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Dippel family collection, 1853-1920.
MANUSCRIPT SMC II Box 18 Folders 1-4
Collection Overview

Title:

Dippel family collection, 1853-1920

Abstract:

The collection consists of disparate items relating to Phillip Dippel, Sr., and Philip Dippel, Jr.
The elder Dippel came to California in 1849 via Mexico, overland and up the coast following the route used by the early Spanish colonizers. Toward the end of his life in the 1890s he wrote an account of his journey which was published after his death in the 'Placer argus' on Jan. 8, 1897 titled "An argonaut's tale: a posthumus account of a trip on mule-back over the old missionary trail from Mexico to California". A copy of the typescript for this article is accompanied by various legal documents, including a certificate of naturalization issued in 1867 and several deeds and tax records relating to property in Sacramento and Placer counties with dates ranging from 1853 to 1905.
Philip Dippel, Jr. was a school teacher. There are eight teaching certificates issued to him by the State of California and by Sacramento and Sutter counties during the years 1875-1900. A document involving the lease of oil lands dated 1920 bears his signature as trustee of his mother's estate.
Photographs of each of the Dippels complete the collection. Phillip Sr.'s portrait is a copy print annotated with this description: "... he came to California in 1848 from Mexico where he had been operating a silver mine for his English owners. Mr. Dippel was a fine and honorable gentleman, and a true old pioneer or settler At the coon creek or Manzanita area or [on] which place he took up a homestead during the first adminastration of President Abraham Lincoln." Philip Jr. is represented by a commercial photograph with this notation: "Philip Dippel was the son of a 1848 California emigrant. He devoted his life to teaching and died in his late eighties still in possession of a lively mind. He taught in one-room schools, standing at the top in many examinations."

Date:

1853 (issued)

Contents:

Folder 1: Phillip Dippel, 1818-1896. Reminiscences, naturalization papers. -- Folder 2: Phillip Dippel, 1818-1896. Deeds, tax receipts. -- Folder 3: Philip Dippel, 1860-1941. Teaching certificates, lease. -- Folder 4: Photographs.

Subject:

n-us-ca -- n-mx---
Dippel, Phillip -- 1818-1896 -- Reminiscences
Dippel, Phillip -- 1818-1896 -- Portraits
Dippel, Philip -- 1860-1941 -- Portraits
Pioneers -- California -- Reminiscences
Teachers -- Selection and appointment -- California
Overland journeys to the Pacific
California -- Description and travel
Mexico -- Description and travel
Naturalization records -- California -- Specimens

Note:

Phillip Dippel was born in Hesse-Cassel [Germany] on July 18, 1818. He emigrated to the United States when he was 18 years old and lived in New York City and Mobile, Alabama, before settling in Mexico. There he operated a large silver mine at Paral, Chihuahua. When news of the California gold finds reached him in 1849, he set out on the overland trail through Mexico and up the California coast. He located in Stockton and there ran a mule train packing supplies into the mines. With the fortune he accumulated then, Dippel went to Paris where he purchased merchandise and returned to California and established a store in Sacramento. After a time he acquired 300 acres near Lincoln and settled there to ranch until his death on Dec. 16, 1896.
Phillip Dippel married Elisabeth Schmidt in Philadelphia on his return from Paris. They had nine children, including Philip, Jr. born in 1860 in Sacramento. Philip's studious nature led him to a career in teaching; he was for a time principal of the Lincoln Grammar School. In retirement he lived on his farm, part of the family ranch, and mined recreationally. He was unmarried but enjoyed the extended family of his sisters and brothers. He died in San Francisco on March 9, 1941 and is buried in the family plot in Manzanita Cemetery in Lincoln.
Dippel family collection, 1853-1920.
Unrestricted. Please credit California State Library.

Type:

biography
Certificates.

Physical Description:

print
28 items : ports.

Language:

English

Identifier:

MANUSCRIPT SMC II Box 18 Folders 1-4

Origin:

California

Copyright Note:

Unrestricted. Please credit California State Library.

Related Item:

Argonaut's tale : Dippel, Phillip, : 1818-1896