Frank F. Latta Collection: Skyfarming, 1802-1982 (bulk) 1860-1975.

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Frank F. Latta Collection: Skyfarming, 1802-1982 (bulk) 1860-1975.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/228770256

The collection contains Frank F. Latta's research material from his five decades of researching the history of California's San Joaquin Valley and Miller & Lux, in particular dry farming known as skyfarming. Subjects include: agriculture and farming in the San Joaquin Valley, the development of agricultural machinery (combines, plows, reapers, scrapers, threshing machines, tractors and various types of harvesters), livestock, ranches, cattle, and crops, mostly wheat. Also covered are: early aviation, early automobiles, bears, crime, the Dalton Gang, the Donner Party, earthquakes, education and schools in the San Joaquin Valley, floods, freight and steamships on the San Joaquin River, gold mines, irrigation, canals and water rights in San Joaquin Valley, land grants, livestock, lumber, outlaws, pioneers, the Presbyterian Church in California, ranches, rivers, roads, saddlery, sheepherding in California, overland journeys to California and California politics, government and history. Also talked about are women, African Americans, Chileans, Chinese, Mormons, Native Americans and Jews in California. The collection contains roughly 180 oral interviews with people living in the San Joaquin Valley in the 1930s through the 1970s. One of the series contains drafts of the unpublished manuscript zSky Farmers and Mule Skinners with Something about Hay Muckers, Buckaroos, and Bindle Stiffs and a Sheepherder or Two.y Frank F. Latta worked on this manuscript for five decades. Individuals covered or represented in the collection: Grizzly Adams, George S. Berry, San Brannan, Robert Maitland Brereton, J. P. Collyer, John Charles Fremont, James Ben Ali Haggin, William H. Hall, Obed Hussey, Jesse James, Cyrus McCormick, C. Z. Merritt, Rufus R. Moore, Joaquin Murieta, George W. Nickel, J. Leroy Nickel, Harriet Quimby, Lovell Alexander Richards, Frank Day Robinson, Edward Francis Treadwell, Tiburcio Vazquez, Eli Whitney and William M. Wiley. Corporations covered or represented in the collection: Butterfield Overland Stage Line, California Department of Public Works, Caterpillar Tractor Company, Central Valley Project, Death Valley '49ers, Deere & Co., Early Birds of Aviation, H. C. Shaw Company, Holt Manufacturing Company, International Harvester Company, Kern County Land Company, Lux College, McCormick Harvesting Machinery Company, Miller & Lux, Pacific Live Stock Co., San Joaquin and King's River Canal and Irrigation Company, San Joaquin Pioneer & Historical Society, the United States Geological Survey, Bureau of Reclamation, and Department of Agriculture. Latta's research also concerns the development and history of Stanislaus and Kern counties and several California cities including: Bakersfield, Buttonwillow, Crows Landing, Fresno, Grayson, Gustine, Hill's Ferry, Los Banos, Merced, Modesto, Newman, Orestimba, Sacramento, San Francisco, Stockton, Tulare, and Visalia. The collection is made up of articles, Miller & Lux business and financial documents and records, catalogs, brochures, clippings, legal document, oral interviews, correspondence, manuscripts for publication, newspapers, notes, official reports, receipts and research material in general. The collection also contains hundreds of photographs, both color and black and white, slides, panoramas and glass plates. The Huntington Library also has a collection of material relating only to Miller & Lux that also came from the Latta Family Trust: Frank F. Latta Collection: Miller & Lux Papers.

Approximately 17,320 items.121 boxes.

Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7088523

Related Entities

There are 46 Entities related to this resource.

United States. Bureau of Reclamation

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r895pv (corporateBody)

The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation Service) was a bureau of the Department of the Interior which oversaw water development projects in the western United States. In July of 1902, in accordance with the Reclamation Act 32 Stat. 388, approved June 17, 1902 (also known as the Newlands Act), Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock established the Reclamation Service within the Geological Survey. The new Reclamation Service studied potential water development projects in each western stat...

United States. Department of Agriculture

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p66cd9 (corporateBody)

The United States Department of Agriculture was established in 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln and was elevated to a Cabinet level organization by President Grover Cleveland in 1889. The Department of Agriculture assists farmers and producers of food as well as creating policies and programs related to food distribution and nutrition information. The United States Department of Agriculture controls a number of regional offices through out the continential United States and its territories....

Frémont, John Charles, 1813-1890

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zt3kwm (person)

John Charles Frémont (January 21, 1813 – July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a US Senator from California, and in 1856 was the first Republican nominee for President of the United States. A native of Georgia, Frémont acquired male protectors after his father's death, and became proficient in mathematics, science, and surveying. During the 1840s, he led five expeditions into the Western United States and became known as "The Pathfinder". During the...

Moore, Rufus E. 1840-1918

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62n7wpc (person)

Whitney, Eli, 1765-1825

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60r9v6v (person)

American inventor. From the description of Autograph letter signed : New Haven, Ct., to J.C. Calhoun, Secretary of War., 1824 May 3. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270872501 Eli Whitney (1765-1825), American inventor and gun manufacturer, received his patent for the first cotton gin in 1794. From the description of Whitney, Eli, 1765-1825 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10580711 Whitney, American inventor, especially known for ...

Lux College, San Francisco.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jf0wv7 (corporateBody)

Treadwell, Edward F. (Edward Francis), 1875-1955

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60c7q6n (person)

Hussey, Obed, 1792-1860

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Hall, Wm. Ham. (William Hammond)

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Hall was a Calif. engineer who served as Superintendent and Engineer of Golden Gate Park (1871-1876), a consultant in the grading and development of the University of California campus at Berkeley (1872-1873), chief engineer for the Central and West Side Irrigation Districts (1870s), the first State Engineer of Calif. (1879-1889), and Supervising Engineer of the Irrigation Bureau at the United States Geological Survey (1889). Beginning in 1890, he worked in the private sector as a civil engineer...

Central Valley Project (Calif.)

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International Harvester company

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San Joaquin and King's River Canal and Irrigation Company.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gb83tn (corporateBody)

Adams, Grizzly, 1812-1860

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6058qgj (person)

Miller & Lux

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z076q2 (corporateBody)

Cattle ranching and land company firm; formed in 1858, as a partnership of Henry Miller and Charles Lux, German immigrants and former competitors in the butcher business of San Francisco. From the description of Miller & Lux records, 1897-1919. (Nevada State Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 123945376 Started by Henry Miller and Charles Lux, Miller & Lux was involved in the cattle industry in California, buying huge swaths of land, including Rancho Sanjon de S...

Brereton, Robert Maitland, 1833-1911.

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Brannan, Sam, 1819-1889

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Sam Brannan (1819-1889) was born in Maine and moved to Ohio as a teenager. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in 1844 began printing The Prophet, a Mormon newspaper, in New York. In 1846 Brannan sailed aboard the Brooklyn with about 240 other Mormons to San Francisco, where he was made first president of the California mission and established the California Star as the first newspaper in San Francisco. In 1848 Brannan traveled to Sutter's Mill as a representative of th...

Butterfield Overland Stage Line

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Deere & Co.

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McCormick Harvesting Machine Company

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Quimby, Harriet, 1875-1912

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Caterpillar Tractor Company

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The Caterpillar Tractor Company was formed in 1925 by the merger of the Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton, California, and Peoria, Illinois, and the C.L. Best Tractor Company of San Leandro, California. In the years before World War I, Benjamin Holt invented the "caterpillar tractor," which moved on heavy, belted-metal tracks rather than wheels. The tracks prevented the vehicle from sinking in the mud. The Caterpillar Tractor Company mounted extensive marketing campaigns during the late 192...

Early Birds of Aviation (Organization)

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H. C. Shaw Company.

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Robinson, Frank B. (Frank Bennett), 1914-

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Nickel, George Wilmarth, 1917-2004

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Geological survey (U.S.)

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E.W. Glafcke was in charge of a crew during the United States Geological Survey's spirit leveling activities in Wyoming and Utah from 1896 to 1912. From the guide to the United States Geologic Survey photograph collection, 1892-1912, 1898-1902, (Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives) First organized as a branch in 1889, the Topographic Division was established in 1947. From the description of Records of the Topographic Division. (Unknown). World...

Wiley, William M.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65b0s8x (person)

Haggin, James Ben Ali, 1822-1914

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James, Jesse, 1847-1882

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60002b4 (person)

San Joaquin Pioneer & Historical Society (Stockton, Calif.)

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McCormick, Cyrus Hall, 1809-1884

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American inventor. From the description of Autograph signature clipped from the register of Brown's Hotel : Washington, D. C., [n.d.]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270608834 Cyrus H. McCormick, inventor of the reaper, was, at the time of this letter, engaged in his fruitless efforts to renew the patent for his invention. From the description of My faithful servant, Joseph, 1854 December 2. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122700825 Inventor, from Chicago...

Richards, Lovell Alexander.

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Merritt, C. Z.

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Vazquez, Tiburcio.

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California. Dept. of Public Works.

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Latta, Frank F., 1892-1983

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Frank Forrest Latta, son of Presbyterian minister Eli C. Latta and teacher Harmonia Campbell, was born September 18, 1892 in Stanislaus County, California. As a young boy Latta worked on several ranches in the San Joaquin Valley and became interested in the stories of the early pioneers, and in 1906 began interviewing people and gathering research regarding early life and early farming in California. Latta also spent much time researching the farming corporation Miller & Lux and its founders...

Holt Manufacturing Company

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Collyer, J. P.

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Berry, George Stockton

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Brereton, R. M. (Robert Maitland), 1833-1911.

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Murieta, Joaquín, -1853

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Pacific Live Stock Co.

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Death Valley '49ers

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Deere & Company

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Nickel, James Leroy

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Kern County Land Company

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