Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Descriptive Summary
Title: Stockton (Calif.) Furniture Factory Records &
"Fica" Dorrance Scrapbook,
Date (inclusive): 1879-1882;
1897
Collection number: Mss12
Creator:
Frances C. Dorrance
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], Stockton (Calif.) Furniture Factory Records
& "Fica" Dorrance Scrapbook, Mss12, Holt-Atherton Department of Special
Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Biography
The rather obscure manufacturing firm first named in the title of this
collection seems to have existed in Stockton as early as 1879 and late as 1888.
The earlier date is clearly established by notations in the two account books
which make up this collection. The later date is inferred from a reference to
the factory in the Stockton City and San Joaquin Directory, 1887-88, which,
although it contains no entry for the "Stockton Furniture Factory," notes in
passing that one Martin Schneider is a cabinet maker there.
The factory was apparently owned from 1879 until about 1883 by James V.
Logan and his sister, Mary Elizabeth Logan Doan. Sometime around the latter
date, the factory was taken over by Mrs. Doan's sons, Charles E. and Lattimer
E. Doan. Lattimer was an oil man of San Francisco, while Charles E. Doan, whose
biography appears in Tinkham's History of San Joaquin County (1923), was
Superior Court Reporter in Stockton. Mrs. Mary E.L. Doan died in Stockton in
1919.
Nowhere on the account books themselves is there any mention of the
company, although many pages preface month and year with the word "Stockton."
The clients named form a broad cross-section of Stockton citizenry, from A.N.
Baker, saloon keeper, through John Wallace, civil engineer. Apparently the
factory made furniture to order. The range of work noted in the second
volume--a day book, or log book of items manufactured for individuals--extends
from beds, bureaus and chairs to wardrobes. The largest single order seems to
have been for eighteen office chairs.
Stockton Furniture was probably out of business by 1897, since the two
account books which contain the records of the firm were used by one "Fica"
Dorrance, from February 17, 1897, as a scrapbook. "Fica" Dorrance was probably
Frances C. Bird Dorrance, the second wife of harness and saddle manufacturer
and co-owner of the Stockton Daily Independent, H.T. Dorrance, who had been in
business in Stockton since 1850. One consequence of the second use of these
account books is that many pages of the Stockton Furniture Manufacturing
Company's records are obscured by newspaper clippings. In the volume where the
clippings are most in evidence one also finds a sequence of handwritten essays
on diverse topics, possibly by Mrs. Dorrance.
Scope and Content
The clippings Mrs. Dorrance has pasted over the index pages and most of
the first 120 pages of the Stockton Furniture Factory's account books refer to
society women, causation, divination, electrical therapy, woman suffrage,
phrenology, performing artists, California tourist attractions and countless
other delights. The anonymous essays and addresses contained in the same volume
range from descriptions of California to a disquisition on food.