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Hihn (Frederick A.) Records
MS.201
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Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Frederick A. Hihn Records
Identifier/Call Number: MS.201
Physical Description:
68 Linear Feet
35 boxes, 8 framed items, and 959 maps
Date (inclusive): 1850-1954
Date (bulk): 1858-1913
Language of Material:
English .
Collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gifts of Gloria Hihn Welsh, Helen Hihn Younger, and Marion Stowell Younger.
Existence and Location of Copies
The following full text transcriptions of items in this collection as well as commentaries
can be accessed by searching "Hihn, Frederick Augustus" in the catalog of hathitrust.org:
- F.A. Hihn Company: agreements, deeds, & leases
- Letters of F.A. Hihn & F.A. Hihn Company: November 25, 1901-March 14, 1902
- Letters of F.A. Hihn & F.A. Hihn Company: December 26, 1902-May 26, 1903
- A researcher's digest on F.A. Hihn and his Santa Cruz County pioneers
- A researcher's digest on F.A. Hihn and the founding of California Polytechnic School at San Luis Obispo
- A researcher's digest on F.A. Hihn and his Santa Cruz Rail Road Company and related subjects: with biographical information on persons associated in this enterprise
- Correspondence of Charles B. Younger Sr. and Charles B. Younger Jr., Santa Cruz, California attorneys and counsellors at law
This collection is arranged in six series:
- Series 1: Business Records
- Series 2: Correspondence
- Series 3: Personal Papers
- Series 4: Framed Items
- Series 5: Photographs
- Series 6: Maps
Frederick Augustus Hihn (originally Hühn) was an early settler to Santa Cruz County and a
prominent businessman in the development of the City of Santa Cruz, from his arrival to the
area in 1851 to his death in 1913. He owned a range of businesses, including real estate,
water, lumber, and railroad companies. He also served in local Santa Cruz and state
politics.
Hihn was born in Holzminden, Germany, on August 16th, 1829, to a family with nine children.
His father was a merchant, and while in Germany, Hihn was educated in mercantilism and
business. He immigrated to California from Germany with two brothers for the Gold Rush on
the brig
Reform in 1849. After a short time in gold mining, Hihn returned to
Sacramento and opened a candy factory and store. However, that winter, the Sacramento River
flooded and destroyed his factory and store.
In 1851 Hihn moved to San Francisco and opened a small drugstore. However, the Great Fire
of May 1851 burned most of his stock and possessions, and what he managed to recoup was
burned in the June 1851 fire. As a result he came to Santa Cruz with a friend in October
1851, thinking the risk of fire would be lower, and set up a mercantile shop on the corner
of present-day Front Street and Pacific Street. In 1853 Hihn and Therese Paggen married, and
they had six children together.
Hihn was heavily involved in real estate development of Santa Cruz and the surrounding
areas, buying large tracts of land and developing them to be sold in smaller parcels. He
also founded the town of Capitola, and directed the construction of many of Santa Cruz's
current streets. Other business enterprises included railroad construction and operation,
the development of a wagon road across the Santa Cruz mountains. and the construction of the
cliff road from Santa Cruz to Capitola. Hihn was also involved in early water infrastructure
for Santa Cruz and the surrounding towns, banking, and the lumber industry, owning two
sawmills near Aptos and Laurel, California.
Hihn was a school trustee of Santa Cruz, served on the State Assembly for one term in 1869,
served as Santa Cruz Supervisor for six years, and was the Vice President of the Society of
California Pioneers. Hihn was also a founding trustee of California Polytechnic State
University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo.
Hihn established the F.A. Hihn Company in 1890, and organized a corporation under the name
of the Company which bound together his children by mutual interest. Hihn's principal
attorney was Charles Bruce Younger. Hihn's daughter, Agnes Hihn, and Younger's son, C.B.
Younger Jr., were married, uniting the two families.
F.A. Hihn died at age 84 on August 23rd, 1913.
References: Guinn, James M.
History of the State of California and Biographical
Record of Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties. An Historical
Story of the State's Marvelous Growth from its Earliest Settlement to the Present
Time.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1903.
Stevens, Stanley. "Brief Biography of F. A. Hihn, Friedrich August Ludewig Hühn, better
known by his American name, Frederick Augustus Hihn." For the Museum of Art and History's
1999 Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the Arrival of Frederick Augustus Hihn in
California for the Gold Rush.
Frederick A. Hihn Records. MS 201. Special Collections and Archives, University Library,
University of California, Santa Cruz.
Preliminary processing and transcription conducted by Stanley D. Stevens and Jennifer
Fosgate, circa 1990-2018. Processing completed in 2020 by Vivian Underhill in the Center for
Archival Research and Training (CART) with assistance from Alix Norton.
Finding aid revision statement
This finding aid was revised in the Reparative Archival Redescription Project in 2021-2022.
Previous versions of this finding aid are available upon request.
Related materials on F.A. Hihn, the F.A. Hihn Company, and the Hihn-Younger families can be
accessed by searching the following subject headings in UCSC Library Search:
- Hihn, Frederick Augustus, 1829-1913
- F. A. Hihn Company
The oral history of Darrow and Nina Palmer,
Mr. and Mrs. Darrow Palmer on Frederick
A. Hihn and Santa Cruz in the Early 1900s
(call number F868.S3 P3), was conducted
by Elizabeth Spedding Calciano and published in 1963 by the Regional History Project, UCSC
Library.
Materials on F.A. Hihn can also be accessed at the Santa Cruz Public Library and the Alice
Phelan Sullivan Library of the Society of California Pioneers.
This collection documents the career of Frederick Augustus Hihn, an immigrant from Germany
and early settler of Santa Cruz, California who was involved with the early timber,
railroad, water infrastructure, road construction, and real estate industries in the Santa
Cruz area from 1851 to his death in 1913. It contains ledger books which include deeds,
leases, inventories, and contracts for work and supplies, and which document the business
transactions of Hihn, the F.A. Hihn Company, the Capitola-Hihn Company, the Santa Cruz Water
Company, the Valencia-Hihn Company, and related corporate enterprises. The collection also
includes five letter impression books which primarily contain business correspondence,
though not exclusively. The collection also includes a small number of Hihn's personal
records, including his marriage certificate, application for citizenship, and documents from
the execution of his will from 1913 to 1917.
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs.
Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair
use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to
determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more
information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Santa Cruz County (Calif.) -- History