F. B. (Samuel Finley Brown) Morse Papers. JL016. Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Location of this collection:
Department of Special Collections, Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6004, US
Contact:
(650) 725-1022
specialcollections@stanford.edu
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