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Register of the Davis & Brothers Ledger No. 1,
1858-1868
Mss98
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Title: Davis & Brothers Ledger No. 1,
Date (inclusive): 1858-1868
Collection number: Mss98
Creator:
Extent: 0.25 linear ft.
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of
Special Collections
Stockton, CA 95211
Shelf location: For current information on the location of
these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language: English.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Davis & Brothers Ledger No. 1, Mss98,
Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific
Library
G.W. and E.W. Davis were, from the mid-1850s, proprietors of several
small ranches and vineyards in Bennett Valley, five miles southeast of Santa
Rosa. There they grew wine grapes, plums, citrus, nuts, grain and stock. Later
in the century they also produced wines for which they were widely known. The
Davis brothers seem to have operated a general store throughout the 1850s and
60s.
Davis & Bros. customers biographied in Sonoma county histories
include G.S. Crane. Crane was the son of Richard Crane, who, with his brother
Robert, settled land south of Santa Rosa on the Petaluma Hill Road in 1852. The
Cranes raised stock there throughout the 19th century. Robert was later elected
Sonoma county justice of the peace and county supervisor. In the present
century the Crane family became famous for their Crane melon, which is still
grown on the original family farm.
Another Davis customer about whom something is known is Emmanuel Light.
Light came to Santa Rosa in 1856, purchased one hundred acres and planted fruit
trees. Ten years later, Light sold his land to various other
ranchers--including G.W. Davis--and moved to Healdsburg. In 1868 his son,
Eugene H., rented land from G.W. Davis and continued to farm in the area
throughout the remainder of the century.
This ledger gives evidence of both farming and commercial usage. It
contains some reference to crops planted and produce sold, but it also consists
of daybook records of sales to local farmers of such commodities as sugar,
whiskey, tobacco, saleratus, and cheese.
The Davis brothers began their daybook on May 27, 1858. Each page of
this portion of the ledger provides the following information: date, nature of
sale, the dollar amount of purchase, and how much the person has paid on their
account.
Below is a rough index of pages of accounts in the Davis & Brothers'
ledger; pages with specific names are those of accounts that occupy more than
two pages.