Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Guide to the Titus Hale Papers
MS 121
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Titus Hale papers
Dates: ca. 1868-1878
Collection number: MS 121
Creator:
Hale, Titus
Collection Size:
1 flat
4 books
4 books
Repository:
University of California, Santa Cruz. University Library.
Special Collections and Archives
Santa Cruz, California 95064
Abstract: This collection contains four books of research done by Hale on the titles to property of Rancho San Andreas for his partition
suit entitled Briody vs. Hale, 1877.
Physical location: Stored offsite at NRLF: Advance notice is required for access to the papers.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection open for research.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and
their heirs. For permission to publish or to reproduce the material, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Titus Hale papers. MS 121. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of
California, Santa Cruz.
Gift of the Younger Family
Titus Hale was born on February 2, 1834 in Missouri and arrived with his father and others in California on September 1, 1849.
A month later they arrived at Lawson where his company separated. Titus and his father, Israel Foote Hale went onto Sacramento
where Titus sold nuts and eventually pies, cakes as well. It was during this time he met F.A. Hihn of Santa Cruz who was peddling
candy. Sacramento flooded during the winter of 1849-50 and the Hales took refuge on the brig "Toronto". But the flood used
up their capital and he and his father moved onto Georgetown, eventually settling in Oregon Canyon. There Titus established
a claim and was able to send $600 home to Missouri. After digging out that claim they worked their way around Gold Country,
ending up in San Francisco for a few days in 1851 before returning to Missouri.
Three years later, Titus moved back to California, settling in Santa Cruz in 1855 where he lived for the next twenty five
years. During that time he owned some interest in the Rancho San Andreas located between Watsonville and Santa Cruz. The ranch
was first owned by Jose Castro who died in 1834, leaving a widow and fourteen children. His estate was never settled with
interests in the lands conveyed by all manner of deeds. So Hale "commenced and carried on a partition suit, by which title
to property was settled". There were a hundred and twelve owners besides other claimants. Two years were spent transcribing
and examining deeds with the aid of William M. White, law student at Hagan & Youngers office. Hale's settled portion of the
Rancho was three thousand acres.
In 1872, Hale joined F.A. Hihn, Claus Spreckels, R.R. Porter, George E. Logan in a company organized. After many lawsuits,
the railroad was finished in 1876 but it was a failed business venture that eventually was sold to Charles Crocker, Southern
Pacific Railroad. Hale went onto own and operate a variety of businesses from shipping to ranching.
Titus Hale married widow Martha Ann Aldrich in 1862. She died in Oakland, California on December 9, 1891. Together they raised
six children, Rose G., Mary Otis, Edward F., Crescent P. William T. Charles B. between the years 1863 and 1875. Hale lived
out his years in Oakland, dying in 1925 at the age of ninety one.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection contains four books of research done by Hale on the titles to property of Rancho San Andreas for his partition
suit entitled Briody vs. Hale, 1877. Aided by William M. White, law student for Hagan & Younger law firm of Santa Cruz, Hale
researched 112 plus claimants to titles of the Rancho San Andreas. He filed a partition suit, Briody vs. Hale 1877, by which
the title to the property was eventually settled.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Hale, Titus, 1934-1925--Archives
Real property--California--Santa Cruz County
Rancho San Andrès (Calif.)
Santa Cruz County (Calif.)
The Society of California Pioneers collection of autobiographies and reminiscences of early pioneers