Fletcher (Ed) Papers

Accession Processed in 1991

GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE

Scope and Content of Series

Series 1) GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE: The GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE is the largest series and has been arranged alphabetically by name. Where possible, each correspondent has been identified as to his relationship to Ed Fletcher or to a Fletcher company. As a rule, correspondents with less than three letters present in the collection are grouped at the end of each letter, under "A Miscellaneous", "B Miscellaneous," etc.

Notable among correspondents are Fletcher's business partners and financial backers, including E.O. Faulkner, William G. Henshaw, William E. Hodges, H.W. Keller, William G. Kerckhoff, James A. Murray, Frank Salmons, Charles F. Stern, William and Ferdinand Thum, and John Traenor. There is very little correspondence with William Gross, although there is some with Nels Gross, apparently William's nephew. Papers relating to some of these partners can be found in the series.

Local businessmen and civic leaders represented in the correspondence include Burt Anthony, Frank Belcher, Arthur and Stanley Bent, George S. Burnham, Claude L. Chambers, Charles T. Chandler, Ira Copley, G. Aubrey Davidson, John and Florence Dupee, James D. Forward, Samuel Fox, E.B. (Jay) Gould, Jr., Robert Hart, Mathias Heller, J.P. Johnson, Jr., H.H. Jones, Melville Klauber, George W. Marston, A.V. Mayrhofer, W.F. Raber, Ray Sauer, Joseph Sefton, Kate Sessions, John and Claus Spreckels, Clarence Sprigg, Jerry Sullivan, A.J. Sutherland, J.C. (Jack) Thompson, Julius Wangenheim, O.B. Wetzell, Sherwood Wheaton, Walter Whitcomb, and Fred M. White. There are also letters from San Diego pioneers such as Cave Couts, Rufus Choate, and T.S. Van Dyke. A letter from newspaper magnate E.W. Scripps relates to the development of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Also included in the correspondence are the files of various officials of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad; members of the California State Railroad Commission; San Diego mayors and councilmen; State governors and officials; and U.S. and California senators and congressmen, including Carl Hayden, Jacob Javits, William F. Knowland, William G. McAdoo, and Samuel Shortridge. U.S. Presidents Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, and Richard Nixon (then vice-president) are represented by brief letters, as well as Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes, Harold Stassen, Alf Landon, and Chief Justice Earl Warren. Included in the Warren file is a legal opinion from Warren establishing order of priority for two Fletcher grandchildren born on the same day.

Foreign dignitaries represented include Jose Lugo and A.L. Rodriguez, governors of Baja California, Pascual Ortiz-Rubio, president of Mexico, and A. Somoza, president of Nicaragua. Also included is correspondence with various commanding officers of Camp Pendleton and the Eleventh Naval District.

Letters are also included from these nationally known figures: J.G. Bullock of Bullock's Department Stores, banker F.L. Crocker of New York City, film personalities Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, transportation magnate Henry E. Huntington of Los Angeles, and C.R. Smith of American Airlines. Correspondence with Joseph Strauss of Chicago, who built the Golden Gate Bridge, relates to a prospective bridge to Coronado. Letters from the secretaries to the Duke of Windsor and President Woodrow Wilson can also be found.

There is much correspondence relating to the Grossmont subdivision, including letters from people prominent in the arts and entertainment fields. These include opera singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink, author Owen Wister, pianist Teresa Carreno, songwriter Carrie Jacobs-Bond, and a poem by John Vance Cheney dedicated to Fletcher and Grossmont. Correspondence concerning motion picture enterprises at Grossmont include letters from Arthur Sawyer and Herbert Lubin of S-L Studios, Richard Thomas of Sennett Studios, and Mrs. Wallace Reid.

Another extensive part of the correspondence consists of exchanges between Fletcher and his managers and engineers, including William Post, Thomas P. Ellis, Thomas A. King, F.M. Faude, Chester Harritt, Lou B. Mathews, William B. Shropshire, and F.H. Tolle. Less extensive is the correspondence with Edmond A. Bartl, Eugene C. Batchelder, E.W. Case, Fred E. Green, Hofflund, and Don Walter.

Fletcher maintained correspondence files with his many attorneys. These were Charles C. Crouch and Hugh A. Sanders of Crouch and Sanders; Judge William A. Sloane and Harrison Sloane of Sloane and Sloane; and Frederick W. Stearns and A.H. Sweet of Sweet, Stearns and Forward. Less extensive is the correspondence with others Fletcher lawyers such as Percy C. Black, Albert J. Lee and Henry J. Stevens.

Box 1, Folder 1

Abstract and Title Insurance Company February-August, 1930

Abstract and Title Insurance Company