Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Access Points
Biography
Scope and Content
Descriptive Summary
Title: Gonzales (Nathan) Stockton Electric Railroad Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1900-1997
Collection number: Mss286
Creator:
Nathan Gonzales
Extent: 0.5 linear ft.
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Gonzales (Nathan) Stockton Electric Railroad Collection,
Mss286, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific
Library
Access Points
personal name
Hogan, M.B.
Smith, James W.
corporate name
Southern Pacific Railroad
Central California Traction Company
Stockton Electric Railroad
subject
Street-railroads -California -Stockton
Stockton (Calif.) -History -Sources
Biography
Horse-drawn streetcars first appeared on the streets of Stockton, Calif. in April, 1874.
Routes connected Main Street with Central Pacific and Stockton & Copperopolis railroad
depots and with the steamboat levee. The following year a northbound second line was
begun connecting downtown with the Stockton Insane Asylum. This system operated until
replaced by the Stockton Electric Railroad (July 1892). Company owners replaced the old
narrow gauge rails, added and extended routes in 1905-06. The California Traction
Company, an electric railway that operated trains between Stockton and Sacramento, also
provided street rail service to some Stockton locations during this period. In 1912,
Henry Huntington of the Southern Pacific Railroad bought a controlling interest in both
companies and soon arranged for SER to lease the CCT's Stockton tracks (1915). In 1924,
Stockton Electric laid its last new tracks to the recently established campus of the
College of the Pacific. Stockton streetcars survived the Depression, although the Company
abandoned certain lines. Southern Pacific sold out to Pacific Lines during the 1930s and
this company operated the Stockton Electric Railroad until it finally gave way to buses
in 1941.
Scope and Content
The Gonzales Stockton Electric Railroad Collection consists of photocopies of primary and
secondary source materials relating to history of Stockton Electric Railroad (1904-1942)
and a paper examining factors leading to demise of that Company by Nathan Gonzales(1997).