Guide to the Leib Family Collection 1979.171

Contributing Institutions Collection Guides Browse Map About OAC

What are Collection Guides?

> Home > History San Jose Research Library

Collection Guide

∞ https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt367nf35r/

Collection Title:

Collection Number:

Get Items:

Guide to the Leib Family Collection 1979.171

1979.171

No online items

Contact History San Jose Research Library

View entire collection guide

Printable Guide [HTML]

Search this collection

Table of contents

Box 1

Leib family correspondence 1979-171 (98-105) 1876-1928

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear feet (1 box)

Scope and Contents note

Correspondence from various members of the immediate family to each other. Correspondents include Samuel F. Leib, Lida Campbell Grissom Leib, Earl Leib, Frank Leib and Roy Leib.

Box 2

Elna Leib Wright correspondence 1979-171 (106-112) 1882-1904

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear feet (1 box)

Box 3

Elna Leib and William H. Wright correspondence 1979-171 (113-123) 1900-1957

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear feet (1 box)

Box 4

Lida Campbell Grissom Leib correspondence 1979-171 (124-141)

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear feet (1 box)

Scope and Contents note

Personal correspondence between Lida Campbell Grissom Leib and her relatives and friends in her native Kentucky. Relatives include her mother Nellie Grissom and her three sisters Annah, Eva and Nettie. The box contains one letter to Elna Wright from horticulturist Luther Burbank.

There is also a miscellaneous letter marked "?"; this is probably a letter from a law practice client that strayed into the personal correspondence. There is also a folder of miscellaneous correspondence that has not been sorted.

Box 5

Elna Leib and William H. Wright booklets and ephemera 1979-171 (142-153) 1906-1951

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear feet (1 box)

Scope and Contents note

Contains three folders with bills and receipts from the Wright household. Dr. Wright was the director of the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton and some of the material dates from his tenure there.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Lick Observatory

Box 6

Earl Leib and Edna Leib Wright financial records 1979-171 (154-158) 1878-1959

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear feet (1 box)

Scope and Contents note

Contains the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Directors of the Climax Oil Company of San Jose, 1900-1915; minutes and constitution of the Lecticonian Literary Society, 1878-1883; record of garden activities, 1946-1948 kept by Elna Leib Wright; Elna Leib Wright's personal financial records, 1957-1959; and list of "Sources of Income" of Elna Leib Wright, 1959.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Climax Oil Company. (San Jose, Calif.)

Lecticonian Club. (San Jose, Calif.)

Literature--Societies, etc.

minutes

Oil industries--United States--Management

San Jose (Calif.)

Box 7

Samuel F. Leib checkstubs 1979-171 (159-205) 1872-1899

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear feet (1 box)

Box 8

Samuel F. Leib checkstubs 1979-171 (206-218) 1897-1910

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear feet (1 box)

Box 9

Samuel F. Leib checkstubs 1979-171 (219-228) 1911-1919

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear feet (1 box)

Box 10

Samuel F. Leib correspondence and F. A. Fiedler Estate papers 1979-171 (231-256) 1890-1950

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear feet (1 box)

Box 11

Samuel F. Leib correspondence 1979-171 (258-260) 1903-1918

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.0 Linear feet (1 box)

Box 12

Sarah Winchester papers 1979-171 (265-294) Bulk, 1888-1922 1864-1922

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 0.5 Linear feet (1 box)

Biographical/Historical note

Samuel Franklin Leib was the legal advisor for Sarah Winchester. He advised her regarding property sales and purchases, including the maintenance of deeds, mortgages, and certificates of sale. He also provided investment advice and completed a number of purchases and transfers for her. He resolved issues regarding her tax payments. Leib corresponded with Winchester regarding her will and performed a number of tasks regarding the settling of her affairs after her death. It is unclear whether or not he was the formal executor of her estate. He collected her bank statements and cancelled checks as well as many receipts for both professional services and the purchase of household goods. Leib maintaned a collection of newspaper clippings in regard to the Winchester Arms Company and also had some of her personal items in his files, including letters.

Sarah Winchester was born to Leonard and Sarah Purdee in 1837. She married William Wirt Winchester, heir to the founder of the Winchester Arms Company, in 1862. They had a child named Annie in 1866. The baby died after 6 months and William died of tuberculosis the following year. After travelling, Sarah settled in San Jose, California in 1884. She had a number of homes built in that area, most notably one on what is now known as the Winchester Mystery House on Winchester Avenue in San Jose. She died in 1922.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Winchester, Sarah Pardee, 1837-1922

Winchester Mystery House (San Jose, Calif.)

Correspondence 1979-171 (265-270) 1865-1922

Language of Material: English

Scope and Contents note

Winchester's correspondence includes financial, legal and personal letters. The financial letters and telegrams are mostly correspondence from Samuel Leib to Sarah Winchester. Other writers include business colleagues at banks and judges. There is some correspondence from individuals engaged in the selling of property, contacting one another regarding the availability of funds. Subject matter primarily includes property purchases from 1865 to 1920, taxes from 1917 to 1921, as well as stocks, bonds, certificates and trusts from 1888 and 1908 to 1922. Legal correspondence includes 1910 and 1911 letters from Leib to Winchester regarding her will, and post mortem (1922) letters regarding both her will and financial records. A few letters dated 1912 discuss a payment dispute with her dentist. Personal correspondence includes letters from relatives and friends spanning 1914 to 1918, one includes 3 black and white photos, a letter adding the Winchesters to the roll of Distinguished U. S. Families (n.d.), and a 1914 solicitation from A. P. Hill which includes a long personal notes. Almost all of the correspondence is to or from Samuel Leib or to Sarah Winchester. There is only one letter from Sarah Winchester.

Financial records 1979-171 (271-280) 1878-1921

Language of Material: English

Scope and Contents note

Financial records include 1910-1920 bank statements, cancelled checks, and debit slips. Numerous receipts are included as well, most from 1896 to 1921 and some undated. Miscellaneous items include two undated copies of a document modifying a trust, rules regarding stocks dated 1920, an accounting record book covering 1878 to 1885, and a 1905 prospectus. Lastly, there are some records of household purchases including a paperwork for auto purchases in 1909 and 1917 and a warranty for a washing machine dated 1920.

Legal records 1979-171 (281-289) 1862-1920

Language of Material: English

Scope and Contents note

Legal records primarily consist of deeds, mortgages and certificates of sale betwen 1862 and 1907. There is also paperwork for a 1865 land transfer. Newspaper articles regarding the Winchester Arms Company are included (n.d., 1919-1920). A small number of newspaper clippings report lawsuits and a strike against the Company during the years 1865, 1901, and some not dated. A few papers and a map from 1868 to 1905 are related to a railroad crossing one of Winchester's properties. There are some contracts regarding property purchases and construction from 1907 to 1920. There are also two maps, both not dated; one shows a tract of land next to Adobe Creek and the San Antonio Rancho and the second is part of the Lenzen Subdivision.

Personal materials 1979-171 (290-292) 1913-1916

Language of Material: English

Scope and Contents note

Personal materials include a newspaper clipping and a telegram advising of Nettie Davis's death in 1916, a memo book with Christmas gifts listed between 1913 and 1915, and an undated black and white photo of a hospital plaque dedicated to William Wirt Winchester.

Miscellaneous 1979-171 (293-294) 1911, 1915

Language of Material: English

Scope and Contents note

Two business cards from person involved in property purchases (n.d.) and two envelopes with original J. P. Morgan wax stamp dated 1911, 1915.

Collection Contents