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Holcomb Family, 1849 - 1972-01

 Sub-Group — Document box: 36-37
Identifier: 8-2

Scope and Contents note

From the Collection:

The Local History Collection focuses on the history of Orange County California and the cities within Orange County, Southern California and to a lesser extent California as a whole.

The collection includes 3860 cataloged books and pamphlets, correspondence, ephemera, manuscripts, maps, memoribilia, microfilm, papers, periodicals, posters and photographs.

Dates

  • 1849 - 1972-01

Creator

Extent

From the Collection: 733 boxes (733 boxes, 3860 volumes in 429 linear feet plus two large orange cabinets drawers and two map cases drawers. )

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

General

Materials belonging to the Holcomb family, residents of Anaheim, California and descendents of Johann Peter Zeyn (1831-1909).

Born in Dreckharburg by Luneburg in Hannover, Germany, Zeyn left for the California goldfields in 1849 when he was 18 years old.

His diary, written in German, covers his voyage from Hamburg to San Francisco (March 24, 1849 - October 30, 1849) and contains entries concerning his subsequent life in and around San Francisco up to April 1853, with one additional entry concerning Anaheim from Februrary 1862.

Living in San Francisco, he married his wife Marie Sophia Menke in 1854. In 1859, he was one of the fifty German settlers who founded the city of Anaheim, where he served as mayor in 1883-1994, as a council member, and as Director of the Anaheim Union Water Company.

The diary was found in the process of conducting an oral history interview with his daughter, Wilhemina Zeyn Holcomb. See also California State Univerisity, Fullerton, Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History, OH 8.

Repository Details

Part of the CSUF University Archives & Special Collections Repository

Contact:
University Archives & Special Collections
Pollak Library South Room 352 (PLS 352)
Fullerton CA 92831-3599 USA
(657) 278-4751