http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8zk5hx8 No online items Guide to the William McPherson Papers Finding aid prepared by Finding aid written by Michael P. Palmer. Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library 800 North Dartmouth Ave Claremont, CA, 91711 Phone: (909) 607-3977 Email: [email protected] URL: http://libraries.claremont.edu/sc/default.html © 2013 Claremont University Consortium. All rights reserved. Guide to the William McPherson H.Mss.0524 1 Papers Descriptive Summary Title: William McPherson Papers Date (inclusive): 1664/65-1970 Date (bulk): 1884-1945 Collection number: H.Mss.0524 Creator: McPherson, William, 1885-1964 Extent: 22.5 linear feet (53 boxes + 1 map case drawer). Repository: Claremont Colleges. Library. Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library. Claremont, CA 91711 Abstract: Correspondence, diaries, photographs, account books and journals, land and tax records, manuscripts, scrapbooks, notes, transcripts, reports, newspapers, clippings, promotional materials, and ephemera, relating to the family, life, career, and intellectual pursuits of Orange County, California, avocado rancher and historian William McPherson (1885-1964). Family papers document the McPhersons' settlement in Orange County in the 1870s, and their involvement in local agriculture, first in the raisin grape industry, and then in the avocado industry. Half the collection consists of original Spanish- and English-language correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, printed materials, and ephemera collected by McPherson in the pursuit of his intellectual interests, in particular the history and anthropology of Orange County--and especially Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana and San Juan Capistrano--from the 1770s to the 1920s. The collection includes papers of 19th-century entrepreneur Alfred Henry Wilcox and California State Assemblyman Jeffry Joseph Prendergast, as well as a large number of documents with a focus beyond Orange County and Southern California, including Civil war diaries and letters, a collection of ship logbooks from the 1820s to the 1850s, literary scrapbooks, and McPherson’s collection of autograph letters and documents relating primarily to American, British, and California history, and dating from 1665 to 1932. Physical location: Please consult repository. Language of Material: Materials in English and Spanish. Restrictions on Access This collection is open for research. Publication Rights All requests for permission to reproduce or to publish must be submitted in writing to Special Collections. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], William McPherson Papers (Collection H.Mss.0524). Special Collections, Honnold Mudd Library, Claremont University Consortium. Acquisition Information Bequest of William McPherson, 1964. Custodial History note The papers were taken into the custody of William McPherson's friend and colleague, Don Meadows, acting as agent for McPherson's custodians, in early 1962. They were transferred to the Library of the Claremont Colleges, most probably in stages, between that time and approximately 1972. Accruals note Limited accruals to the collection are anticipated. Processing Information note The papers were processed by Michael P. Palmer in 2013. Biography William Frederick ("Will") McPherson was born in the family home (later given the address 11601 Prospect Avenue), east of Orange, California, on 16 July 1882, the second son and middle child of Stephen McPherson (1839-1917), a school teacher and viticulturist, and his wife, Jennie Vincent (1849-1935). His father, born in Chaumont, Jefferson County, New York, had come to Santa Clara County, California, by way of Ohio, in 1862, and to Southern California in 1872. Will McPherson graduated from Santa Ana High School in 1904, obtained a teaching credential, and for the school years 1905/1906 through 1908/1909 served as principal-teacher of the San Juan Capistrano Grammar School; dismissed from that position for an indiscretion with the daughter of a prominent local family, he obtained a similar position for the school year 1909/1910 at Fountain Valley. In August 1910, McPherson entered the University of California at Berkeley, originally studying civil engineering, but later switching to law; he graduated in June 1914. Unable to obtain other work, he returned to teaching. Despite the escapade of 1909, he was again employed as principal-teacher at San Juan Capistrano for the school year Guide to the William McPherson H.Mss.0524 2 Papers 1915/1916, but his intemperate support of Germany led to his dismissal in June 1918. This ended McPherson's formal employment: he joined his elder brother Vincent on the family farm, which was planted primarily in Valencia oranges, rare table grapes, and avocados, the latter still considered an exotic fruit, and only recently cultivated in sufficient numbers to be considered a "commercial" crop. The McPherson brothers became leading avocado growers, and Will was active in both the California Avocado Association (of which he was Secretary from 1927 to 1930) and in the California Avocado Growers Exchange (from 1927, Calavo Growers of California) cooperative. Although McPherson supported himself financially as a rancher, his real love was history and literature, in particular the history, literature, and anthropology of Southern California. Always a voracious reader, he began collecting in his teens, and in earnest when his positions as principal-teacher, and then as successful rancher, provided him with disposable income. Although McPherson initially collected only books, by the mid-1920s he had begun to collect manuscripts, newspapers, magazines, maps, and photographs as well. By 1929, the collection had grown to more than 10,000 bound volumes, plus thousands of maps, manuscripts, and ephemera, the finest private library of Southern Californiana in the country. It was so extensive that the McPherson brothers built two separate buildings, the larger eighteen by thirty feet, to house it. Although financial difficulties in the early years of the Great Depression forced McPherson to dispose of duplicate works, and even to part with some of his more valuable items, he resumed collecting in the late 1930s, and some of his most significant acquisitions of manuscripts and other archival materials date from the early 1940s. Although he published only seven articles and one book, McPherson was considered a leading expert in Southern California history, anthropology, and agriculture, and was often consulted by other researchers. However, by 1950, McPherson had ceased to collect new materials, and the order and condition of the library had begun to deteriorate. The living conditions of the McPherson brothers evidenced increasing squalor. In late 1960, Will McPherson had descended into dementia, and was removed to a nursing facility in Garden Grove; at the same time, his elder brother Vincent, who did not suffer from dementia but was frail, moved from the family home to the house of Mexican-born friends who lived nearby, where he died in May 1962. Will McPherson died in the nursing home in Garden Grove on 8 September 1964. Both brothers are buried alongside their parents and other members of the extended McPherson family in the Santa Ana Cemetery. Sources • Don Meadows, A California Paisano; the life of William McPherson (Claremont: Honnold Library Society, 1972). • William McPherson Papers, H.Mss.0524, Special Collections, Honnold Mudd Library, Claremont University Consortium. Publications by William McPherson 1. "C. P. Taft, An Avocado Pioneer; Given before The Growers Institute, Anaheim, June 9, 1931", California Avocado Association Yearbook, 1931, pp. 207-210. 2. "California Land Grants," in Orange County History Series , vol. 1 (Santa Ana: Orange County Historical Society, 1931), pp. 9-18. 3. "Citrus Culture in Orange County", in History of Orange County, California , edited by Mrs. J. E. Pleasants, vol. 1 (Los Angeles: J. R. Fennell & Sons, 1931), pp. 223-242. 4. "Image Ceremony of the Mission Indians", in Orange County History Series, vol. 1 (Santa Ana: Orange County Historical Society, 1931), pp. 135-139. 5. Editor of From San Diego to the Colorado in 1849 , by Cave J. Couts (Los Angeles: Arthur M. Ellis, 1932). 6. "Spanish and Mexican Land Grants in Orange County", in Orange County History Series, vol. 2 (Santa Ana: Orange County Historical Society, 1932), pp. 23-35. 7. "Joseph Edward Pleasants, '49er", in Orange County History Series , vol. 3 (1939), pp. 41-50. 8. "A Horse Drive to Utah in 1876," in Orange County History Series , vol. 3 (1939), pp. 107-112. Scope and Contents of the Collection This collection consists of correspondence, diaries, photographs, account books and journals, land and tax records, manuscripts, scrapbooks, notes, transcripts, reports, newspapers, clippings, promotional materials, and ephemera, relating to the family, life, career, and intellectual pursuits of Orange County, California, avocado rancher and historian William McPherson (1885-1964). The collection consists of two record groups of approximately equal size. The first record group contains correspondence, diaries, photographs, account books and journals, land and tax records, scrapbooks, notes, newspaper and periodical clippings, ephemera, and other materials relating to the McPherson family. The materials document the family’s immediate origins in Chaumont, New York, the move of two brothers and their cousin to California in the 1860s, their settlement in what became Orange County in the 1870s, and their involvement in