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Finding Aid to the Charles Frederick Fisk Papers, 1863-1960
BANC MSS 70/110 c  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Collection Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Alternate Forms Available
  • Indexing Terms
  • Accruals
  • Processing Information
  • Biographical Information
  • Scope and Content of Collection

  • Collection Summary

    Collection Title: Charles Frederick Fisk papers
    Date (inclusive): 1863-1960
    Collection Number: BANC MSS 70/110 c
    Extent: 10 cartons and 10 oversize folders (linear feet: 14) 1 digital object (1 image)
    Repository: The Bancroft Library.
    University of California, Berkeley
    Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
    Phone: (510) 642-6481
    Fax: (510) 642-7589
    Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
    URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/
    Abstract: Papers of Charles Frederick Fisk, rancher in Corcoran, California, land developer, mainly in the Tulare Basin area of California, and mine owner in Calaveras County, California.
    Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English
    Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000. Consent is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html. 
    Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.Materials in this collection may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
    All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html .

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Charles Frederick Fisk papers, BANC MSS 70/110 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

    Alternate Forms Available

    Digital reproductions of selected items are available.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog
    Fisk, Charles Frederick, 1885-1969--Archives.
    Fisk, Charles, 1814-1897
    Fisk, Frank Willis, b. 1857
    Fisk family
    Charles G. Storie Company
    Corcoran Land and Farm Company
    New Penn Mines
    Penn Chemical Company
    Agriculture--California--San Joaquin Valley
    Gold mines and mining--California--Alpine County
    Gold mines and mining--California--Amador County
    Gold mines and mining--California--Calaveras County
    Gold mines and mining--California--Tuolumne County
    Gold mines and mining--Nevada--Comstock Lode
    Mines and mineral resources--California--Alpine County
    Mines and mineral resources--California--Amador County
    Mines and mineral resources--California--Calaveras County
    Mines and mineral resources--California--Tuolumne County
    Mines and mineral resources--Nevada--Comstock Lode
    Petroleum--California--San Joaquin Valley
    Ranching--California--San Joaquin Valley
    Real property--California--Calaveras County
    Real property--California--Kings County
    Real property--California--Oakland
    Real property--California--San Joaquin Valley
    Corcoran (Calif.)
    Murphys (Calif.)
    Silver Mountain (Calif.)
    Account books
    Blueprints
    Deeds
    Letters
    Maps

    Accruals

    No additions are expected.

    Processing Information

    Processed by Lara Michels in 2012.

    Biographical Information

    Charles Frederick Fisk, born in 1885 to Frank Willis Fisk (b. 1857) and May P. Shearer of Murphys, California, was a rancher in Corcoran, California; a land developer, mainly in the Tulare Basin area of California; and a mine owner in Calaveras County, California. His grandparents, Charles Fisk (1814-1897) and Mary Ann Eaton (1818-1893), came to California from Maine around 1863. The couple settled first in Yolo County and then in Silver Mountain City in Alpine County, where Charles Fisk ran the Fisk Hotel and served on the school board. In 1869, the couple relocated to Murphys in Calaveras County. They had eleven children.
    Frank Willis Fisk, Charles Frederick's father, was the youngest of Charles and Mary Ann Fisk's children. He grew up assisting his father in his mercantile business and became a merchant and postmaster in Murphys. Frank Fisk also served on the Board of Supervisors for Calaveras County from 1886 to 1900. In 1879, Frank married May P. Shearer, a native of Murphys and daughter of Volney Shearer, an early California settler. Frank and May had two children, Effie May and Charles Frederick.
    Charles Frederick Fisk attended the University of California, Berkeley and married fellow student Adelaide Stafford. In 1916, Charles and Adelaide bought ranch property in Corcoran, California. By 1930, they had returned to Alameda County, where Charles was working for the real estate firm of Charles G. Storie, which specialized in downtown Oakland business properties. Charles maintained ownership of the Corcoran Ranch until the early 1940s and added additional land investments to his portfolio during the 1920s and 1930s. He transferred all of his land investments from his personal ownership to his new corporation, the Corcoran Land and Farming Company in 1939. In 1948, Charles Frederick Fisk (along with Elmer von Glahn and Richard Harp) entered into a lease on the Penn Copper and Zine Mine in Calaveras County. He operated the mine as the New Penn Mines and the Penn Chemical Company.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    Early Fisk family papers, including correspondence and other papers of Charles Frederick Fisk's grandfather, Charles Fisk; materials on the Fisk ranch in Corcoran, California, including some files on bee-keeping and goat farming; a small number of files on the Corcoran Land and Farming Company; files relating to Charles Frederick Fisk's ranch land investments and prospective investments; materials relating to Fisk's work as a salesman for the Oakland real estate firm of Charles G. Storie; some files on oil and gas leases negotiated by Fisk in the San Joaquin Valley Kings; files on a range of mines and prospective mining properties, mostly in the California Mother Lode and in the Nevada Comstock Lode; and material documenting the operations of the New Penn Mines and Penn Chemical Company in Calaveras County.