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Bradbury Family Papers
D-449
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Davis General Library, Dept. of Special Collections
Title: Bradbury Family Papers
creator:
Bradbury family
Identifier/Call Number: D-449
Physical Description:
15.9 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1789-1989
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.
Physical Location: Researchers should contact Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.
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 Bolaños
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 Compañía Minera del Pacífico (1926) and
Compañía Minera del Cañon de Bolaños (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.
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.
Collection is open for research.
Donated by Marion "Mimi" W. Jenkins in 2006.
[Identification of item], Bradbury Family Papers , D-449, Department of Special Collections, General Library, University of
California, Davis.
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.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Bolaños (Jalisco, Mexico) -- Commerce -- History -- 20th century.
Bolaños (Jalisco, Mexico) -- Commerce -- History -- 19th century.
Bolaños (Jalisco, Mexico) -- Commerce -- History -- 18th century.
Mines and mineral resources -- Mexico -- Photographs.
Mines and mineral resources -- Mexico -- Bolaños River Valley -- History -- 19th century.
Silver mines and mining -- Mexico -- Bolaños River Valley -- History -- 20th century.
Silver mines and mining -- Mexico -- Bolaños River Valley -- History -- 19th century.
Silver mines and mining -- Mexico -- Bolaños River Valley -- History -- 18th century.
Businesswomen -- California.
Businesswomen -- Mexico.
Rosario (Sinaloa, Mexico) -- Pictorial works
Bolaños (Jalisco, Mexico) -- Pictorial works
Bradbury (Calif.)
Duarte (Calif.) -- Maps
Mexico -- History.
Bradbury, Lewis, b. 1881--Archives.
Compañía Minera del Pacífico.
Bradbury family -- Archives
Copala Mines.
Bradbury, John, b. 1872--Archives.
Bradbury, Simona Martinez, b. 1845--Archives.
Bradbury, L. L. (Lewis Leonard), b. 1823--Archives.
Bradbury, Simona, b. 1868--Archives.
Mexican Mines Company.
Minas de Bolaños.
Bradbury family
Jenkins, Marion Winston, b. 1891--Archives.
Bolaños Mining Company.
Lewis Leonard Bradbury and Company.
Bradbury Estate Company.
Polk, Minerva Bradbury, b. 1874--Archives.
Winston, Rosario Bradbury, b. 1869--Archives.
Minas del Tajo.
North American Venture Company.