Segerstrom Family Collection
1910-1975
Processed By Joshua Salyers; Updated by Gillian Goldberg
Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
University of the Pacific Library
3601 Pacific Ave.
Stockton, CA 95211
Phone: (209) 946-2404
URL:
https://www.pacific.edu/university-libraries/find/holt-atherton-special-collections
© 2024
University of the Pacific. All rights reserved.
Segerstrom Family Collection
1910-1975
Collection number: "MSS 275"
Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
University
of the Pacific Library
Stockton, California
Contact Information
- Processed by:
- Joshua Salyers; Updated by Gillian Goldberg
- Date Completed:
- 2019; Updated 2024
- Encoded by:
- Gillian Goldberg
© 2024 University of the Pacific. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Segerstrom family collection
Dates: 1910-1975
Collection number: Mss275
Creator:
Segerstrom, Charles Homer,
1910-1979
Collection Size: 230 linear feet
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Dept. of
Special Collections
Stockton, California 95211
Shelf location: For current information on the location of
these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language: English.
Abstract: The Segerstrom Collection contains a nearly
complete run of all correspondence and financial reports relating to the
operation of each of Charles Segerstrom's hotel properties. The Collection
contains correspondence and company records related to several business
activities of the Segerstrom family, including: mining, hotels, lumber,
railroad, and banking interests.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Segerstrom Family Collection, Mss275,
Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific
Library
Publication Rights
Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as
the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the
researcher.
Biography / Administrative History
Two generations of the Segerstrom family of Sonora, California were
important players in the mining history of the southern Mother Lode and central
Nevada (1910-1975). Their extensive papers depict a complex history of personal
investments and mining developments in these and other mining districts of the
west from Canada to Mexico. The family were also bankers, first in Tuolumne
County (1914-1930) then throughout California (c1955-1975), and hoteliers,
operating several establishments in San Francisco, Chico and Sonora
(c1930-1955). Various members of the Segerstrom family were prominent in local
civic affairs and national Republican politics. All of these components of
Segerstrom family activity are represented in this collection, which includes
business papers of Charles H. Segerstrom, Charles H. Segerstrom Jr. and Donald
Segerstrom.
Charles Homer Segerstrom (1880-1946), a native of Sweden and the second
of eleven children, immigrated with his parents to Minnesota as an infant.
Following a family move to southern California (1895), Segerstrom enrolled at
the University of Southern California, graduating with a Bachelor of Law degree
in 1903. He subsequently purchased Sonora Abstract and Title, operating this
business until he purchased the Dutch Mine in 1909. Segerstrom was also chief
executive officer of the Carson Hill Gold Mining Corporation, the Westside
Lumber Company, the Nevada Massachusetts Mining Company, Incorporated, the
Pacific Tungsten Company, and other mining corporations (1924-1946). For a time
he was director of the American Mining Congress.
As a banker, Charles Segerstrom was associated with the 1st National
Bank of Sonora and the Tuolumne County Bank as Vice President (1914-1930) and
Cashier until the Bank of Italy acquired them. He was a member of the executive
committee of the California Bankers Association (1925-1946), and president of
the Independent League of California Bankers (1925-1929). Charles Segerstrom
was involved with civic affairs through Republican politics, community and
organization service work, and as an hotelier. In 1940 he chaired the
California delegation to the Republican National Convention and gave a
nominating address for Wendell L. Wilkie. He was a trustee of the College of
the Pacific and a member of the association council of Mills College. He was
chairman of the Tuolumne County Liberty Loan and War Savings program during
World War II. He was also a member of the Sonora High School board for
twenty-five years. He operated the Hotel Maurice, the Drake Wiltshire and the
Canterbury Hotel in San Francisco, the Oaks Hotel in Chico, and the Sonora Inn
(c1930-1946).
Charles Segerstrom at one time owned as many as three hotels in San
Francisco, one in Sonora, and one in Chico. He began to acquire these
properties in the late 1920s and still owned most of them at his death in 1946.
None of the hotels were ever a dependable money-maker. The Great Depression
naturally caused a long-term slump in tourism that hurt the California hotel
business, but Segerstrom was also plagued by employee problems. After his death
the family gradually liquidated these holdings when it was prudent to do
so.
Important names in Charles Segerstrom's hotel business were: Brace A.
Eldred, his accountant for more than twenty-five years; Mrs. H.H. Mansfield,
his publicist; and, George H. Thompson, co-investor and manager of his San
Francisco hotels during the latter half of the 1930s. Eldred and Mansfield were
loyal employees who maintained a voluminous, informative correspondence with
their employer throughout the 1930s and 1940s. George Thompson played a less
positive role. An ambitious man, with hotels of his own, Thompson evidently
thought to "con" Segerstrom out of his San Francisco properties by running them
into debt and then buying them at a discount. After considerable warning from
Eldred and others, Charles Segerstrom had Thompson investigated, and finding
that he was probably pilfering hotel furnishings and siphoning them off to his
own properties, bought him out by giving him sole rights to the Drake-Wiltshire
Hotel in 1941 in exchange for a substantial yearly cash payment.
Segerstrom first purchased the Hotel Oaks in Chico in 1925. He traded it
together with $170,000 to George D. Smith, who had built the Canterbury in
1923, and was soon to erect the Mark Hopkins in San Francisco, for rights to
the Canterbury at a time when Smith needed cash to finance the Mark Hopkins.
Sometime later Segerstrom resumed ownership in Chico. The history of the Hotel
Oaks was probably the least turbulent of all Segerstrom's hotel properties.
Chico was never a major tourist market, but the presence of a college in the
isolated valley community guaranteed a steady, though modest, flow of patrons.
The one negative event in the hotel's forty-five year history was a fire in
1946. Twenty years after Segerstrom's death his family had the Hotel Oaks torn
down (1965) and subsequently operated the property as a parking lot for almost
fifteen years before selling out to the M&T Co. in 1979. The Oaks was the
first and last Segerstrom hotel property.
The Sonora Inn, in Segerstrom's home town, served both as convenient
lodging for businessmen and employees who had affairs to negotiate with their
host, and as a base for touring the ski areas and historic sites further "up
the hill" in the southern Sierra. Like the Hotel Oaks, the Inn had a relatively
tranquil existence from the time Segerstrom acquired it in 1935 to the time the
family sold it in 1953. Coincidentally the Sonora Inn also experienced a small
fire in the same year as that at the Oaks (1946).
Charles Segerstrom's first San Francisco hotel acquisition was the Hotel
Canterbury at 750 Sutter Street in 1927. He later purchased controlling
interests in the Maurice Hotel in 1935 and the Drake-Wiltshire on Union Square
in 1936. George Thompson managed these properties from 1935. Both the
Canterbury and the Maurice were distinguished by ornamental murals that were
the work of California artist Jo Mora. The Canterbury was advertised as "the
only downtown hotel with a garden." As noted earlier, Segerstrom ceded control
of the Drake-Wiltshire to Thompson after only five years (1941). He may have
done this largely to be rid of Thompson, since that hotel, due in part to its
location in the heart of the city's finest shopping district, was probably his
most lucrative hotel investment. Segerstrom sold the least profitable of his
three San Francisco hotels, the Maurice, in 1944. The family operated the Hotel
Canterbury for six years after Charles Sr.'s death, finally selling it to
hotelier Louis Lurie for a million dollars in 1959.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Segerstrom Collection contains a nearly complete run of all
correspondence and financial reports relating to the operation of each of
Charles Segerstrom's hotel properties. The Collection contains correspondence
and company records related to several business activities of the Segerstrom
family, including: mining, hotels, lumber, railroad, and banking interests.
Arrangement
Series 1: Maps; Mining Diagrams; Architect's Drawings Series 2: General
and Personal Correspondence Series 3: Mining Papers Series 4: Hotels Series 5:
Properties and Estates Series 6: Lumber, Railroads, and Banking Series 7:
Politics and Public Life
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Segerstrom, Charles Homer,
1880-1946
Hotels - California
Logging - California
Pickering Lumber Company
Sierra Railroad
Railroads - California
Banks and banking - California -
History
SERIES I: MAPS; MINING DIAGRAMS; ARCHITECT'S
DRAWINGS
BOX 2
Maps -- California: Tuolumne County
BOX 3
Maps -- Nevada. Utah. Colorado. Arizona.
BOX 5
Maps -- Mining Plans -- California
BOX 6
Maps -- Plats of Businesses & Homesites --
California
BOX 7
Maps -- Mining Plats -- Nevada: Pershing
County
BOX 8
Maps -- Mining Plats -- Nevada: Other Counties; Arizona;
Utah
BOX 9
Mining Diagrams -- California: Dutch-Sweeney-App (Tuolumne
County)
BOX 10
Mining Diagrams -- California: Keystone (Amador
County)
BOX 11
Mining Diagrams -- California: Carson Hill Mine (Calaveras
County)
BOX 13
Mining Diagrams -- Nevada: Humboldt-Springer-Friedman
(Pershing County)
BOX 14
Mining Diagrams -- Nevada: Stank (Pershing
County)
BOX 15
Mining Diagrams -- Nevada: Sutton Nos. 1 & 2 (Pershing
County)
BOX 16
Mining Diagrams -- Nevada: Other Pershing County
Mines
BOX 17
Mining Diagrams -- Nevada: Silver Dyke (Mineral
County)
BOX 18
Mining Diagrams -- Nevada: Other Mines outside Pershing
County; Arizona; Utah
BOX 19
Architects' & Engineers' Drawings -- California:
Mining Site Buildings
BOX 20
Architects' & Engineers' Drawings -- California:
Hotels: Businesses; Home Sites
BOX 21
Architects' & Engineers' Drawings -- Nevada: Mining
Site Buildings
BOX 22
Engineers' Drawings -- Mining Equipment
BOX 23
Maps and Drawings (Misc.)
SERIES II: GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE
Note
The General Correspondence Series is organized by year at the
box level with folders arranged alphabetically. Folder labels are Charles H.
Segerstrom’s. Recurring or important topics addressed in correspondences or
files include: American Mining Congress, Boston California Mining Co,
California State Chamber of Commerce, Central Valley Council, Canterbury Hotel,
inheritance tax matters, Pinecrest Water Users' Association, Republican
Committee Data, personal correspondence of Charles H. Segerstrom, Charles H.,
Sierra Railroad Co., and Sonora Union High School.
BOX 1
General and Personal Correspondence, 1920-1933
BOX 2
General and Personal Correspondence, 1929-1933
BOX 3
General and Personal Correspondence, 1935
(A-P)
BOX 4
General and Personal Correspondence, 1935
(Q-Z)
BOX 6
General and Personal Correspondence, 1936
(A-P)
BOX 7
General and Personal Correspondence, 1936
(P-Z)
BOX 9
General and Personal Correspondence, 1937
(A-N)
BOX 10
General and Personal Correspondence, 1938
BOX 12
General and Personal Correspondence, 1937,
1940
BOX 13
General and Personal Correspondence, 1941-1942
BOX 14
General and Personal Correspondence, 1942-1943,
1945
BOX 15
General and Personal Correspondence, 1935,
1941-1945
SERIES III: MINING PAPERS
SERIES 3.1: MINING CORRESPONDENCE AND FILES
Note
This sub-series contains correspondence and associated
reports related to Segerstrom's mining interests. Topics or correspondents of
interest include: Clifford L. Ach, Assay reports, Bureau of Mines (U.S.),
Columbia Tool Steel Co., First National Bank of Boston, Ott F. Heizer, Metal
& Ore Corp, Mill City, Molybdenum Corp. of America, Rare Metals Corp.,
Tungsten mining prospects, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Vanadium Alloys Steel
Co.
BOX 1
Mining Correspondence & Files, Loring-Segerstrom
1918-1935
BOX 2
Mining Correspondence & Files
1920-1924
BOX 3
Mining Correspondence & Files
1925-1932
BOX 4
Mining Correspondence & Files
1932-1933
BOX 5
Mining Correspondence & Files
1933-1936
BOX 7
Mining Correspondence & Files
1935-1936
BOX 8
Mining Correspondence & Files
1936
BOX 9
Mining Correspondence & Files
1937
BOX 10
Mining Correspondence & Files
1938
BOX 11
Mining Correspondence & Files
1939
BOX 12
Mining Correspondence & Files
1939 (B)
BOX 13
Mining Correspondence & Files, (A-M)
1941
BOX 14
Mining Correspondence & Files, (M-Z)
1941
BOX 17
Mining Correspondence & Files, (A-N)
1942-1945
BOX 18
Mining Correspondence & Files, (G-Z)
1942-1945
BOX 19
Mining Correspondence & Files, (A-I) (incl. 1947
misc.)
1946-1947
BOX 20
Mining Correspondence & Files, (I-Z)
1946-1947
BOX 21
Mining Correspondence & Files, (A-N)
1948-1949
BOX 22
Mining Correspondence & Files, (N-Z)
1948-1949
BOX 23
Mining Correspondence & Files
1950
BOX 24
Mining Correspondence & Files
1951
BOX 25
Mining Correspondence & Files, (A-N)
1952-1953
BOX 26
Mining Correspondence & Files, (N-Z)
1952-1953
BOX 27
Mining Correspondence & Files
1954-1955
BOX 28
Mining Correspondence & Files, (misc.)
1954-1955
BOX 29
Mining Correspondence & Files, (misc.)
1956-1957
BOX 30
Mining Correspondence & Files, (A-N)
1956-1957
BOX 31
Mining Correspondence & Files, (O-Z)
1956-1957
BOX 32
Mining Correspondence & Files, (A-Z)
1958-1959
BOX 33
Mining Correspondence & Files, (misc.)
1958-1959
SERIES 3.2: PACIFIC TUNGSTEN MINING COMPANY
Note
Charles H. Segerstrom served as Chief Executive Officer of
the Pacific Tungsten Company (1924-1946). This sub-series contains
correspondences, war-time production reports, and financial records specific to
the Pacific Tungsten Mining Company.
BOX 1
History and General Records
BOX 2
Pacific Mining Company General Records
BOX 3
Mill City Development; Mill City Gunsten Mining
Co.
BOX 6
War Prouction Board - Priorities Oversight,
Suppliers
1941-1942
BOX 7
War Prouction Board - Priorities Oversight,
Suppliers
1943-1944
BOX 8
War Production Board - Priorities Oversight, Supplies
(1945) & Correspondence (1919-1925)
BOX 9
Financial Records: Ledgers and Journals
1918-1925
BOX 9a
Financial Records: Ledgers and Journals
1930s
BOX 10a
Financial Records: Notes, Check Registers, War Minerals
Relief Claims
1918-1945
BOX 10b
Financial Records: Notes, Check Registers, War Minerals
Relief Claims
1918-1932
BOX 11
Financial Records: Stock Transactions
1918-1925
BOX 12
Financial Records: Stock Transactions
1918-1925
BOX 13
Tungsten Institute
1953-1955
SERIES 3.3: TUNGSTEN MINING RECORDS
BOX 1
Nevada-Massachusetts Mining Company General
Records
1920s-1950s
BOX 2
Nevada-Massachusetts Mining Company General
Records
1927-1934
BOX 3
Nevada-Massachusetts Mining Company General
Records
1942-1943
BOX 4
Tungsten Files: Monthly Reports
1928-1950
BOX 5
Tungsten Files: Financial Reports
1938-1951
BOX 6
Tungsten Files: Blueprints, Drawings,
Records
1940
BOX 7
Tungsten Mining Daily Assay Sheets
1945-1948
BOX 8
Tungsten Mining Daily Assay Sheets
1948-1955
BOX 9
American Tungsten Association
BOX 10
American Mining Conference (A)
BOX 11
American Mining Conference (B)
BOX 12
American Mining Conference (B)
BOX 13
Selective Service: Employees, forms, War Manpower
Commission
BOX 14
Selective Service: War Labor Files
BOX 15
Construction Golconda Canal Mill: Certificates and
Agreements ; WWII Government purchase contracts, Metals Reserve Co. contracts,
Munition Board infraction
BOX 16
Construction Golconda Canal Mill Government contracts
and Metal Reserve contracts ; WWII Government Purchase contracts, Metals
Reserve Co. contracts, Munition Board infraction
BOX 17
Concentrate Shipments (1942-1948) ; Nevada-Massachusetts
Company, Golconda Canal Mill shipments reports
BOX 18
Concentrate Shipments (1949-1953) ; Nevada-Massachusetts
Company, Golconda Canal Mill shipments reports
BOX 19
Machinery: Research Magazines, Correspondence by type,
A-E
BOX 20
Machinery: Research Magazines, Correspondence by type,
F-Z
BOX 21
Machinery: WWII Inventory list/sale receipts
1939-1948
BOX 22
Machinery: WWII Inventory list
1936-1945
BOX 23
Machinery: Blueprints and Machinery Plans
BOX 24
Geological Information: Mill City
BOX 25
Geological Information: Rare Metal and California
Mines
BOX 26
Geological Information: California Mines
BOX 27
Geological Information: California Mines, Utah Mines,
Kinta Mines
BOX 28
Geological Information: Other States
BOX 29
Geological Information: Gold Mines (Carlota and
Columbus, Dutch Sweeny, Keystone, Soulsby, Golden Gate)
BOX 30
Mining Agreements: Mill City, Rare Metals
BOX 31
Mining Agreements: Golconda
BOX 34
Abstracts and Ledgers: Stock Ledgers (Tungsten
Mining)
BOX 35
Abstracts and Ledgers: Stock Ledgers
BOX 36
Abstracts and Ledgers: Keystone/Sonora
(Oversized)
BOX 37
Abstracts and Ledgers: Mill City
SERIES 3.4: GOLD MINING
Note
This sub-series contains correspondence, daily/expense
reports, account books, and monthly statements from several gold mining
companies Segerstrom had interests in, including the Pacific Coast Gold Mining
Corporation (Boxes 1-22). This collection included runs of daily, weekly, and
monthly reports from the Keystone and Carson Hill Mines.
BOX 2
General Corporate Documents
1914-1917
BOX 3
General Corporate Documents
1917-1924
BOX 8
Operations: Survey Books and Weekly Labor
Records
BOX 9
Operations: Daily Reports (1915-1916); Other
Reports
BOX 10
Operations: Daily Reports
1917-1920
BOX 11
Operations: Misc. Records
1915-1924
BOX 12
Finances -- Account Books #1 ; Journal, 11/15-2/18;
Journal/Check Register, 1/18-12/19
BOX 13
Finances -- Account Books #2 ; Journal, 1/18-6/21 &
7/21-7/24 ; Journal/Check Register, 1/20-12/23
BOX 14
Finances -- Account Books #3 ; Ledger,
11/15-2/18
BOX 15
Finances -- Ledger, 1/18-4/20
BOX 16
Finances -- Cash Books, 11/15-1/18
BOX 17
Finances -- Account Book #6 ; Assay Account Book,
9/18-4/20; Check Register- Dutch Sweeney, 12/14-10/15 ; Voucher Record - Dutch
Sweeney, 12/14-11/15 & 7/17-1/18 ; Account Book, 1917-1918
BOX 18
Finances -- Monthly Statements and Misc.
Stats
1917-1920
BOX 19
Finances -- Monthly & Misc. Statements ; Tax
Statements
1921-1928
BOX 20
Precursors: Dutch Mine Records
19th c. to 1908
BOX 21
Precursors: Dutch Consolidated Gold Mining
Co.
1909-1914
BOX 22
Precursors: Dutch Consolidated (1913-1917) ; Dutch
Sweeney Mining Co., (1916-1918)
BOX 23
Gold Mining: Keystone Mine, Daily Reports, Expense
Reports
1938-1942
BOX 24
Gold Mining: Keystone Mine, Reports,
Correspondence
BOX 25
Gold Mining: Boston, CA Mining Co.
BOX 26
Gold Mining: Carson Hill
1919-1924
BOX 27
Gold Mining: Carson Hill
1933-1939 (A)
BOX 28
Gold Mining: Carson Hill
1933-1939 (B)
BOX 29
Gold Mining: Carson Hill: Stockholder Correspondence and
Engineer Reports
BOX 30
Gold Mining: Carson Hill, Booklets, clippings
correspondence
1930s
SERIES IV: HOTELS
Note
Organized by year and location, this series contains
correspondence related to the acquisitions and daily management of Segerstrom's
hotels, as well as insuranc, appraisal, cost reports, and finance
summaries.
Description of all Hotels mentioned.
BOX 1
Hotel Oaks, Chico
1927-1945
BOX 2
Hotel Oaks, Chico
1946-1970s
BOX 5
San Francisco Hotels
1909, 1927-1934
BOX 6
San Francisco Hotels
1935-1939
BOX 7
San Francisco Hotels ; Hotel Maurice - Monthly Reports
1936-1941
BOX 8
San Francisco Hotels ; Hotel Maurice - Monthly Reports and
Auditor Reports
1941
BOX 9
San Francisco Hotels
1940-1941
BOX 10
San Francisco Hotels
1942-1944
BOX 11
San Francisco Hotels
1945-1946
BOX 12
San Francisco Hotels
1947-1951
BOX 13
San Francisco Hotels
1952-1955
BOX 14
San Francisco Hotels
1956-1959
SERIES V: PROPERTIES AND ESTATES
BOX 2
Properties: Haslem Ranch
1934-1944
BOX 5
Estates: John Curtain, Charles H. Segerstrom
SERIES VI: LUMBER, RAILROADS, AND BANKING
Note
Charles Segerstrom was associated with the 1st National Bank of
Sonora and the Tuolumne County Bank as Vice President (1914-1930). He was a
member of the executive committee of the California Bankers Association
(1925-1946), and president of the Independent League of California Bankers
(1925-1929).
BOX 1
Clippings, Maps, Financial Statements
1936-1949
BOX 5
Westside Lumber, Westside-Pickering
BOX 8
Miscellaneous Financial Information, 1st National Bank,
Sonora
BOX 10
Banking: 1st National Bank, Sonora, 1904-1918; Meeting
Minutes 1918-1925; Telegrams 1919-1923
SERIES VII: POLITICS AND PUBLIC LIFE
Note
Charles Segerstrom was involved with civic affairs through
Republican politics, community and organization service work, and as an
hotelier. In 1940, he chaired the California delegation to the Republican
National Convention and gave a nominating address for Wendell L. Wilkie. He was
a trustee of the College of the Pacific and a member of the Association Council
of Mills College. He was chairman of the Tuolumne County Liberty Loan and War
Savings Program during World War II.
BOX 1
Reciprocal Trade treaties
1937-1948
BOX 2
Reciprocal Trade treaties
1949-1956
BOX 3
Charles H. Segerstrom Jr. Washington Files
1957-1958
BOX 4
Charles H. Segerstrom Jr. Washington Files (includes
Tariff Commission Hearings)
1957-1958
BOX 5
Background for speeches
1930s
BOX 6
Background for speeches
1930s
BOX 8
Committees and Campaigns: Valley Council, Tuolumne County
Fair Board, California Centerion, Red Cross Campaign, Columbia Park
BOX 10
Charles H. Segerstrom biographical materials, photographs,
and ephemera
BOX 11
Politics and Public Life: oversized photographs and
ephemera
