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http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf3n39n6hj No online items Guide to the William Bowers Bourn Family Papers, 1845-1985 Processed by Terry Boom The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California, 94720-6000 Phone: (510) 642-6481 Fax: (510) 642-7589 Email: [email protected] URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu © 1996 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Note History --History, California --History, Bay Area Guide to the William Bowers BANC MSS 86/94 c 1 Bourn Family Papers, 1845-1985 Guide to the William Bowers Bourn Family Papers, 1845-1985 Collection number: BANC MSS 86/94 c The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California Contact Information: The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California, 94720-6000 Phone: (510) 642-6481 Fax: (510) 642-7589 Email: [email protected] URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu Processed by: Terry Boom Date Completed: January 1987 Encoded by: Gabriela A. Montoya © 1996 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Collection Summary Collection Title: William Bowers Bourn Family Papers, Date (inclusive): 1845-1985 Collection Number: BANC MSS 86/94 c Collector: Bourn, William Bowers, 1857-1936. Extent: 29 boxes, 4 cartons, 1 album, 1 oversize folder, 1 tube18.8 linear feet Repository: The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California 94720-6000 Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog. Abstract: Collection contains correspondence, maps, photographs, account books, genealogies, financial and legal papers, wills, deeds, diaries, memorabilia, architectural drawings, and newspaper clippings pertaining to the San Francisco family. Also included is a scrapbook devoted to the Friends of France. Languages Represented: English Access Restricted to the use of Ferol Egan until April l, 1991, or until completion of the Bourn biography, whichever occurs first. Publication Rights Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. Guide to the William Bowers BANC MSS 86/94 c 2 Bourn Family Papers, 1845-1985 Preferred Citation [Identification of item], William Bowers Bourn Family Papers, BANC MSS 86/94 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Acquisition Information The William Bowers Bourn Family Papers were given to The Bancroft Library in January and November 1986 by Francis Bourn Hayne. Background William Bowers Bourn I, (1813-1874 ) a wealthy merchant born in Massachusetts, came to San Francisco in 1850 with his new bride Sarah Esther Bourn(1829-1919). Bourn founded the Empire Mine in Grass Valley, California,which was in financial straits at the time of his death at the family home in San Francisco on July 24, 1874. He was survived by his wife Sarah and their children Mary (Maye), William II, Sarah (Zaidee), Ida, and Maud. Another son, Frank, died at the age of 11 in 1872 from a fall off a wall at the family's home. Under the guidance of William Bowers Bourn II(1857-1936) the family fortune grew enormously. WBBII and his mother revitalized the struggling Empire Mine and developed the family's vineyards in St. Helena (which were purchased by Christian Brothers in 1950). WBBII also founded and was president of the San Francisco Gas Company which developed into PG&E,and founded the Spring Valley Water Companywhich served all of San Francisco's water needs until the city purchased it in 1930 . WBBII was also an important civic leader. He was president of the Pacific Union Club and the San Francisco Music Association for many years and contributed a great deal of money and time to the planning of the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1914 and 1915. During World War I, he was president of an organization called Friends of France. He also organized the American League of California with Professor Charles Mills Gayleyof the University of California whose objective was to assist the Allies in Europe both financially and with manpower. On July 30, 1920, L'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur was conferred on Bourn for his service to France during the war. One of Bourn's lifelong friends was architect Willis Polk .The two began their association in 1894 when Polk designed an English townhouse at 2550 Webster Street in San Francisco for Bourn. After this venture the two continued to work together with impressive results: Once becoming allied ... Bourn and Polk lost no time in complementing each other's creativity and originality. First, at Bourn's Empire Mine in Grass Valley, Polk was commissioned to build the Empire Cottage (1896), the owner's private residence. This was followed by the Mine Office Building (burnt down in the 1930's), the Ophir Cottage, for Bourn's cousin, Superintendent George Starr, and the Empire Club (c. 1905), a social club to be used by the Mine's management personnel. Surrounding the Empire Cottage was a twelve-acre park with pools and an artificial lake. And in 1907, the post-earthquake year, Bourn as president of the Pacific Union Club, was influential in having the club buy the ravaged shell of the James Flood mansion and commission Polk to rebuild what is today one of the monumental buildings on California Street. It is still occupied by the Pacific Union Club. Ringler, Donald P. and Rossi, George. Filoli The Builder—the Architect—the Mansion—the Gardens. Private Printing. Hillsborough, Ca. 1978, pp. 8-9. All of this work was a prelude to the building of Bourn's massive estate Filoli in San Mateo County during the years 1916 and 1917. The name of the estate is derived from the first two letters of each word from Bourn's motto, Fight, Love, Live. The estate was planned similar to the 11,000 acre Muckross estate outside Kilarney, Ireland, which Bourn purchased for his daughter Maud Bourn Vincent and son-in-law Arthur Rose Vincent as a wedding gift in 1910. In 1975, Filoli was deeded to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and opened to the public as a historic landmark. In 1922, Bourn suffered a stroke at the Empire Cottage which confined him to a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. His daughter Maud died of pneumonia contracted while crossing the Atlantic on her way to New York on February 12, 1929. Early in 1936 Bourn's wife, Agnes Moody Bourn, died at Filoli after a long illness. On July 5 of that same year he died, leaving a large fortune to his surviving sisters Maye, Ida, and Maud. One of these sisters, Maye Bourn Tucker(1855-1947), married into a family with a remarkable history. Her husband James Ellis Tucker(1845-1924 ) had many extraordinary adventures in his youth, as the following excerpt from his obituary in The Pacific Churchman (Carton 2, Folder 29) demonstrates: A thrilling book of boy adventure could be written of his experiences before he was out of his teens. Born in Richmond, Va., October 25, 1845, a scholar at the English Rugby while his father, Nathan Beverly Tucker, was Consul-General at Liverpool, he also attended school at Vevey, Switzerland, when his father was Minster to Spain. At sixteen he entered the Confederate service in the Civil War and was commissioned by Mason and Slidell in Paris to bear dispatches to the Confederacy. In running the blockade the ship on which he had sailed was wrecked but he was Guide to the William Bowers BANC MSS 86/94 c 3 Bourn Family Papers, 1845-1985 saved by swimming and duly delivered the dispatches to President Jefferson Davis. A member of the Second Virginia Cavalry under General Stuart, he went through the war, was wounded more than once and witnessed the surrender at Appotomax. After the war he joined his father in Canada and attended the University of Toronto. All this for a youth hardly twenty would make in itself a record of his early days as enthralling as any California tales of our young mining life. But there was more. As a young soldier of fortune his ardent spirit led him to allay himself with that tragic Mexican Empire of Maxmilian and he was in charge of a guard of honor which escorted poor Empress Carlotta from the City of Mexico, he escaping from the country when Maxmilian was shot. All this happened before he came to Califronia in 1869, having corossed the Mexican border at Brownsville Texas. The first twenty-five years of his life were thus abundant in strenuous action in the tented field. Then came his more normal California occupations. Five years in the service of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, that having its own memorabilia including a shipwreck of the Costa Rica. He was also connected with mining interests in Lake County and for twelve years at the United States Custom House served as Chief Appraiser under Presidents Harrison and Cleveland. Other prominent members of the Tucker family include James' brother Dr. Beverley D. Tucker and nephew Dr. Henry St. George Tucker, both bishops with the Episcopal Church. Other related family groups represented in the collection are: Augustus O. Bourn, cousin of William Bowers Bourn I and governor of Rhode Island from 1883-1885; the Hayne family, including the architect Francis Bourn Hayne ; the Ingalls family, including the aviatrix Laura Ingalls; and the Vincent family, including the artist Elizabeth Vincent. For further information about the Bourn family history, see the following chronology prepared by Francis Bourn Hayne. Biography WILLIAM BOWERS BOURN, II Former Owner and Builder of FILOLI San Mateo County, California FI = Fight LO=Love LI = Live by F. Bourn Hayne ----------41 Diablo Drive, Kentfield ----------June 7, 1958 California May 31, 1857, William Bowers Bourn, II, born at the home of his parents located at the corner of Third and Brannan Streets, San Francisco, California.

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