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Colgan business collection

 Collection
Identifier: SPC.00051

Scope and Contents

Account books and different types of invoices and receipts of businesses operated by three generations of Colgan family members: The Pioneer Hotel, the Colgan Bros. Blacksmithing and Horseshoeing Company, and Colgan's Super Service Station.

Arrangement of the collection Organized into three series:

  • Pioneer Hotel; Elizabeth Colgan Johnson
  • Colgan Bros. Blacksmithing
  • Colgan's Super Service Station
  • Dates

    • Creation: 1869-1935
    • Creation: Majority of material found in (
    • Creation: Majority of material found within 1880-1906)

    Creator

    Language of Materials

    Materials are in English.

    Conditions Governing Access:

    This collection is partially processed. Please contact the Sonoma County History and Genealogy Library for access; for contact info and current hours, see link

    Conditions Governing Access

    This collection is partially processed. Please contact the Sonoma County History and Genealogy Library for access; for contact info and current hours, see link

    Conditions Governing Use

    Collection does not circulate and may be photocopied or photographed by arrangement only.

    Publication Rights

    Property rights reside with the Sonoma County Library. The Sonoma County Library has made this collection available and believes that the collection is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Collection may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Preferred credit line is: Courtesy, the Sonoma County Library. Please see additional reproduction and reuse information at link

    Biographical / Historical

    The Pioneer Hotel was founded as the Colgan House by pioneer Edward P. Colgan in 1853. It was Santa Rosa's first hotel and fourth building to be raised in the new downtown area. Also known as the Santa Rosa House and the Colgan Hotel, it located the first office of the Wells-Fargo Express. After Edward P. Colgan's untimely death in 1873, his widow Elizabeth, a native of Baden, Germany, took over the proprietorship, renamed the hotel and continued its operation for another ten years. Some years after Colgan's death Elizabeth was married to Peter Johnson, according to many reports an excellent step-father to her five sons and an active inn-keeper; in 1880 however it fell to her lot to wear the "weeds of widowhood again," her obituary states. The hotel was rented out to a Peter Dolan in 1884 and to a Mr. Richardson in 1885. A year later hotel operations seemed to have come to a halt when the Pioneer Laundry, one of two "White Laundry" businesses in Santa Rosa moved in, which, at the height of the anti-Chinese movement, ran the ad "No Chinese Employed. Strictly White Labor" in one of the 1888 local business directories. At the end of the century two of Elizabeth's sons George W. and Abe L. Colgan reclaimed the building and converted it into a blacksmith shop-- a business that continued well into the 1940's-- albeit not under Colgan ownership. The building itself was moved around the corner on to First Street in the early 1930's to make room for a service station operated by Wesley Colgan, son of George W. and grandson of Edward P. Colgan.

    Extent

    1.2 linear feet (3 document boxes)

    Abstract

    The collection contains account books and different types of invoices and receipts of businesses operated by three generations of Colgan family members: The Pioneer Hotel, the Colgan Bros. Blacksmithing and Horseshoeing Company, and Colgan's Super Service Station. All businesses were located on the same site at the corner of First and Main Streets in Santa Rosa.

    Arrangement of the collection

    Organized into three series:

    1. Pioneer Hotel; Elizabeth Colgan Johnson
    2. Colgan Bros. Blacksmithing
    3. Colgan's Super Service Station

    One series per box and chronological within each box; lists of contents included in each.

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Gift:Sonoma County Museum,2015

    Title
    Colgan business collection, 1869-1935 (bulk, 1880-1906)
    Author
    Processed by Sonoma County Library staff; machine-readable finding aid created by Geoffrey Skinner.
    Date
    Published Dec. 20, 2019
    Description rules
    Finding Aid Prepared Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard, Second Edition (Dacs)
    Language of description
    English
    Script of description
    Latin
    Language of description note
    Finding aid written in:English

    Repository Details

    Part of the Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library Repository

    Contact:
    725 Third Street
    Santa Rosa CA 95404 United States
    (707) 308-3212