Banning Company Records, 1859-1948

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Summary

Creators:
Banning Company
Abstract:
This collection consists of business records chiefly to the Banning Company, founded by Phineas Banning (1830-1885) in Los Angeles, California. There are also records of the various subsidiary firms of the Banning Company, as well as Banning family letters, and receipts of William and Hancock Banning. Subject matter in the collection includes: land in Southern California (Wilmington, San Pedro, Pasadena, Compton, Newport Beach, and Los Angeles), Santa Catalina Island, Railroads (Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad, Southern Pacific Railroad, and the California Pacific), Inter-urban lines (Los Angeles Inter-urban and the Pacific Electric), Los Angeles harbor, the petroleum industry, the city of Yuma, Arizona, and Fort Yuma, California.
Extent:
12,104 pieces in 33 boxes, 203 volumes, and 1 rolled map.
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of legal papers, correspondence, letter books, ledgers, and account books related chiefly to the Banning Company, Wilmington harbor, Wilmington property, and Santa Catalina Island. There are also papers of the various subsidiary firms of the Banning Company, as well as Banning family letters, and receipts of William and Hancock Banning. After 1920, with the final dissolution of the company, business papers are in the names of William Banning or Hancock Banning individually.

Subject matter in the collection includes: land in Southern California (Wilmington, San Pedro, Pasadena, Compton, Newport Beach, and Los Angeles), Santa Catalina Island, Railroads (Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad, Southern Pacific Railroad, and the California Pacific), Inter-urban lines (Los Angeles Inter-urban and the Pacific Electric), Los Angeles harbor, the petroleum industry, the city of Yuma, Arizona, and Fort Yuma, California.

Persons represented in the collection include: Adelaida Banning, Anne Ophelia Banning, Hancock Banning (1865-1925), Hancock Banning (b. 1892), Joseph Brent Banning, Phineas Banning, William Banning, William L. Banning, Thomas Robert Bard, Joseph Lancaster Brent, Charles Frederick Crocker, F.S. Douty, T.H. Goodman, Winfield Scott Hancock, Eldridge Edwards Hewitt, J.W. Horter, William Gates LeDuc, Hayden McLellan, George Smith Patton (1856-1927), Albert Alexander Polhamus, George Hugh Smith, and Walter Vail. There are also materials in the collection related to the following businesses and organizations: the Central Pacific Railroad Company, Kerckhoff-Cuzner Mill and Lumber Company, Los Angeles and Independece Railroad Company, Los Angeles Trust Company, Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and the Mayor and Common Council of the city of Yuma, Arizona.

Biographical / historical:

The Banning Company was started by Phineas Banning (1830-1885), a transportation leader in the Los Angeles area and founder of the city of Wilmington, California.

Phineas Banning (1830-1885) was born in 1830 in Wilmington, Delaware, went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to work as a clerk in the law office of his brother William L. Banning, and came to California at the age of 21 as an assistant to a merchant. On arriving at San Pedro in 1852, he took a job with commission merchants Douglass & Sanford. Soon he became the partner of David W. Alexander in the freight and stage lines between San Pedro and Los Angeles. In 1858 Alexander became a silent partner and the firm was known as Banning & Co. After a short period of partnership with A. F. Hinchman, Banning took over sole leadership for the Banning Co.

In 1857, the Dominguez family sold Banning a large parcel of land at the head of the slough northeast of San Pedro. Banning started a settlement called New San Pedro, then in 1859 changed the name to Wilmington after his birthplace. He built a wharf, warehouses, and a lumber yard. He built lighters and steamboats and bought stages and wagons to carry passengers and freight from San Pedro to Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and even as far as Yuma and Salt Lake City.

In 1865, Banning was elected state senator and through his exertions railroads were encouraged in Southern California. Los Angeles voted the necessary bonds to build a railroad from Los Angeles to Wilmington. In time, the Southern Pacific Railroad purchased this Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad and work began on improving the harbor. A suit was initiated to definitely settle the title to the tidelands which had been purchased by Phineas Banning. The litigation began in 1880 and continued until 1917 when the final settlements were made, generally in favor of the Banning family.

Phineas Banning died in 1885. The business was carried on by his three sons, William, Joseph Brent, and Hancock. The company purchased Santa Catalina Island, developed it as a resort and provided the ships for transportation. Wilmington Transportation Company, Santa Catalina Island Company, and Wilmington Development Company were subsidiary firms of the Banning Company. The company's real estate interests also grew and included land in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Newport Beach, as well as petroleum leases near Wilmington and Newport.

The final dissolution of the company came in 1920 at the time of the death of Joseph Brent Banning.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Hancock Banning, Jr., in 1962, with a small quantity of addenda acquired from Green Door Books in 1972 and another from Mrs. Hancock Banning, Jr., and Robert Banning in 1985. Additional material donated in 1996 by Nancy Call is currently being processed.
Arrangement:

Business papers and correspondence for Banning Co. as a whole, then for individual family members, i.e., Anne Banning, Hancock Banning, Phineas Banning, and William Banning (Boxes 1 - 32) Volumes of letterbooks, account books, and miscellaneous (stock ledgers, minute books, etc.) (Volumes 1 - 203)

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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