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Otay Ranch Records
MSS 0500
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Table of contents
Languages:
English
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: Otay Ranch Records
Creator:
Otay Ranch (San Diego, Calif.)
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0500
Physical Description:
103.8 Linear feet
(126 archives boxes, 49 record cartons, 5 map case folders and 3 flat boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1927 - 1989
Abstract: The Otay Ranch Records document the history of San Diego county through the administrative, economic, financial, employment
and agricultural records that describe the operations of this large south county ranch. The documents include correspondence
from Stephen Birch, Sr., the original owner of Otay Ranch Agricultural Corp. in 1936, to the ranch foremen, bookkeepers and
managers; and financial, agricultural, and employment records from 1936 through the 1980s. Also included is material relating
to Birch family history, including copies of letters dating from the 1840s.
Documents related to payroll, located in the FINANCIAL series, are restricted.
Acquired 1999
Otay Ranch Records, MSS 500. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Otay Ranch, originally a land grant, named Rancho del Otay, by Mexican Governor Echeandia to Maria Estudillo and her brother
Jose Antonio Estudillo, was owned and operated by Stephen Birch and his family from 1920 until the mid-1980s. During the 1800s,
this area was important for the sheep operations that ran between Mexico and Southern California.
In 1920, Stephen Birch, the driving force behind the Alaska Copper and Coal Company, which eventually became the Kennecott
Copper Company in 1915, bought Otay Ranch and many surrounding parcels of land, totalling about 30,000 acres. Birch was born
in Brooklyn, New York, in 1872, the second son of a wounded Union Army sergeant who died when Stephen was ten yeras old. Three
years after his fathers death, Stephen's mother moved her family to Mahwah, New Jersey to be closer to family. Stephen attended
Trinity School, New York University and Columbia School of Mines, receiving financial assistance from his New Jersey neighbors
the Havermeyers of the American Sugar Refining Company. Stephen, along with many others went to Alaska to seek gold in 1898.
He eventually formed a syndicate, enlisted the support of Daniel Guggenheim and J.P. Morgan and started the Alaska Copper
and Coal Company in 1903. In 20 years, Birch controlled a major share of the world's copper production with mines in Alaska,
the western United States, and South America, and maintained offices in New York. On June 24, 1916, Stephen married Mary Rand,
daughter of Rufus R. Rand, president of Minneapolis Gas Light Company. The newlyweds settled in New York City and had two
children, Stephen and Mary. In 1917 Stephen purchased the 730-acre Theodore Havemeyer estate in Mahwah, New Jersey, near where
he had lived as a boy and named the estate Mahrapo Farm. He ran the farm as a purebred stock farm, specializing in Guernsey
cows and Hampshire sheep. Mary Birch died of cancer in 1930, so Stephen's sister Emily moved to the farm to tend to the children.
In 1938, Birch organized the Stephen and Mary Birch Foundation to donate money to health services, hospitals, and civic organizations.
Stephen Birch resigned as president of the Kennecott Copper Company in 1933 but continued on as Chairman of the Board of Directors
and Executive Committee of the company until he died on December 29, 1940 at the age of 68 following surgery. In addition
to his positions with Kennecott and Otay Ranch, Birch was president and director of the Alaska Steamship Company, chairman
of the board of directors of the Braden Copper Company, and a director of the Alaska Development and Mineral Company, the
Banker's Trust Company of New York, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company, the Colorado and Southern Railway
Company, and the Northern Pacific Railway Company. Birch is buried in Hartsdale New York.
Otay Ranch was a 30,000+ acre ranch at the initial purchase, growing to almost 90,000 acres, owned by Stephen Birch and his
family. The ranch was a large cattle and agricultural operation east of San Diego. The ranch grew and harvested mostly barley,
beans and grains, and tried a variety of different crops to test their ability to grow in the southern California climate.
Otay Ranch employed a large number of locals, immigrant workers from Mexico and women. Management of the ranch was overseen
from New York, so regular correspndence from Stephen Birch Sr., Stephen Birch Jr. and Robert Newell, the corporate manager
in New York to T.R. Newbery, the Superintendent at the ranch, Edward Loula, the office manager during the 1950s and 1960s,
and Collins Wilkie, the ranch manager during the 1950s and general manager of United Enterprises in 1977, are reflected within
the records. The family who lived there, mainly daughter Mary Birch Patrick, and staff followed the rationing restrictions
ordered by the government during World War II and sold supplies to the government for the war effort. The ranch expanded by
continuing to purchase grazing land for herds of cattle, purchasing neighboring Rancho de la Nacion and Rancho Janal. The
crops were sold to wholesalers in San Diego and Los Angeles after being shipped north. As the cities around Otay Ranch, specifically
Chula Vista and National City, began to fill with people, Otay Ranch began to sell off parcels of land to developers. By the
1980s, Mary Birch Patrick and the corporation that oversaw operations on the ranch, United Enterprises, sold the ranch to
developers for housing developments on Otay Mesa.
Scope and Content of Collection
The records of Otay Ranch, a large tract of land south of San Diego, document the history of farming, ranching, field labor
practices, and the daily dealings of a business farm in San Diego County. Otay Ranch was owned and operated by Stephen Birch
and his descendents, his son Stephen Birch Jr. and his daughter Mary Birch Patrick.
Arranged in fifteen series: 1) ADMINISTRATIVE, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) AGRICULTURE, 4) LIVESTOCK, 5) LABOR, 6) PROPERTY, 7)
EQUIPMENT, 8) FINANCIAL, 9) INSURANCE, 10) BIRCH FOUNDATION, 11) MAHRAPO FARMS, 12) ORGANIZATIONS, 13) SUBJECT FILES, 14)
MAPS, and 15) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES.
There is no box 175. The collection includes boxes with numbers 161-165, but the contents are not described in the finding
aid.
BULK OF COLLECTION IS STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS. Oversize materials (map case and flat box)
are stored on-site and do not need to be requested in advance.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Ranches -- California -- San Diego
Birch, Mary Patrick -- Archives
Birch, Stephen -- Archives
Otay Ranch (San Diego, Calif.) -- Archives