Description
This collection contains papers pertaining to Colonel Ed Fletcher’s business in real estate, water development, and other
commercial ventures in San Diego County in the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, as well some of his personal papers.
Background
Ed Fletcher was born in Littleton, Massachusetts on December 31, 1872. He came to San Diego in 1888 and first found work selling
produce in the city and surrounding countryside. He opened his first commission business with Omer C. Smith in 1894, and subsequently
organized the Ed Fletcher Company. In 1896 he married Mary C. Batchelder and they had ten children: Catherine (Fletcher Taylor),
Edward Jr., Charles, Lawrence, Willis, Stephen, Ferdinand, Mary Louise (Pitts Mack), Eugene, and Virginia.