Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Jacobs Brothers Papers: Finding Aid
mssJacobs Brothers papers
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Jacobs Brothers Papers
Dates (inclusive): 1862-1906
Collection Number: mssJacobs Brothers papers
Extent: 3,184 items in 9 boxes
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains the papers of bankers and businessmen Barron Jacobs (1843-1936) and Lionel Jacobs (1841-1922) of
Tucson and Tombstone, Arizona,
and their family, including correspondence of the Jacobs brothers and their mercantile and banking operations; family letters;
and
financial documents.
Language: 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]. Jacobs Brothers Papers, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Purchased for the Huntington by the Library Collector's Council from John D.
Gilchriese, January 20, 2005. Four items were purchased for the Huntington by
the William Reese Company at Cowan’s auction, June 24, 2009.
Key figures in the banking history of Tucson and Tombstone, Barron and Lionel Jacobs
initially began their financial careers as merchants and suppliers. In 1867 they
partnered with their father, Mark Israel Jacobs, to expand the family’s mercantile
business, the Mark I. Jacobs Company, from San Bernardino to Tucson. Mark Jacobs was
a Polish-born Jew who worked as a men’s clothing retailer in England before moving
his family to California, settling first in San Diego in the 1850s and later in San
Bernardino and San Francisco. Lionel (1841-1922) and Barron (1843-1936) were his two
oldest sons and eventually became the patriarchs of the Barron family.
The Arizona branch of the Jacobs enterprise flourished and in 1869, Mark I. Jacobs
moved to San Francisco to coordinate the company’s purchase and shipment of
merchandise to Arizona. By 1871, Lionel and Barron began to offer financial services
in addition to their mercantile business including exchanging gold coin for paper
money, providing short term loans, holding savings deposits, redeeming checks and
drafts, and collecting payments for settlers in Tucson, Tombstone, and surrounding
areas.
The Tucson population and economy boomed in the mid 1870s, especially after the
arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the Jacobs brothers’ enterprises
expanded. By 1875 the firm had become one of the largest mercantile establishments
in Arizona Territory and the brothers renamed it Lionel M. Jacobs and Company. In
1879 they partnered with Phillip William Smith to open the Pima County Bank, the
first formal financial institution in Tucson. In 1880 Smith and the Jacobs expanded
their business by opening the Agency Pima County Bank in Tombstone (they changed the
name of this institution to the Cochise County Bank in 1881). Both banks did well -
the Pima County Bank won a banking war with several Tucson competitors and became
the First National Bank of Tucson in 1882. The bank later evolved into the Bank of
Tucson, the Consolidated Bank of Tucson, the Arizona National Bank, and the current
Valley National Bank.
Along with their financial success the Jacobs brothers also achieved political
success. Lionel was appointed to the Pima County Board of Supervisors in 1871. He
was also elected to the territorial legislature and served on the Tucson city
council. Both Lionel and Barron also served as treasurer for the territorial
legislature.
As their business expanded it came to involve or employ increasing numbers of their
family members, including their younger brother Albert Ephraim, their nephew Abraham
Franklin, their uncle Jacob Philip Solomon, and their brother-in-law Marcus Katz.
Bibliography
Golden, Richard and Arlene A. Golden. “The Mark I. Jacobs Family: A Discursive Overview.”
Western States Jewish Historical Quarterly 13 (1981): 99-114.
Moore, Dawn. “Pioneer Banking in Tucson: Lionel and Barron Jacobs and the Founding of the Pima County Bank.” Arizona and
the West 24 (1982): 305-318.
This collection contains the papers of bankers and businessmen Barron Jacobs (1843-1936) and Lionel Jacobs (1841-1922) of
Tucson and Tombstone, Arizona, and their family.
The collection is divided into the following series: correspondence,
financial documents, and ephemera.
The correspondence series contains 961 letters and is organized alphabetically by
author. The series consists of a large number of letters written to the Jacobs
brothers and their mercantile and banking operations. The collection includes
letters from individual customers and businesses regarding their accounts, letters
from other banking institutions regarding customers, and letters from suppliers and
shippers regarding the mercantile business. The correspondence also includes a
significant number of letters written within the Jacobs family. There are number of
early letters from Mark Jacobs to his wife, Hannah, as well as a few written to his
sons, Lionel and Barron. There are also quite a few letters written by Lionel to
Barron as well as a few from their youngest brother, Albert, and a number from their
sisters and brothers-in-law.
The financial documents series contains 2,191 documents, sorted and alphabetized by
type and then by institution or organization. The bulk of financial documents
consist of processed checks, collection and returns forms, and receipt postal cards.
The financial documents also include account books, balance sheets, bills, inventory
lists, order forms, protest cards, receipts, and tax receipts. These documents
reflect both the mercantile and banking enterprises of the Jacobs family including
L. M. Jacobs and Company, Pima County Bank, Agency Pima County Bank, Cochise County
Bank, and First National Bank.
The small collection of ephemera contains 32 items and is organized alphabetically
by type. The series includes circulars, invitations, labels, and some miscellaneous
handwritten notes. Also included are photocopies of two letters about Indian affairs
in Arizona in the nineteenth century.
Prominent individuals included in the collection include David Neahr, forwarding
agent, Leopold Wolf, San Francisco and New York purchasing agent, the Goldwater
family, and Albert Springer, a banking partner, and Isaias W. Hellman of the Farmers
and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles.
Collection is divided into the following series: Correspondence, Financial
documents, and Ephemera.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Jacobs, Barron,
1843-1936.
Jacobs, Lionel,
1841-1922.
Banks and banking -- Arizona -- History
-- Sources.
Frontier and pioneer life --
Arizona.
Arizona -- History --
19th century -- Sources.
Pima County (Ariz.) --
History -- 19th century -- Sources.
Tombstone (Ariz.) --
History -- 19th century -- Sources.
Tucson (Ariz.) --
History -- 19th century -- Sources.
Business records Arizona -- 19th
century.
Financial records Arizona -- 19th
century.
Letters (correspondence) Arizona --
19th century.
Hellman, Isaias W. (Isaias William),
1842-1920.
Jacobs, Barron, 1843-1936.
Jacobs, Lionel, 1841-1922.
Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los
Angeles.
L.M. Jacobs & Company Bankers.
Valley National Bank of Arizona.