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Register of the Davis Brothers Ledger No. 1, 1858-1868
Mss98
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Table of contents
Title: Davis Brothers Ledger No. 1,
Date (inclusive): 1858-1868
Collection number: Mss98
Creator:
Extent: 0.25 linear ft.
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
Stockton, CA 95211
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Davis Brothers Ledger No. 1, Mss98, Holt-Atherton Department of
Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
G.W. and E.W. Davis were, from the mid-1850s, proprietors of several small ranches and
vineyards in Bennett Valley, five miles southeast of Santa Rosa. There they grew wine
grapes, plums, citrus, nuts, grain and stock. Later in the century they also produced
wines for which they were widely known. The Davis brothers seem to have operated a
general store throughout the 1850s and 60s.
Davis Bros. customers biographied in Sonoma county histories include G.S. Crane. Crane
was the son of Richard Crane, who, with his brother Robert, settled land south of Santa
Rosa on the Petaluma Hill Road in 1852. The Cranes raised stock there throughout the 19th
century. Robert was later elected Sonoma county justice of the peace and county
supervisor. In the present century the Crane family became famous for their Crane melon,
which is still grown on the original family farm.
Another Davis customer about whom something is known is Emmanuel Light. Light came to
Santa Rosa in 1856, purchased one hundred acres and planted fruit trees. Ten years later,
Light sold his land to various other ranchers--including G.W. Davis--and moved to
Healdsburg. In 1868 his son, Eugene H., rented land from G.W. Davis and continued to farm
in the area throughout the remainder of the century.
This ledger gives evidence of both farming and commercial usage. It contains some
reference to crops planted and produce sold, but it also consists of daybook records of
sales to local farmers of such commodities as sugar, whiskey, tobacco, saleratus, and
cheese.
The Davis brothers began their daybook on May 27, 1858. Each page of this portion of the
ledger provides the following information: date, nature of sale, the dollar amount of
purchase, and how much the person has paid on their account.
Below is a rough index of pages of accounts in the Davis Brothers' ledger; pages with
specific names are those of accounts that occupy more than two pages.