Collection Guide
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Donohue, Kelly & Company records
JL002
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Donohoe, Kelly & Company records
Creator:
Donohoe, Kelly and Company (San Francisco, Calif.)
Identifier/Call Number: JL002
Identifier/Call Number: 33
Physical Description:
344 Linear Feet
(approximately 870 boxes and volumes)
Date (inclusive): 1863-1917
Physical Location: Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36 hours in advance.
Abstract: Donohoe, Kelly Banking Company was a large private banking company formed in the second half of the nineteenth century, and
flourishing until 1929.
The collection consists of a relatively small percentage of loose material and a much larger percentage of bound volumes.
The loose material includes a variety of general business papers. Of particular interest are those dealing with Donohoe, Ralston
and Company in Liquidation, which cover a four year period (1863-1867) of evaluation and recapitulation of the old company.
Much of the other material consists of correspondence, notes, etc. to the bank regarding individual and company accounts.
This is quite routine business, but presents an interesting cross section of the way routine affairs were conducted in banking
in the 1860s.
Letters of credit, insurance policies, and business papers relating to income tax, semi-annual reports, balance sheets and
statements comprise the remainder of the loose material.
The volumes include either complete or near-complete series of general cash books, blotters, checks and deposits volumes,
draft stubs, collection journals, and balance sheets in bound groups, as well as statements and remittance records from other
banks.
General ledger vouchers, for which there are no ledgers, are included at the end of the collection, and are left in their
original bundles, arranged chronologically by month and year.
The records of the Donohoe, Kelly Banking Company certainly will be of interest to anyone with a desire to know a lot about
banking practices in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Donohoe, Kelly Banking Company was a large private banking company formed in the second half of the nineteenth century,
and flourishing until 1929 when it transferred its business to the Bank of America of California, later the Bank of America,
National Trust and Savings Association. The company was established in 1861 by Joseph A. Donohoe, Eugene Kelly and W.C. Ralston
as Donohoe, Ralston and Company, and Eugene Kelly and Company was later organized to represent the company in the East.
In 1864 Ralston left the company and subsequently was instrumental in establishing the Bank of California, while Donohoe,
Ralston and Company became Donohoe, Kelly and Company in the same year. John W. Flood and Howard Havens joined Donohoe and
Kelly in 1876 with no alteration in the title. In 1891 this private banking firm was incorporated under the State laws of
California as the Donohoe, Kelly Banking Company and remained so until 1929.
The collection is open for research. Note that material is stored off-site and must be requested at least 36 hours in advance
of intended use.
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not
an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission
or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/spc/using-collections/permission-publish
[Identification of item] Donohoe, Kelly & Company Records, (JL002). Department of Special Collections and University Archives,
Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Gift of Joseph A. Donohoe, Jr. to the Jackson Library of Business in 1951. Transferred to the Department of Special Collections
in 1979.
Materials withdrawn from the collection
Duplicates; cancelled checks; statements from various banks (recorded in statement books); deposit slips (sampled); telegram
memos (sampled); account envelopes (sampled); clearing house proofs, checks, memos (sampled).
This collection is arranged into three series.
Series A. General business papers and correspondence, 1863-1914 (boxes 1-17)
Series B. General account books, 1864-1919 (volumes 18-853)
Series C. General ledger vouchers, 1906-1917 (volumes 854-877)
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Business enterprises -- California.
Banks and banking -- California
Ledgers.
Cashbooks.
Donohoe, Jos. A.
Ralston, William C., 1863-
Kelly, Eugene