Finding Aid to the Llano del Rio Records,
1911-1969
MS 1304
Finding aid prepared by Finding aid written by California Historical Society staff; revised by David Krah.
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
415-357-1848
reference@calhist.org
URL: http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/
2001, revised 2009
Title: Llano del Rio records
Date (inclusive): 1911-1969
Collection Number: MS 1304
Creator:
Llano Colony (Secular community)
Repository:
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
415-357-1848
reference@calhist.org
URL: http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in English.
Extent:
5 boxes,
1 oversize folder
(2.0 Linear feet)
Physical Location: Collection is stored onsite.
Abstract: Most of the collection was collected by longtime colonist, Walter Millsap, and includes papers from the early years of the
colony in California and Louisiana (1911-1930), correspondence between Millsap and other colonists (1920-1958), and files
from the assets recovery attempt (1959-1969). Board of directors' files (1959-1969) include minutes and papers, meeting proxies,
and other documents. Correspondence is chiefly between Millsap and over 100 other colonists.
Information for Researchers
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the California Historical Society. All requests for permission to publish or quote from
manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the California Historical Society 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 reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Llano del Rio Records, MS 1304. California Historical Society, Manuscript Collection.
Alternative Formats Available
Collection also available on microfilm (NEG 23: 1-5).
Separated Material
Photographs transferred to Photography Collection--Restricted Materials--General Subjects--Utopian Communities.
Related Materials
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Collective settlements--California, Southern.
Collective settlements--Louisiana.
Millsap, Walter, 1886-1971.
Minutes.
Utopian socialism--California, Southern.
Utopian socialism--Louisiana.
Administrative Information
Acquisitions
Paul Kagan collected most of this material from Walter Millsap before his death in 1971. See Series 2 folder 28, Series 3
folder 147 for material given by Mellie Calvert. All of this was transferred to CHS in 1972.
Accruals
No additions are expected.
Processing Information
Collection processed by CHS staff.
History of the Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony
The colony of Llano del Rio was formed in 1914 by Job Harriman, a socialist lawyer and politician from Los Angeles. Harriman
sought to provide an economic underpinning to the ideas of socialism by organizing a cooperative colony. Harriman and a group
of associates sought land for the site of the colony, settling on 10,000 acres in the Antelope Valley, north of Los Angeles.
They incorporated the Llano del Rio company in California in 1914, and later reincorporated under Nevada law in 1916.
Harriman placed advertisements in
Western Comrade and the
California Social-Democrat, soliciting individuals and families interested in participating in the venture. Membership was achieved through a $500 purchase
of 2,000 shares of stock in the company, the balance to be paid in labor at a variety of jobs available at the colony.
The colony grew quickly, burgeoning to a thousand members by 1917. The first year saw colonists living in tents while permanent
structures were built - adobe houses and a hotel boasting electricity and indoor plumbing. The colony sought to be as self-sufficient
as possible, and in addition to the cultivation of fruit trees, melons, potatoes, beans and other crops produced dairy, poultry
and pork products, and had an apiary and a rabbitry. Colonists earned four dollars a day for their work, a dollar of which
paid off the balance of membership, and the rest going toward living expenses.
By 1917, it became clear that the choice of site had been a mistake. Though hydrological surveys indicated that sufficient
water supplies existed to irrigate up to 40,000 acres, the colony soon experienced a serious shortfall in water. Small rainfall,
an insufficient resevoir, and limited rights to water from Big Rock Creek forced the colony to abandon the site and seek greener
pastures elsewhere.
The Llano colonists boarded a chartered train, transporting themselves, machinery and livestock to Stables, Louisiana, an
anbandoned mill town, renaming it Newllano. Some colonists were to remain in California, and develop the land to focus on
fruit tree production. The following year however, creditors began involuntary bankruptcy proceedings against Llano, and the
colony's California assets were foreclosed upon.
Job Harriman returned to California, where he died in 1925. George Pickett stepped in to lead Newllano until it declared bankruptcy
in 1936, falling apart completely by 1938. An attempt to recover their assets was begun in 1959 by Pickett and others.
Sources
Hoffman, A. (1961) A look at Llano: Experiment in Economic Socialism.
California Historical Society Quarterly. 40(3), 215-236
Huxley, A. & Kagan, P. (1972) A Double Look at Utopia: the Llano del Rio Colony.
California Historical Society Quarterly. 51(2) 117-154
Scope and Content
The collection is divided into two time periods. The first includes papers collected by Walter Millsap from the early years
in California and Louisiana, 1911-1930. The second involves an attempt beginning in 1959 by George Pickett, Job Harriman's
successor, to reaquire the assets the Newllano, LA colony lost in 1936 bankruptcy preceedings.
Administrative files from the first time period include documents pertaining to incorporation and the issuance of stock, employment
agreements and organizational chart, memos and official correspondence, expense reports from the move by rail from Palmdale,
CA to Stables, LA.
Other materials representative of daily life in Llano include meal tickets, pamphlets written by members pertaining to personal
experiences and the economic and organizational hardships of the colony, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera. A survey
of the Big Rock Creek Irrigation District is located in oversize map case storage.Correspondence is from members and researchers
such as Clark Kerr and Upton Sinclair interested in the goings-on of the colony.
The second time period, 1959-1969, consists largely of minutes and meeting papers, stockholder papers, and a proposed charter
for the reorganization of the colony. Correspondence from this period includes letters from ex-members, as well as those desiring
to continue with the colony.
Arrangement
Arranged into 4 series:
The first two series includes materials dating from 1911 to 1959.
Series 1: Administrative Files
Series 2: Correspondence
The second two series include materials from 1959 to 1969, when George T. Picket attempted to regain the assests of Llano
Colony after a 1936 bankruptcy filing.
Series 3: Board of Directors' Files
Series 4: Correspondence
Series 1
Administrative Files
1911-1930
Physical Description:
16 folders,
1 oversize folder
Box 1, Folder 4
Nevada Agreement
1916-1917
Box 1, Folder 5
Bill of Sale, 6A application for membership
1916
Box 1, Folder 6
Agreements of employment
1914-1915
Box 1, Folder 7
Notes on working duties
1917
Box 1, Folder 8
Crews and employment department
1919
Box 1, Folder 10
Petition to La. Attorney General, copy
1928
Map-case 7, Drawer 25
Big Rock Creek Irrigation District Plan [See map case]
1917
Box 1, Folder 13
Llano as I saw it
1922
creator:
Woodland, Richard
Box 1, Folder 14
Development of the labor union
1910
Box 1, Folder 15
The Crisis in Llano Colony, manuscript and printed copy
1935-1936
Box 1, Folder 16
Newspaper clippings
1919-1924
Series 2
Correspondence
1920-1958
Physical Description:
121 folders
Box 1, Folder 25
Bartram, Horace
1932-1935
Box 1, Folder 23
Benz, Rose Matz
1942-1946
Box 1, Folder 25
Busiek, Bon and Dorothy
1952
Box 1, Folder 26
Callaway, Carrington
1935
Box 1, Folder 28
Calvert, Mellie
1957-1958
Box 1, Folder 29
Campbell, George
1935
1953-1958
Box 1, Folder 31
Cantrell, George E.
1922-1931
Box 2, Folder 38
Chapin, Myrtle and Burrell
1949-1957
Box 2, Folder 39
The Chemical Foundation,
1937
Box 2, Folder 44
Coleman, J. Covington
1939
Box 2, Folder 45
Conliffe, Frederick
1933-1937
Box 2, Folder 46
Cooper Lumber Co.
1937-1938
Box 2, Folder 64
Donahue, John L.
1933-1934
Box 2, Folder 70
Gaddis, Louise and Joe H.
1947-1954
Box 2, Folder 73
Groth, Walter and Helen
1924
Box 2, Folder 80
Irwin, Enoch E.
1947-1955
Box 2, Folder 82
Kapotsky, Albert
1936-1944
Box 2, Folder 86
Kneeland, Clarissa A.
1932-1945
Box 2, Folder 89
Kunzelman, Charles L.
1933-1934
Box 2, Folder 96
McCulloch, Walter A.
1932-1933
Box 2, Folder 97
McDonald, A. James
1920-1960
Box 2, Folder 100
Millsap, Walter
1917-1938
Box 2, Folder 101
Millsap, Walter, work Organizer material
1922
Box 2, Folder 102
Millsap, Walter, material on other colonies
undated
Box 3, Folder 105
Pickett, George T. and Minnie E.
1928-1958
Box 3, Folder 111
Sanford, Marvin
1932-1957
Box 3, Folder 113
Shoemaker, R. V.
1934-1945
Box 3, Folder 114
Shutt, Emma B. and Harriett
1945
Box 3, Folder 120
Stone, Dr. Hallam C.
1932
Box 3, Folder 124
Trautman, William E.
1939
Box 3, Folder 126
University of California, Berkeley
1935
Box 3, Folder 127
U.S., Department of Agriculture
1935
Box 3, Folder 128
Van Nuland, A. P.
1940-1945
Box 3, Folder 129
Van Nuland, John
circa 1947-1957
Box 3, Folder 130
Wagner, Charlotte
1944-1945
Box 3, Folder 132
Williams, Robert K., Dr.
1919-1931
Box 3, Folder 134
Wooster, Ernest S.
1920-1935
Board of Directors' Files Series 3
1959-1969
Physical Description: 16 folders
Minutes and meeting papers
Box 3, Folder 146
Notices of stockholders' meetings
1962-1963
Box 4, Folder 151
Federal Supplement, copy
undated
Box 4, Folder 152
Proposed charter
circa 1965
Series 4
Correspondence
1959-1969
Physical Description: 69 folders
Box 4, Folder 153
Bell, Alma Wilson
1957-1969
Box 4, Folder 154
Bradshaw, Nellie Kemp
1963
Box 4, Folder 155
Brainard, Ben R.
1962-1964
Box 4, Folder 157
Breuer, Mrs. L. C.
1960-1963
Box 4, Folder 159
Calvert, Mellie
1963-1964
Box 4, Folder 161
Connor, George A.
1963-1969
Box 4, Folder 162
Delavan, Frank and Margaret
1960-1963
Box 4, Folder 163
Fuljenz, Raymond D.
1962-1966
Box 4, Folder 164
Ginsburg, Steve
1963-1964
Box 4, Folder 168
Jepson, Melvin E.
1956-1964
Box 4, Folder 171
Kapotsky, Albert--Walter Millsap
1960
Box 4, Folder 172
Kapotsky, Albert--Walter Millsap
1961-1962
Box 4, Folder 173
Kapotsky, Albert--Walter Millsap
1963
Box 4, Folder 174
Kapotsky, Albert--Albert Moore
1960
Box 4, Folder 175
Kapotsky, Albert--Albert Moore
1962
Box 5, Folder 176
Kapotsky, Albert--Albert Moore
1963
Box 5, Folder 191
Millsap, Walter
1962-1965
Box 5, Folder 194
Phillian, Alex J.
1959-1966
Box 5, Folder 195
Phillian, Alex J., drafts
1962-1965
Box 5, Folder 196
Pickett, George B.
1963-1965
Box 5, Folder 198
Rogers, Nell Foster
1964-1965
Box 5, Folder 200
Schlaifer, Mildred
1962-1966
Box 5, Folder 203
Shoemaker, R. V.
1962-1969
Box 5, Folder 205
Stevens, Bernie
1963-1965
Box 5, Folder 206
Stewart, Royal A.
1962-1966
Box 5, Folder 208
Synoground, Ole
1962-1963
Box 5, Folder 211
Van Nuland, Anton and Maud
1963-1964
Box 5, Folder 213
Will, Mrs. John
1962-1966
Box 5, Folder 217
Wooster, Ernest
1958-1963
