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Creator:
Bradbury family
Title: Bradbury Family Papers
Date: 1789-1989
Extent:
9.3 linear feet
Abstract: The Bradbury Family Papers collection contains the personal and legal materials
of the Bradbury family as well as business documents and records pertaining to the family's estate and
subsidiary companies in both California and in Mexico. Also found in the collection are documents
related to various properties prior to their acquisition by the Bradbury Estate Company.
Physical location: Researchers should contact Special Collections to request collections, as
many are stored offsite.
Repository:
University of California, Davis. General Library. Dept.. of
Special Collections.
Davis, California 95616-5292
Collection number: D-449
Language of Material: Collection materials in English.
Lewis Leonard Bradbury (circa 1823-1892), originally from Bangor, Maine, moved to Rosario, (Sinaloa)
Mexico in the early 1860s. He began accumulating shares in the "Tajo" mines, eventually gaining
controlling interests in 1873. He married Simona Martinez in Mazatlan, Mexico around 1867. In 1880, L.L.
Bradbury moved his family to California, first settling in Oakland and then Los Angeles, where he began
investing in California real estate. Around 1883, he acquired Rancho Azusa de Duarte in southern
California which is now part of the present-day cities of Duarte and Bradbury (both incorporated in
1957) in Los Angeles County, California. Lewis Leonard Bradbury died in 1892.
Lewis Bradbury, Junior (circa 1881-1948) assumed control of the family business in 1902, and the Bradbury
Estate Company was incorporated in 1904. Subsidiary companies were accumulated and created, beginning in
1910 with the purchase of the Bolaños Mining Company and the incorporation of the Mexican Mines Company
(1910), the North American Venture Company (1910), and "Lewis Leonard Bradbury and Company" (1916).
Other subsidiary companies in Mexico included Compañía Minera del
Pacífico (1926) and Compañía Minera del Cañon de
Bolaños (1926).
Inter-familial litigation took place between the six children and various grandchildren of L.L. Bradbury
between the years of 1932 to 1938, in response to business and financial management practices and the
disbursement of funds. The business and mining success of the Bradbury Estate Company declined
thereafter. In 1956, Marion Winston Jenkins (niece of Lewis Leonard Bradbury, Jr.) arranged a contract
and purchase option agreement with the San Francisco Mines of Mexico, but the sale was never culminated.
The Bradbury Estate Company was dissolved in 1965.
This collection contains the personal history documents of the Bradbury family and the business records
of their estate's subsidiary companies in the United States and Mexico.
Included in this collection are mining records, financial data and reports, correspondence, estate
documents and litigation files, photographs, journals and manuscripts, and various notarized documents
pertaining to property titles and real estate contracts. The collection also includes records pertaining
to the estate's mining properties before acquisition by the Bradbury Estate Company's various subsidiaries.
The collection is arranged in three series: 1. Family Personal Papers, 2. Bradbury Estate Company Papers,
3. Photographs. Series 2 is further divided into the following four subseries: 1. Correspondence, 2.
Administrative Records, 3. Mining Property Materials, 4. Other Investments.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online
public access catalog.
Bradbury family--Archives.
Bradbury, L. L. (Lewis Leonard), b. 1823.
Bradbury, Simona Martinez, b. 1845.
Bradbury, Lewis, b. 1881.
Bradbury, Simona, b. 1868.
Bradbury, Louisa, b. 1876.
Bradbury, John, b. 1872.
Winston, Rosario Bradbury, b. 1869.
Polk, Minerva Bradbury, b. 1874.
Jenkins, Marion Winston, b. 1891.
Bradbury Estate Company.
Lewis Leonard Bradbury and Company.
North American Venture Company.
Bolaños Mining Company.
Compañía Minera del Cañon de Bolaños.
Minas del Tajo (Firm).
Mexican Mines Company.
Copala Mines.
Compañía Minera del Pacífico.
Businesswomen--California.
Businesswomen--Mexico.
Silver mines and mining -- Mexico -- Bolaños River
Valley -- History
Mines and mineral resources -- Mexico -- Photographs.
Bolaños (Jalisco, Mexico) -- Commerce -- History
Minas de Bolaños (Mexico)
Duarte (Calif.) -- Maps.
Bradbury (Calif).
Bolaños (Jalisco, Mexico) --
Pictorial works.
Rosario (Sinaloa, Mexico) -- Pictorial works.
Collection is open for research.
Donated by Marion "Mimi" W. Jenkins in 2006.
[Identification of item], Bradbury Family Papers , D-449, Department of Special Collections, General
Library, University of California, Davis.
Copyright is protected by the copyright law, chapter 17, of the U.S. Code. All requests for permission to
publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections, General Library,
University of California, Davis as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or
imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.