Finding Aid for the Cuaderno de Cuentas dela Casa del J[os]e Amesti del Año de 1840 a 1850, 1840-1866
Processed by Citlali Sosa-Riddell, with assistance from Laurel McPhee, Winter 2005; machine-readable finding aid created by
Caroline Cubé.
UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections
© 2009
Manuscripts Division
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Title: Cuaderno de Cuentas dela Casa del J[os]e Amesti del Año de 1840 a 1850
Date (inclusive): 1840-1866
Collection number: 170/541
Creator:
Amesti, Jose
Extent:
128 leaves : paper ; 32 x 22 cm
Abstract: Accounting book of Jose Amesti, an merchant in mid-nineteenth century Monterey, California.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Ex libris Robert Ernest Cowan.
[Identification of item], Cuaderno de Cuentas dela Casa del J[os]e Amesti del Año de 1840 a 1850 (Collection Number 170/541).
Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Cataloged by Citlali Sosa-Riddell, with assistance from Laurel McPhee, Winter 2005,in the Center For Primary Research and
Training (CFPRT).
Jose Amesti was a Spanish Basque who arrived in Monterey, California in the early nineteen hundreds. In 1822, he married Prudenciana
Vallejo, daughter of Jose Vallejo, and the sister of Mariano Vallejo. Governor Alvarado granted Amesti the 15,400-acre Corralitos
Ranch in 1827. Within a few years, Amesti had leased portions of his property for timber cutting, and established his own
whipsaw lumber mill on the upper portion of the rancho. Jose Amesti and his wife Pudenciana Vallejo de Amesti had four daughters,
Carmen, Santa, Celedonia and Tomasa Madariaga y Vallejo, who was adopted. All shared equally in the estate.
This ledger is comprised of customer, client and employee names, orders, and inventories from Amesti's mill enterprise from
the period of 1840 to 1866. Payments are recorded in pesos and silver; customers include the Mission San Diego and other California
ranchos. The manuscript also contains information about Amesti's personal life, such as notes about life on the ranch, his
feelings on the U.S.-Mexican War, the dowry of his adopted daughter, and the Mission Indians that the ranch employed. The
record includes their wages, clothing items, and descriptions of labor. Following the description of the Mission Indians,
there are ledgers concerning clothing items and food--possibly deductions taken out of their wages for clothing, liquor, and
food. The manuscript also contains an inventory of harvested produce, and tools used in the mill. Some of the goods mentioned
include garbanzos, pinto beans, lard, dried meat, chiles, potatoes, corn,and molasses.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Manuscripts.
Bound Manuscripts Collection (Collection 170)
. Available at the Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.