The collection represents the personal, familial, and business activities of three generations of the Woolsey family, a family influential from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries in Berkeley, California. The bulk of the correspondence in the Woolsey family papers is addressed to or from William Harold Woolsey and his wife, Mary Catherine Woolsey.

William Edgar Woolsey was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1854 to Ezra Woodhull and Martha Ann Woolsey. The E.W. Woolsey family moved to California in 1868, renting homes and land in Oakland and Berkeley until 1877 when they purchased 200 acres in Sonoma County, 9 miles from the city of Santa Rosa. W. E. Woolsey graduated from Oakland High School and attended the University of California, Berkeley (then the College of California) for three years. W. E. Woolsey married Rosa Livingstone (born 1861) the niece of Francis Kittredge and Rosa Morse Shattuck in 1884. The couple settled on the Woolsey family ranch in Sonoma County where W.E. Woolsey was instrumental in organizing the first Prune Growers Association in Sonoma County as well as the first fruit growers cooperative in the State - the California Cured Fruit Association.

4 cartons, 3 oversize folders 6.25 linear feet

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Collection is open for research.