Bradbury Family Papers, 1789-1989

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Summary

Creators:
Bradbury family
Abstract:
The Bradbury Family Papers collection contains the personal and legal materials of the Bradbury family as well as business documents and records pertaining to the family's estate and subsidiary companies in both California and in Mexico. Also found in the collection are documents related to various properties prior to their acquisition by the Bradbury Estate Company.
Extent:
15.9 Linear Feet
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Bradbury Family Papers , D-449, Department of Special Collections, General Library, University of California, Davis.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains the personal history documents of the Bradbury family and the business records of their estate's subsidiary companies in the United States and Mexico.

Included in this collection are mining records, financial data and reports, correspondence, estate documents and litigation files, photographs, journals and manuscripts, and various notarized documents pertaining to property titles and real estate contracts. The collection also includes records pertaining to the estate's mining properties before acquisition by the Bradbury Estate Company's various subsidiaries.

The collection is arranged in three series: 1. Family Personal Papers, 2. Bradbury Estate Company Papers, 3. Photographs. Series 2 is further divided into the following four subseries: 1. Correspondence, 2. Administrative Records, 3. Mining Property Materials, 4. Other Investments.

Biographical / historical:

Lewis Leonard Bradbury (circa 1823-1892), originally from Bangor, Maine, moved to Rosario, (Sinaloa) Mexico in the early 1860s. He began accumulating shares in the "Tajo" mines, eventually gaining controlling interests in 1873. He married Simona Martinez in Mazatlan, Mexico around 1867. In 1880, L.L. Bradbury moved his family to California, first settling in Oakland and then Los Angeles, where he began investing in California real estate. Around 1883, he acquired Rancho Azusa de Duarte in southern California which is now part of the present-day cities of Duarte and Bradbury (both incorporated in 1957) in Los Angeles County, California. Lewis Leonard Bradbury died in 1892.

Lewis Bradbury, Junior (circa 1881-1948) assumed control of the family business in 1902, and the Bradbury Estate Company was incorporated in 1904. Subsidiary companies were accumulated and created, beginning in 1910 with the purchase of the BolaƱos Mining Company and the incorporation of the Mexican Mines Company (1910), the North American Venture Company (1910), and "Lewis Leonard Bradbury and Company" (1916). Other subsidiary companies in Mexico included CompaƱƭa Minera del Pacƭfico (1926) and CompaƱƭa Minera del CaƱon de BolaƱos (1926).

Inter-familial litigation took place between the six children and various grandchildren of L.L. Bradbury between the years of 1932 to 1938, in response to business and financial management practices and the disbursement of funds. The business and mining success of the Bradbury Estate Company declined thereafter. In 1956, Marion Winston Jenkins (niece of Lewis Leonard Bradbury, Jr.) arranged a contract and purchase option agreement with the San Francisco Mines of Mexico, but the sale was never culminated. The Bradbury Estate Company was dissolved in 1965.

Acquisition information:
Donated by Marion "Mimi" W. Jenkins in 2006.
Physical location:
Researchers should contact Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Copyright is protected by the copyright law, chapter 17, of the U.S. Code. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections, General Library, University of California, Davis 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.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Bradbury Family Papers , D-449, Department of Special Collections, General Library, University of California, Davis.

Location of this collection:
University of California, Davis, Special Collections, UC Davis Library
100 NW Quad
Davis, CA 95616-5292, US
Contact:
(530) 752-1621
speccoll@ucdavis.edu
Website