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Guide to the Colonel Ed Fletcher Collection
MS 135
MS 135
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Table of contents
Title: Colonel Ed Fletcher Collection
Identifier/Call Number: MS 135
Contributing Institution:
San Diego History Center Document Collection
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
13.5 Linear feet
(29 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1881-1965
Abstract: 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.
creator:
Fletcher, Ed, 1872-1955
This collection is open for research.
The San Diego History Center (SDHC) holds the copyright to any unpublished materials. SDHC Library regulations do apply.
Colonel Ed Fletcher Collection, MS 135, San Diego History Center Document Collection, San Diego, CA.
Collection processed by Samantha Mills on January 16, 2013.
Collection processed as part of grant project supported by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) with generous
funding from The Andrew Mellon Foundation.
Biographical / Historical Notes
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.
Ed Fletcher and his business associates were responsible for developing a great deal of real estate in San Diego County, including
lands in the San Luis Rey Valley, Grossmont, Fletcher Hills, Mount Helix, Del Mar, Pine Hills, Cuyamaca Lake, Lake Hodges,
and Solana Beach. He was instrumental in developing all state and national highways leading into San Diego County, as well
as the road from Mountain Springs to Imperial Valley, the plank road from Holtsville to Yuma, the Yuma highway bridge, and
the highway from Gila Bend to Casa Grande.
In addition to his real estate work, Ed Fletcher was instrumental in developing the majority of San Diego County’s water systems,
including the Cuyamaca Water System on the San Diego River (supplying the La Mesa Irrigation District and City of San Diego),
the Volcan Water System (including Lake Henshaw Dam), the San Dieguito Water System, and the Lake Hodges and San Dieguito
Dams (supplying San Dieguito and Santa Fe Irrigation District plus part of the City of San Diego).
Ed Fletcher’s civic work included service with the Finance Committee, the Y.M.C.A., the San Diego Club, and the California
National Guard (from whence the nickname “Colonel” stuck). He was a director of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, and
in 1917 he successfully raised funds to save the Exposition buildings from destruction. He was later a director of the 1935
California Pacific International Exposition. He served as California State Senator from 1935-1947, during which time he authored
the law creating the San Diego County Water authority and the law transferring Mission Bay Park lands to the City of San Diego.
Though he was a monumental figure in San Diego’s land and water development, Ed Fletcher’s activities did not proceed without
conflict. Through the Cuyamaca Water Company he was embroiled in decades of lawsuits with the City of San Diego regarding
rights to the water of the San Diego River.
Ed Fletcher passed away on October 15, 1955.
Collection is arranged into 33 series:
Series I: Deeds and Mortgages
Series II: Real Estate: Avocado Acres
Series III: Real Estate: Camp Kearny
Series IV: Real Estate: Lake Hodges
Series V: Real Estate: Lake Hodges and Del Mar Road
Series VI: Real Estate: Lockwood Mesa / Solana Beach
Series VII: Real Estate: Mount Helix
Series VIII: Real Estate: Poway Ranch
Series IX: Real Estate: San Dieguito
Series X: Real Estate: Ed Fletcher Company
Series XI: Real Estate: Miscellanea
Series XII: La Mesa, Lemon Grove, and Spring Valley Irrigation District
Series XIII: San Dieguito Irrigation District
Series XIV: Santa Fe Irrigation District
Series XV: Cuyamaca Water Company
Series XVI: Cuyamaca Water Company: James A. Murray Estate
Series XVII: Cuyamaca Water Company: San Diego River Rights
Series XVIII: Pamo Water Company
Series XIX: San Diego County Water Company: San Pasqual Ranch Issue
Series XX: San Dieguito Mutual Water Company
Series XXI: Sherman Water Company
Series XXII: Volcan Land and Water Company
Series XXIII: Water Projects: La Jolla – Del Mar Pipeline
Series XXIV: Water Projects: Mission Gorge Dam Site #3
Series XXV: Water Projects: Santa Ysabel Creek and Black Canyon Creek
Series XXVI: Water Projects: Sutherland Reservoir
Series XXVII: Water Projects: Sweetwater System
Series XXVIII: Water Projects: Yuma Mesa Grapefruit Project
Series XXIX: Water Projects: Miscellanea
Series XXX: Grossmont Studios
Series XXXI: San Diego Independent Publishing Company
Series XXXII: Personal Papers
Series XXXIII: Catalog Cards
Items within each series are arranged by subject.
This collections contains papers pertaining to Colonel Ed Fletcher’s work in real estate, water development, and other business
ventures in San Diego County in the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century, as well some of his personal papers.
Fletcher’s real estate papers include numerous deeds, mortgages, correspondence, maps, and other business papers regarding
his management of lands around Encinitas, Camp Kearny, Lake Hodges, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Mount Helix, Poway, San Dieguito,
and the City of San Diego. The Camp Kearny papers relate specifically to Ed Fletcher’s dispute with the United States Army
after he leased them the land during World War I. Additionally, this collection contains some financial documents, business
agreements, and publicity for the Ed Fletcher Company.
Fletcher’s water development papers include deeds, correspondence, financial documents, maps, and project plans generated
by his involvement with the La Mesa, Lemon Grove, and Spring Valley Irrigation District, the San Dieguito Irrigation District,
and the Santa Fe Irrigation District, as well as the Cuyamaca Water Company, the Pamo Water Company, the San Dieguito Mutual
Water Company, the Sherman Water Company, and the Volcan Land and Water Company. There are also legal papers from several
of his court cases: the settlement of the James A. Murray estate, lawsuits with the City of San Diego regarding San Diego
River rights, and a lawsuit by John Treanor regarding the purchase of the San Pasqual Ranch property. Additionally, this collection
contains correspondence and research notes accumulated by Ed Fletcher for several more water projects such as the La Jolla-Del
Mar Pipeline .
This collection also contains meeting minutes, stocks, and financial papers regarding film productions by Grossmont Studios
(previously S&L Studios), as well as minutes, financial papers, stocks, and business ledgers from the San Diego Independent
Publishing Company.
Ed Fletcher’s personal papers include correspondence, financial papers, brochures and pamphlets, and numerous photographs
of his family, his friends, his San Diego properties, and some of his travels.
At the end of this collection, a set of catalog cards has been included that was produced by an earlier collection processing
project (see Comments).
Map of "Aerial route of the United State - U.S. Army Air Service April 1919" previously separated to the SDHC Map Collection.
Colonel Ed Fletcher Family Collection (C051) in SDHC Photograph Collection.
The collection was donated in 1970 and initial processing began in 1978 through a grant-funded project. Collection materials
were organized into file groups based on subject matter, material type, and time frame. A set of catalog cards was produced
to record and describe the collection. The first box of catalog cards contains subject cards listing the file groups where
relevant documents for those subjects can be found. This box also contains overview cards describing the general contents
of each file group. The remaining four boxes of catalog cards contain individual cards describing each item in each file group.
All five catalog card boxes are included in this collection.
The collection was reprocessed in 2012/2013 as part of the CLIR grant-funded project. Collection was rearranged to best reflect
the subject relevance of the collection's materials. Penciled notes, identifying the file group and document number from the
first processing project, remain on each document in the collection. The identifiers link the document to its original file
group and document number for cross-referencing in the catalog cards.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Canfield, C. A.
Crouch, C. C.
Cuyamaca Water Company.
Ed Fletcher Company.
Fletcher, Ed, 1872-1955
Fletcher, Mary
Grossmont Park Co..
Grossmont Studios.
Haldorn, Stuart
Harbell, C. O.
Henshaw, William Griffith, 1860-1924
Hodges, W. E.
La Mesa, Lemon Grove, and Spring Valley Irrigation District (Calif.).
Morse Construction Co..
Murray, James A.
Murray, Mary H.
Pamo Water Company.
Salmons, Frank
San Diego Athletic Club.
San Diego County Water Company.
San Diego Independent Publishing Company.
San Dieguito Irrigation District (Calif.).
San Dieguito Mutual Water Company.
Santa Fe Irrigation District (Calif.).
Santa Fe Land Improvement Company.
Sherman Water Company.
Stern, Charles
Treanor, John
United States. Army.
Volcan Land and Water Company.
War Department Claims Board.
Account books
Actions and defenses
Administration of estates
Black Canyon Creek (Calif.)
Blueprints
Bonds
Camp Kearny
Carlsbad (Calif.)
Carroll Dam (Calif.)
Del Mar (Calif.)
El Cajon (Calif.)
Encinitas (Calif.)
Evidence (Law)
Fletcher Hills (Calif.)
Flood dams and reservoirs
Hodges, Lake (Calif.)
Invoices
La Jolla (San Diego, Calif.)
La Mesa (Calif.)
Land companies
Land grants
Land titles
Leases
Lockwood Mesa (Calif.)
Maps
Mission Gorge Dam (Calif.)
Mortgages
Motion picture studios
Mount Helix (Calif.)
Municipal bonds
Murray Dam (Calif.)
Oceanside (Calif.)
Photographs
Pipelines
Poway (Calif.)
Publishers and publishing
Railroads
Rain and rainfall
Rainfall data
Ramona (Calif.)
Real estate development
Real property
San Diego (Calif.)
San Dieguito (Encinitas, Calif.)
San Juan Basin (N.M. and Colo.)
San Luis Rey Valley (Calif.)
Santa Ysabel Creek (Calif.)
Solana Beach (Calif.)
Sutherland Reservoir (Calif.)
Water development, supply, and management
Water rights
Yuma (Ariz.)